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Place mushrooms in sunlight to get your vitamin D (2012)
- low_common 3y agoWhy not just go on a daily walk to get your Vitamin D?
- cameron_b 3y agoThat's always a great option, but weather and seasonal differences can keep large portions of the world from achieving healthy levels of Vitamin D.
- jszymborski 3y agoIt's dark out for most of the day in some climates. In others, it's dark out for much of the year.
- goda90 3y agoNot just the darkness, but the necessary UV wavelengths literally can't reach you in the middle of that day without a cloud in the sky for some parts of the year at higher latitudes.
- goda90 3y agoAt higher latitudes you can only get vitamin D from the sun for a few months of the year. In winter, the sun is too low in the sky, and the UV wavelengths needed to produce the vitamin D is entirely blocked by the atmosphere(though unfortunately the UV for sunburns is not). This is a method of "storing" summer vitamin D for winter consumption.
- n4r9 3y agoFor the UK: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-d/ https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-... > During the autumn and winter, you need to get vitamin D from your diet because the sun is not strong enough for the body to make vitamin D. Likely applies to many other countries.
- pwenzel 3y agoI live in Minnesota and the sun just came out in the beginning of May. I feel like I haven't felt real sun exposure since maybe October of last year. Let me tell you, I definitely take vitamin D supplements in the cold season! As an aside, I also drink Mushroom Hero tea all winter. Love that stuff.
- dukeyukey 3y agoYou literally cannot absorb significant amounts of vitamin D over winter in vast swathes of the world, including most of Europe.
- lm28469 3y agoYou literally cannot absorb vitamin D
- Escapado 3y agoGerman reporting in. According to Weatherspark [1] starting November to March around 70% of the days are cloudy and it's cold so you would barely expose 15% of your body to the remaining sun. In feburary, around midday, on a cloudy day you don't make enough vitamin d. And even on a cloudless day it takes more than 4 hours around midday to get the daily recommended dose. [2]. Being a dog owner I spend a lot of time outside, also during midday and 3/4 of the year I go for a run around midday every other day. Last year in january I was diagnosed with severe vitamin D deficiency at around 6ng/ml. Took a few months to get that back to normal using supplements. [1] https://weatherspark.com/y/68301/Average-Weather-in-Hamburg-Germany-Year-Round#Figures-CloudCover https://weatherspark.com/y/68301/Average-Weather-in-Hamburg-... [2] https://fastrt.nilu.no/VitD_quartMEDandMED_v2.html https://fastrt.nilu.no/VitD_quartMEDandMED_v2.html
- persedes 3y agoIn NC USA, even with regular walks, running and biking my Vitamin D levels were too low.
- Broken_Hippo 3y agoI wear long sleeves or a light jacket for most of the summer, so it doesn't always matter. And it is pointless in winter - 4.5 hours between sunrise and sunset, with the sun at a low angle. I'm fairly far north.
- andreasscherman 3y agoYou would be surprised how seldom you can get Vitamin D from the sun for many places! https://whencanigetvitamind.com https://whencanigetvitamind.com
- nibbleshifter 3y agoIn much of the northern hemisphere for most of the year this is insufficient. Even a really long walk.
- robg 3y agoMy body stopped making Vitamin D on its own. Taking D3/K supplements was a life saver and for seasonal affective disorder. And now I seem to be back to typical levels with just sun exposure.
- Namari 3y agoHow do you know for sure your body stopped producing Vitamin D? Are you going out in the morning? That's when your get vitamin D, almost nothing in the afternoon.
- deweller 3y agoWhere are you getting this information? My understanding is that Vitamin D production in the body is correlated with the directness of the exposure to the sun - therefore the most D is made at solar noon.
- hutzlibu 3y agoYes and for example in central europe, you won't get enough UV-B from the sun in the winter months at all, as it is filtered out by the atmosphere (low angle, more atmosphere to pass through). But in the sommer, one still should avoid the sun at noon, because of sun burns.
- Namari 3y agoI'm not sure where I read that but it turns out to be wrong, after reading a bit it seems noon is a good time but is also the most dangerous time due of the high amount amount of UVB.
- Broken_Hippo 3y agoHow do you know for sure your body stopped producing Vitamin D? Not who you are asking, but most folks find out with blood tests. It is also pretty common for folks to produce less as they age, and it isn't a small difference. Are you going out in the morning? That's when your get vitamin D, almost nothing in the afternoon. This just isn't true. How much you get is going to depend on the angle and strength of the sunlight, the amount you get, the amount of skin exposed, and the color of your skin. (dark skin produces less than light skin, and makes it difficult to produce enough the further north/south you are).
- goda90 3y agoThis is touched on in the article, but these mushrooms would have vitamin D2. Studies find that supplementation with vitamin D3 is more effective(lower dose for the same effect) and longer lasting on blood vitamin D levels than vitamin D2. So frequently eating enough of the mushrooms would be important if facing a vitamin D deficiency.
