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I remember reading that about half of people in Miami were deficient in vitamin D. It makes some intuitive sense if you consider that our bodies evolved in cond
by MikeCapone 13y ago
I remember reading that about half of people in Miami were deficient in vitamin D. It makes some intuitive sense if you consider that our bodies evolved in conditions that made us exposed to sun quite a bit more than even people living in sunny places, in good part because we spend so much time inside buildings (A/C helps) and with clothes on.
There's also a difference between not being deficient in vitamin D, and having the optimal amount of vitamin D available. People tend to confuse the two, as if as soon as you aren't deficient you can't possibly improve on that.
- a8da6b0c91d 13y agoSystemic inflammation stops vitamin D synthesis or utilization, and a large fraction of the US population is inflamed due to lousy diet. You could be taking tons of vitamin D and getting daily midday sun and still measure deficient if you're living on cola and potato chips.
- da02 13y agoI agree. I got relatives living in Florida. They spend most of their time in air conditioned environments. Their idea of "going out" is taking a walk in a mall or mega-store (Wal-Mart, Sam's Club). I once gave an uncle some Vitamin D3 with some magnesium citrate. He got better sleep. Wasn't even interested in how that worked.
- gwern 13y ago> I once gave an uncle some Vitamin D3 with some magnesium citrate. He got better sleep. Assuming anything meaningful happened there, that was almost certainly the magnesium. Magnesium is linked with sleep improvements (actually, literally today a Google Alerts told me about such an experiment: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3703169/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3703169/ ). (Vitamin D, on the other hand, probably not so much since it sounds like you gave it to him in the evening, where, at least for me, vitamin D screws up my sleep http://www.gwern.net/Zeo#vitamin-d-at-night-hurts http://www.gwern.net/Zeo#vitamin-d-at-night-hurts .)
- cgag 13y agoWhen I first started taking vitamin D (I was deficient), I noticed sleeping better immediately, and I'm not normally the type to notice this kind of thing. After googling it, I've seen a lot of people reporting the same. That's interesting about magnesium though, I'll have to look into that. Your site is amazing by the way.
- gwern 13y ago> When I first started taking vitamin D (I was deficient), I noticed sleeping better immediately, When were you taking it?
- da02 13y agoAny thoughts on Vitamin D3 being re-classified (by some) as a hormone? http://www.lewrockwell.com/2007/09/donald-w-miller-jr-md/confused-about-the-amount-of-vitamin-d-you-need/ http://www.lewrockwell.com/2007/09/donald-w-miller-jr-md/con...
- gwern 13y agoIt's always been a steroid hormone, has it not? I didn't realize there was any controversy about that. Personally, I don't care if it's a "black cat or white cat, as long as it catches rats".
- cgag 13y agoUsually in the morning, occasionally at lunch if I didn't remember it until then.
- gwern 13y agoSo that's consistent with my two self-experiments, then.
- da02 13y agoTake magnesium citrate instead of the cheapo magnesium oxide. The magnesium oxide is useless. The magnesium citrate works. It's suppose to de-calcify the pineal gland and allow proper melatonin production. You can google all of this since I'm just a stranger on the Net.
- sliverstorm 13y agoUsing some vitamin D calculators, I've found that the limiting factor is generally not amount of sunlight, but clothing. During summerish months, If you wear a tank top and shorts, a fair-skinned person can produce all the vitamin D you need in any of the lower forty-eight within thirty minutes.