What Is The Ideal Time To Take It
Taking vitamin D with a meal can enhance its absorption and increase blood levels more efficiently.
However, theres limited research on whether taking it at night or in the morning may be more effective.
The most important steps are to fit vitamin D into your routine and take it consistently to ensure maximum effectiveness.
Try taking it alongside breakfast or with a bedtime snack as long as it doesnt interfere with your sleep.
The key is to find what works for you and stick with it to ensure youre meeting your vitamin D needs.
Summary
Taking vitamin D with a meal can increase its absorption, but studies on specific timing are limited. For best results, experiment with different schedules to find what works for you.
Supplements can be an effective way to boost your blood levels of vitamin D, which is crucial to your health.
Taking vitamin D with food can enhance its effectiveness, as its fat-soluble.
While the best timing has not been established, scientific data to confirm anecdotal reports that supplementing at night may interfere with sleep is unavailable.
Current research suggests you can fit vitamin D into your routine whenever you prefer.
Why Is Vitamin D More Important In Winter
In the winter, humans are exposed to more infections and spend less time outside. Exactly how much vitamin D healthy adults should have is debated. Some authorities recommend from 200 IU per day to 2,000 IU per day. In the U.S., the Institutes of Medicine recommends 600-800 IU per day for adults, while the Endocrine Society states that optimal vitamin D status may require 1500-2,000 IU per day. In the winter, people have a reduced ability to make vitamin D when they go outside, so amounts of at least 600 IU per day of vitamin D from food or supplements would help maintain vitamin D status at summer levels.
But, just like many things, too much vitamin D can be harmful. Vitamin D toxicity does not result from too much sun or food. Because of the risk of skin cancer, dermatologists and other health professionals do not recommend unprotected sun exposure to boost your vitamin D. Instead they suggest supplements. But vitamin D toxicity can occur if an individual takes too many.
The experts that set the national intakes of vitamin D for the U.S. recommend that adult individuals take no more than 4,000 IU per day of vitamin D to avoid toxic side effects. Vitamin D helps you absorb calcium from your diet, but when vitamin D is too high, calcium levels in the blood go up and that can lead to kidney disease.
Babies Need A Vitamin D Boost
Because a typical mothers breast milk does not give her baby enough vitamin D, breastfed babies need vitamin D supplementation. Either the baby can be given drops of 400 IU a day directly or the mother can take 5,000 IU a day , which will fortify her milk with enough vitamin D for the baby. We call this super milk!
Although all standard infant formulas are fortified with vitamin D, vitamin D supplementation is also recommended for formula-fed babies. A baby would need to drink a quart of formula each day to get the recommended amount of vitamin D, Dr. Levine says, and young infants may not take in that much. Consult with your babys pediatrician or healthcare provider to make sure they are getting all the vitamin D they need.
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What Should Ones Vitamin D Level Be
This question has been hotly, hotly debated. At this time, it depends on whom you ask.
The Institute of Medicine believes a blood level of 20-40 ng/mL should be adequate. The Endocrine Society, the American Geriatrics Society, and some other expert groups recommend a level of at least 30 ng/mL.
As noted above, the party line which I consider reasonable is that most people dont need their vitamin D level checked. In the absence of certain health problems, a low vitamin D level is unlikely in someone who takes a daily supplement.
How Should I Take Ergocalciferol
Follow all directions on your prescription label and read all medication guides or instruction sheets. Use only the recommended dose of ergocalciferol.
It may be best to take ergocalciferol after a meal, but you may take Vitamin D2 with or without food.
Measure liquid medicine carefully. Use the dosing syringe provided, or use a medicine dose-measuring device .
You will need frequent medical tests.
Your doctor may begin to reduce your ergocalciferol dose as your condition improves. Carefully follow all instructions about adjusting your dose. In some cases, there may be a very small difference in amount between safe and dangerous doses of this medicine.
Your doctor will determine how long to treat you with this medicine.
Ergocalciferol may be only part of a complete program of treatment that also includes dietary changes and taking calcium and vitamin supplements. Follow your doctor’s instructions very closely.
Learn about the foods you should eat to make sure you get enough calcium and vitamin D in your diet. Your ergocalciferol dose may need to be adjusted as you make changes to your diet.
Store at room temperature away from moisture, heat, and light.
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Can You Ever Have Too Much Vitamin D
Yes. You can get too much vitamin D if you overdo the supplements. Interestingly, you cannot get too much vitamin D from the sun. Vitamin D toxicity is, thankfully, quite rare but can lead to hypercalcemia and together the symptoms can include:
- Confusion.
- Ataxia .
Do not take higher-than-recommended doses of vitamin D without first discussing it with your doctor. However, your doctor might recommend higher doses of vitamin D if he or she is checking your blood levels and adjusting your dose accordingly. Also, be cautious about getting large doses of vitamin A along with the D in some fish oils. Vitamin A can also reach toxic levels and can cause serious problems.