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- skadamou 3y agoHere's the central finding "Here is a simple experiment we did one summer afternoon in Kamilche Point, Washington. We compared several forms of organically grown shiitake mushrooms, which had starting level of 100 IU/100 grams. We compared the vitamin D levels of three sets of mushrooms, all from the same crop. The first was grown and dried indoors. The second set was dried outdoors in the sunlight with their gills facing down. The third set of mushrooms was dried outdoors in the sunlight with their gills facing upwards for full sun exposure. The most vitamin D was found in shiitake dried with gills up that were exposed to sunlight for two days, six hours per day. The vitamin D levels in these mushrooms soared from 100 IU/100 grams to nearly 46,000 IU/100 grams (see chart). Their stems, though, produced very little vitamin D, only about 900 IU. Notably, vitamin D levels dropped on the third day, probably due to over-exposure to UV." It's worth noting that this is Paul Stamets' work. He's definitely worth the google search if you've never heard of him and are into this sort of thing - super interesting guy. He is not educated as a scientist though so I usually take most of his stuff with a grain of salt.
- beerpls 3y ago“He is not educated as a scientist though so I usually take most of his stuff with a grain of salt.” As someone who was educated as a scientist, you should reevaluate this opinion. There are plenty of brilliant professional scientists. There are also a lot of idiots in science. There are also a lot of brilliant people who decided that the scientific path was too restrictive or outright false, so they (brilliantly) invested their own scientific life force externally Having a science degree doesn’t make one less fallible to mistakes. If anything it makes people more likely to fudge to get ahead.
- cwkoss 3y agoStamets makes some extraordinary health claims about mushrooms that afaik have never been clinically tested (ex. anticancer and antiviral applications). I think a grain of salt is appropriate in this case - but he could be entirely right!
- soperj 3y ago> As someone who was educated as a scientist, you should reevaluate this opinion. I would take a lot of science with a grain of salt too. Looking at the recent peanut butter allergy studies for example. Original 2016 study used 10 jewish children in Britain vs. 10 jewish Children in Israel. This study caused policy change around the world. Australia went from under 25% to over 80% of people feeding their children peanut butter under the age of 1. It had no discernible effect on allergies to peanut butter at all. They've followed it up with a larger study, 100 jewish kids in Britain vs. 100 jewish kids in Israel to prove out their original theory.
- ablyveiled 3y agoOne of the problems with supplementing vitamin D is that vitamin D is made from cholesterol. There are certainly some benefits to supplementing vitamin D, but if you get it exogenously rather than manufacture it, your cholesterol will be higher. Not that cholesterol is anywhere close to the demon it's made out to be, but there is a (much higher than generally accepted) point of having too much where mortality risk increases.
- mkmk 3y agoDietary cholesterol isn't really a major contributor to blood cholesterol, especially if you're getting it in foods that are not full of saturated fats.
- ablyveiled 3y agoPeople eating ketogenic/carnivorous diets for autoimmune or blood sugar issues have much higher LDL volumes (although their LDL particles are also fluffier and less oxidized)
- zouhair 3y ago> there is a (much higher than generally accepted) point of having too much where mortality risk increases. Source?
- ablyveiled 3y agoI haven't Indexed It in my Memex or anything, but look into the work of Paul Mason or Ray Peat (to look into "pro-cholesterol" thought generally) https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/cholesterol-longevity.shtml https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/cholesterol-longevity....
- chrisbrandow 3y agoIirc, the amount of cholesterol that is converted to vitamin D from your bloodstream is still fairly small relative to overall cholesterol levels.
- havaloc 3y agoWhen I first read this I thought it was a deep fake, due to the character Paul Stamets on Star Trek Discovery named after the Mycologist. https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Paul_Stamets https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Paul_Stamets https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Paul_Stamets_(mycologist) https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Paul_Stamets_(mycologis...
- 71a54xd 3y agoI thought the same thing!!!
- TaylorAlexander 3y agoNit but if you have an article with a fake name in the byline that's not a deepfake. That would just be an alias or misinformation but a deepfake gets its name from the deep neural net used to create fake images of real people.
- euroderf 3y agoNo articles lately on whether D3 deficiency increases vulnerability to Covid.
- simple10 3y agoThe vitamin D in the mushrooms is D2. Here's a D2 vs D3 study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9372493/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9372493/ Roughly twice as much D2 is needed to achieve the same blood serum levels compared to D3
- naikrovek 3y agoNever ingest D2 because it is inferior. got it.
- more_corn 3y ago45,000 IU is quite a lot though. I think the highest supplement of D3 you can buy is 10,000 IU. There’s also a question about if D3 protects against heart disease (saw the article on pubmed) don’t have it handy. The different D vitamins might behave differently. The key insight is you can get vitamin d from sun dried mushrooms. I would not have expected that.
