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Comment by wireprotocol | Hacker News Reader

I think doctors recommend it because most people get less sun than our ancestors, and supplementing is cheap and low-risk.

Kind of like saying "eat more vegetables" without bothering to ask you about your diet first.

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Vitamin D supplements cant be takes as “vegetables” as high dosage is toxic.

People tend to get misled by warnings toxicity by high doses of some vitamins. In the case of Vitamin D, you'd really have to overdo it a lot for several months to get to toxic levels.

If you examine this deeper, you'd find that it's not very easy to do, more so when you follow a doctor's recommendation and just overdo it in an effort to enhance its effects. Take a look at the dosage of supplements, look up online on how much is toxic, and the answer will change your mind on unfounded fears such as this.

I'm purposely not giving details in this comment so that people are free to lookup different (scientific) sources and decide.

What makes you think a high dose of "vegetables" isn't toxic?

You can even kill yourself by drinking water. Ten liters I think it was ;)

http://www.dhmo.org/facts.html

Nice page, but http://m.clinmed.rcpjournal.org/content/17/3/263.full

Or the doctor says you need to lose weight because your BMI is above healthy range, without even looking at you to see that you are extraordinarily fit with all muscle mass and little body fat.

Does any doctor do that? It has never happened to me or anyone I know.

Does my anecdata cancel your assertion?

That happened to me, once. So yeah, I think my anecdote is cancelled out by your experience.

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