Re: might be true for some, but not others. do your homework people, get tested first...

Tom,
an excellent post and some very nifty detective work.

It is definitely true to say that the nutrient levels of the body are intertwined and any imbalance of one, can cause health anomalies.

The emphasis on Vitamin D levels, and that alone, is probably a misleading one in conjunction with other nutrients which act synergistically and in tandem with each other.

This is more a case then of "nutrient-teamwork".

All the more reason then to have a well-balanced, low calorie, but nutrient-dense-diet as espoused by Dr Joel Fuhrman MD and others.

This should (in my opinion) facilitate the body into absorbing and utilizing the optimum levels of Vitamin D via sunlight or supplementation in the absence of sun-exposure, and which is just not available from the diet.

Nutrients do act synergistically in achieving optimum health, and where it is still generally accepted by many health professionals that supplementation of Vitamin D3 is required in the absence of sunlight in acting as a prophylactic against the onset of many chronic diseases, including cancer.

I am still awaiting a response to my inquiry re' the levels of 1.25D in comparison to 25OHD and will post on this as soon as I have the information to hand.


However...........................

In 1976, Dr. Ramon Medalle and colleagues at the Washington University School of Medicine described five patients with Magnesium (Mg) deficiency and low blood calcium whose calcium blood levels would not return to normal after Vitamin D treatment, a condition known as Vitamin D resistance. However, serum calcium promptly returned to normal in all five patients after treatment with Mg, raising the possibility that such Vitamin D resistance may be caused from simple, but severe, Mg deficiency. Medalle R, Waterhouse C, Hahn TJ. Vitamin D resistance in magnesium deficiency. Am J Clin Nutr. 1976 Aug;29(8):854–8.

What is not known is how mild to moderate Mg deficiencies (like most Americans apparently have) affect Vitamin D metabolism. The safe thing to do is to eat green leafy vegetables and a handful of sunflower seeds every day (Trader Joe's sells a variety of seeds). If you can't, won't, or don't end up doing that, then take a Vitamin D supplement with added Mg.

In fact, there are now supplements on the market that contain all the co-factors vitamin D needs to work properly (including magnesium): zinc (the base of the fingers of the Vitamin D Receptor each contains a zinc molecule), Vitamin K2 (Vitamin K helps direct Vitamin D to calcify the proper organs and prevents calcification of improper organs), boron (boron is involved in the rapid, non-genomic action of Vitamin D on the cell wall), a small amount of genestein (about one-half the amount the average Japanese consumes every day) which helps activated Vitamin D stay around longer at the receptor site, and a tiny amount of Vitamin A. Again, the wisest thing to do is to eat green leafy vegetables and a handful of seeds every day as that combination contains the co-factors Vitamin D needs, the co-factors many Americans are deficient in.

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