- withinboredom 3y agoCan someone explain why vitamin D is “essential” beyond hocus pocus sales pitch that I got when I googled it?
- htag 3y ago1. Many people do not get enough sun exposure to create their own vitamin D. 2. Some bodies produce more Vitamin D for the same amount of sun exposure as other bodies. For example, darker skin produces less vitamin D. 3. Some bodies convert Vitamin D into other useful compounds less efficiently than others. This is commonly done in the liver and kidneys. 4. Those with Vitamin D deficiencies have problems with their muscles, bones, and immune systems. We do not fully understand the impact of Vitamin D, but it also seems to have an impact on mental health, and is a key part of SAD.
- olddustytrail 3y agoAll vitamins are essential, that's pretty much where the name comes from: "vital amine" (not to be confused with must see Japanese cartoons). There are diseases associated with shortage of vitamins, such as scurvy for vitamin C, or rickets for D.
- more_corn 3y agoUm… search pubmed for vitamin D. It plays an essential role in arming and activating the immune system. Low vitamin d is associated with increased risk of cancer heart disease and overall mortality.
- Karawebnetwork 3y agoContrary to popular belief vitamin D is a hormone. Hormones are your body's chemical messengers. Having a deficiency in a hormone can have a lot of negative effects. There are two sources of vitamin D: food & supplements and synthesis by the body in the skin on exposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun. Since a lot of us spend a lot of time indoor or behind glass (which blocks the necessary wavelengths) it's important to monitor it. People with darker skin also need more sun exposure to get the required healthy levels. People living in areas where winters are very dark and very long are also at risk of deficiency.
- WaitWaitWha 3y agoSo, for those who just want to get the Vitamin D, from the article: 1) Obtain fresh Organic shiitake, maitake, button, oyster, shimeji or other mushrooms. 2) On a sunny day in June, July or August, slice the fresh mushrooms. Place them evenly on a tray exposed directly to the sun from 10 am to 4 pm. 3) Before nightfall, cover the mushrooms with a layer of cardboard to block moisture from dewfall. 4) The next clear day repeat exposure to the sun from 10 am to 4 pm. 5) Remove the mushrooms and finish drying (if necessary in a food dehydrator until they are crispy). 6) When thoroughly dry, store in a glass jar or sealed container. Adding a tablespoon of uncooked rice as a moisture absorber will help keep the mushrooms dry. The mushrooms should be good for a year or more, depending upon conditions. 7) Take 10 grams daily per person, about a small handful. Rehydrate in water for one hour. The mushrooms will swell. Then cook as desired. For the rest of us: 1) Obtain mushrooms. 2) slice the fresh mushrooms. Place them evenly on a tray exposed directly to the sun from 10 am to 4 pm. 3) Take them inside before nightfall, so they do not get dew on them. 4) The next clear day repeat exposure to the sun from 10 am to 4 pm. 5) Remove the mushrooms and finish drying (probably in the oven on warm setting). 6) When thoroughly dry, store in a sealed container. 7) Eat about a small handful a day. You can rehydrate in water for one hour. The mushrooms will swell. Then cook as desired.
- Mistletoe 3y agoThere is another option which is just take a vitamin D supplement because there should be no difference. Or even better get sun because there does seem to be a difference there and your body autoregulates the vitamin D.
- Etheryte 3y agoLast time this discussion came up, someone pointed out there's a significant difference actually. If I recall correctly, there's three different kinds of vitamin D, D1, D2 and D3, and there's a fairly big gap in the bioavailability of synthetic vs animal-based vitamin D. I can't find that comment right now though, so take this with a pinch of salt.
- snapcaster 3y agoDoes anyone have any idea how consuming this "Vitamin D enriched mushroom" can be compared to taking a vitamin D supplement? Are they absorbed by the body in the same way? Also wondering compared to just being out in the sunlight yourself
- maxk42 3y agoMushrooms produce vitamin D2. Animals produce vitamin D3 endogenously. There's no medical literature in aware of showing that vitamin D2 is equally useful to the human body.
- snapcaster 3y agoDidn't realize this distinction thanks! got some reading to do
- nikolay 3y agoBut vitamin D2 is useless.
- mattgrice 3y agoPSMS (Puget Sound Mycolological Society) member here... Stamets is widely regarded as a crank and makes a lot of mostly unsubstantiated claims about fungi. He is a fun guy (lol fungi) to talk to but you can't take anything he says too seriously. At least without further research of your own. Stamets is an interesting speaker, as far as I know always welcome at PSMS events, but the default impression most people in the pacific northwest mycology community have of stamets is that he confabulates a lot.
- WhereIsTheTruth 3y agoif you can eat them raw! cooking them looses most of their benefits
- miked85 3y agoloses too.