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Comment by mg | Hacker News Reader

In most countries, the officially suggested intake of Vitamin D per day is 800 IU.

There is a study that showed that running around naked in the sun for 30 minutes is equivalent to taking 15000 IU:

https://ar.iiarjournals.org/content/29/9/3495.long

Considering that our ancestors were doing that for more than 30 minutes per day, I wouldn't be surprised if the suggested amount of Vitamin D intake will increase in the coming years.

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The current, very low RDA of 400-800 IU is based on a statistical error in the analysis done by the Institute of Medicine back in the 1960s; see "The Big Vitamin D Mistake" [1].

Finnish researchers have determined that the previously recommended serum concentration of 50 nmol/L should probably be adjusted much higher, probably closer to 100 nmol/L, at the very least to 70 nmol/L. For adults, especially those living in the higher latitudes, that requires around 8,000-10,000 IU per day.

Nobody has done more research on vitamin D than the Finns. Back when the low RDA was adopted (pretty much worldwide), Finland saw an increasing rate of rickets and type 1 diabetes. After they started fortifying milk with vitamin D in the early 2000s, rates have fallen significantly.

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5541280/

Step 1. VD3 blood test is a must to determine whether one is deficient. If you work indoors all day there is a high chance you are deficient. Your GP can help you boost it up using 70K IU prescription VD3.

Step 2. Then maintenance. This is all a trial and error and more blood tests. 800 IU / the national recommendation is a joke. Dr. Fauci takes 6,000 IU each day. (see FOIA docs with his email saying what he takes).

I work in tech and take 10 IU each day and have maintained a ~ 60 ng/mL.

Anything over 50 ng/mL shows benefits in fighting respiratory viruses and keeping mortality close to zero. ref: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34684596/#&gid=article-figur...

The catch is that your body wont overproduce if you already have sufficient levels. Supplementing when you don't need it is a bad idea.

Is the difference not, that when your body generates it in the sun it'll stop when its got enough. where as when you ingest it you're force feeding yourself the vitamin..?

>In most countries

You claim this based on what data?

It's the same 20-25ug daily for adults in all the major western sources: EFSA, NIH, NHS, Mayo, Harvard. Yes, there are recent studies (2020s) suggesting it should be higher and likely the RDA will rise, but you should really be taking vit K with it for proper utilization.

https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/vitamin-d/

It's 5 and 10 in AUS/NZ, 15 in Canada, 10 in the UK, 15 in the EU, 10 in Sweden, 20 in France, etc. for normal adults

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