Incorporating It Into Your Morning
Many people prefer to take supplements such as vitamin D first thing in the morning.
Not only is it often more convenient, but its also easier to remember your vitamins in the morning than later in the day.
This is especially true if youre taking multiple supplements, as it can be challenging to stagger supplements or medications throughout the day.
For this reason, it may be best to get in the habit of taking your vitamin D supplement with a healthy breakfast.
Using a pillbox, setting an alarm or storing your supplements near your dining table are a few simple strategies to remind you to take your vitamin D.
Summary
Some people may find that taking vitamin D first thing in the morning is more convenient and easier to remember than taking it later on.
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When Should You Take Vitamin D Morning Or Night
There is limited research on whether taking vitamin D in the morning or at night is better, so its really up to personal preference. Some people find taking vitamin D in the morning or at a certain time of day useful for remembering, especially if they also take other tablets. Whereas others prefer the evenings at dinner time, with some research suggesting better absorption with a meal, but other minimal evidence would suggest that late-night consumption could affect sleep.
Konstantin Karuzin, co-founder and medical director at Bioniq, tells GoodtoKnow that ultimately aiming for breakfast could be best. Breakfast is a great time to take an immune supporting supplement, such as bioniq IMMUNE, which contains the highest-grade antioxidants and Swiss manufactured vitamins, including Zinc, Vitamin D3, K2 and C. It is blended into tiny granules that should be taken in the morning and then again in the evening for optimal absorption. This unique absorption process allows you to digest and tolerate the granules easier than vitamins that are taken singularly in pill format, which can often cause nausea and other adverse side effects. Simply mix the formula into smoothies, on top of yogurt or with juice or water.
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Who Is At Risk For Vitamin D Deficiency
Although vitamin D deficiencies can occur in anyone, people in these groups are most at risk of low vitamin D:
- Older adults
- People with limited sun exposure
- People who are obese or those who have undergone gastric bypass surgery
- People with dark skin
- People with certain digestive diseases that lead to malabsorption, such as celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, and inflammatory bowel disease
Other Ways To Get Enough Vitamin D
There are other ways to get vitamin D beyond just taking a supplement. Sunshine is an excellent source of vitamin D, and so are many foods.
Spending 10 to 20 minutes in the sun provides 1,000-10,000 IUs of vitamin D. The amount of time you should spend in the sun and the number of IUs youll get will vary on the season, where you live in the world, and how dark your skin is. No matter where you are, the short time in the sun that you spend daily should be unexposed so that your body can adequately absorb the light.
Try incorporating vitamin D-rich foods into your diet, too. Here are some options:
- Fatty fish are high in vitamin D.
- Some mushrooms, like portobello and maitake, have proper levels of vitamin D, especially if theyre grown using UV light.
- The United States fortifies milk with vitamin D. Still, raw milk is known to have naturally occurring vitamin D as well. It may even have a higher concentration of nutrients.
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Vitamin D Supplements: What Parents Should Know
Getting enough vitamin D is essential so kids bones can grow strong and their immune systems can ward off illness.
Vitamin D gets into the body through absorption of sunlight and ingestion of food. From April through the end of October, spending just 15 to 30 minutes outside in the middle of the day with hands and face exposed will stimulate the skin to make all the vitamin D your child needs. In fact, on a sunny summer day, a child wearing a bathing suit can generate 10,000 to 20,000 international units of vitamin D after 15 to 30 minutes. In a neat biological trick, a persons body cant overdose on vitamin D created by the sun.
Foods such as salmon, sardines, tuna, cod liver oil, egg yolks and shiitake mushrooms contain a lot of vitamin D. Many kids dont seem to love these vitamin D superfoods, so luckily store-bought milk is often fortified with vitamin D, as are many cereals and even orange juice. Not all dairy products are fortified with vitamin D, however, so make sure to read the labels.
What Happens If I Overdose
Seek emergency medical attention or call the Poison Help line at 1-800-222-1222. An overdose of vitamin D can cause serious or life-threatening side effects.
Overdose symptoms may include nausea, loss of appetite, thirst, urinating more or less than usual, body aches, stiffness, confusion, or irregular heartbeats.
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Vitamin D And Osteoporosis
In the past, scientists have become very excited about other ‘antioxidant’ vitamins, particularly vitamins A, C and E and their role in preventing heart disease. The thinking went something like this: people who eat lots of fruit and veg are less likely to have heart attacks fruit and veg are high in antioxidant vitamins antioxidants are a good thing because they mop up ‘free radicals’ which can damage DNA so if people don’t get their vitamins through fruit and veg, giving them in supplement form will be just as good. In fact, when the studies were done, topping up with supplements didn’t cut heart disease risk at all.
The new study shows a similar result for vitamin D, at least as far as fractures, falls and bone density are concerned. There is no evidence that taking supplements cuts the risk of fractures or falls, or improves bone density. So doctors need to question whether they should be prescribing to people at risk of osteoporosis, and we all have to go back to the drawing board to protect ourselves.
For strong bones, calcium is also important. Dairy products, seeds, pulses, tofu, tinned fish with bones and some green leafy vegetables are all good sources. Interestingly, calcium supplements don’t appear to help much, and recent research suggests they may actually increase the risk of heart attack, so doctors are much more wary about prescribing these too.
The Best Time To Take Vitamin D
The best time to take vitamin D supplements is when it fits your schedule. We recommend taking it with a source of quality fat in the morning or when you break your fast. Avoid taking vitamin D in the evening .
Since vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitaminmeaning it doesnt dissolve in wateryour body can most easily absorb it when you take it with food. On top of that, many people find that taking vitamins and supplements on an empty stomach can lead to side effects like gastric upset.
Its convenient to remember to take your vitamins and dietary supplements in the morning, either with breakfast or a cup of Bulletproof Coffee. But you dont have to take it in the morning. If youre curious about supplementing while fasting, just take it when you break your fast.
You may also want to take vitamin D with your largest meal of the day, whenever that is for you, since research has found that this can improve absorption. More specifically, researchers suggest taking vitamin D at the same time you eat foods that are high in fat. Whenever you take vitamin D supplements, consider taking them while eating quality fat sources, including avocado, Bulletproof Brain Octane C8 MCT Oil, egg yolks, wild-caught fatty fish, grass-fed butter and Bulletproof Grass-Fed Ghee.
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What Are The Side Effects Of Taking Vitamin D3
Tell your doctor right away if any of these signs of high vitamin D/calcium levels occur: nausea / vomiting, constipation, loss of appetite, increased thirst, increased urination, mental/mood changes, unusual tiredness. A very serious allergic reaction to this drug is rare.
How Much Is Recommended Daily
If you do decide to take a supplement, it can get a bit confusing. Vitamin D doses can either be measured in international units or in micrograms and levels are very different. It’s easiest to stick to one – I’d recommend you look out for the number of micrograms. For reference, 10 mcg is equivalent to 400 IU.
Public Health England recommends that everyone over one year should take a supplement of 10 micrograms of vitamin D from around the end of September to early April. If you don’t get outside much, or if you cover up for religious reasons or have darker skin, you should take it all year round. It’s too early to tell if this new research will affect their recommendations.
Dr Louis Levy, Head of Nutrition Science at PHE, says: “A healthy, balanced diet and short bursts of sunshine will mean most people get all the vitamin D they need in spring and summer. However, everyone will need to consider taking a supplement in the autumn and winter if they don’t eat enough foods that naturally contain vitamin D or are fortified with it. And those who don’t get out in the sun or always cover their skin when they do, should take a vitamin D supplement throughout the year.”
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What Protects From Fractures
For older patients at risk of vitamin D deficiency, supplements can have a major impact. They can prevent osteomalacia, a softening of the bone that makes fractures more likely.
A University of Auckland meta-study reported that vitamin D supplements had little effect on bone density.
We would not expect vitamin D supplements to have a large impact on bone density unless the deficiency was severe, he says. Then their impact could be significant.
Improving bone density is not the only way to prevent fractures especially in older patients. Vitamin D can also have huge benefits for muscle function, cognition and falling.
One study found no evidence that vitamin D supplements reduced mortality, or prevented falls or fractures. A different study found no evidence that vitamin D supplements reduced overall mortality. Drilling down into the type of supplement taken, however, vitamin D3 significantly reduced mortality while vitamin D2 slightly increased mortality.
Vitamin K2 Supplementation With Vitamin D
When supplementing with high-dose vitamin D , some doctors have expressed concern that it could be harmful, mostly due to causing hypercalcemia, high blood calcium. Although there is a very remote risk that very high-dose vitamin D supplementation could cause hypercalcemia, doses as high as 50,000 IU per day have not been shown to cause that problem. And to further avoid such a concern, vitamin K2 can be added to ones daily regimen, which would only provide further health benefits.
In a 2019 study, over 4700 hospitalized vitamin D-deficient patients were supplemented with doses of vitamin D, with doses between 5,000 to 50,000 IU per day. After vitamin D supplementation, the patients vitamin D blood levels ranged from 74 ng/ml to 385 ng/ml . Among those taking vitamin D supplementation, even the patients taking 50,000 IU day, with the highest blood levels of vitamin D, did not display hypercalcemia. They had the same calcium blood levels as those taking the lowest doses of vitamin D, which were all within normal range.
Although the concern for taking high-dose vitamin D is mostly unfounded, it still would be a good idea to take additional vitamin K2, not only for how vitamin K2 interplays with vitamin D, but also for the direct benefits of vitamin K2.
One of the main functions of vitamin D is to maintain an adequate and stable calcium blood level. Vitamin D helps stabilize calcium blood levels in at least two ways
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