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Vitamin D

  • 29-07-2009 09:07PM
    #1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 602 ✭✭✭


    Would anyone know if there is a soluble or chewable vitamin D product available in Ireland? All I can find is capsules, to be swallowed whole. Thanks.


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,775 ✭✭✭EileenG


    Some chewable calcium tablets have vit D added to them. You can also get vitamin D in liquid form for children, but if you incease the dose in relation to weight, they should work.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,291 ✭✭✭eclectichoney


    if its any help, Vitamin D tablets are generally very, very small (unlike say Calcium tabs which often cause me problems swallowing them), and they also come in those 'softgel' formats, which I find easier to swallow as well.


  • Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 5,620 ✭✭✭El_Dangeroso


    I don't think the chewable tabs are very high in vitamin d, normally around 200IU-400IU.

    I take 5,000IU daily in supplements I get from iherb, it's about €5 for about 120 tiny capsules.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,291 ✭✭✭eclectichoney



    I take 5,000IU daily in supplements I get from iherb, it's about €5 for about 120 tiny capsules.

    They are the same as I get - very easy to swallow altogether, almost like a pinhead!


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 602 ✭✭✭eman66




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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,291 ✭✭✭eclectichoney


    Yup that's them. I even have problems swallowing normal Paracetamol-type tablets but the size of these makes it easy. About the size of a Rice Krispie I'd guess or maybe smaller (though it's been years since I last saw a rice krispie so don't quote me on that!)

    If it's your first iherb order you can use my code (GIR130) for $5 off i think! Or you might find another coupon code on the net somewhere - google for one :) They usually only work on your first order though.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 602 ✭✭✭eman66


    Great, thanks.


  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 5,671 ✭✭✭BraziliaNZ


    read somewhere recently that Vit D is the best cancer-keeper-awayer there is, but poor Irish Paddies don't get much due to lack of sun here. I wonder if the supplements are effective?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,775 ✭✭✭EileenG


    If you are going to take vitamins, D is certainly one of the ones that is worth taking. It's found in sunlight and high fat foods, both things which health conscious people tend to avoid.


  • Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 5,620 ✭✭✭El_Dangeroso


    BraziliaNZ wrote: »
    read somewhere recently that Vit D is the best cancer-keeper-awayer there is, but poor Irish Paddies don't get much due to lack of sun here. I wonder if the supplements are effective?

    Well so far observational studies (examining the results of people's lifestyles without intervening) have suggested that vitamin D is THE factor in cancer development, even more of a factor than smoking.

    They are about to commence a major intervention trial to see if supplementation can repeat what has been seen in the observational studies.

    This is very cutting edge science and largely theoretical at the moment but the mechanism that they propose explains this goes something like this:

    Cancer cells are basically cells that act like a single cell and therefore multiply and spread vehemently. Vitamin D acts like the glue between cells that keeps the cells from becoming rogue single cells in the first place and also killing off any cells that do mutate.

    Here is a video that explains the theory:

    www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=16941/

    WARNING: It is incredibly long, science-y and dense but watch the first minute or so to see the map correlating cancer incidence and units of sunshine.


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  • Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 5,671 ✭✭✭BraziliaNZ


    seriously other studies say it's most effective in preventing it?!?!


  • Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 5,620 ✭✭✭El_Dangeroso


    BraziliaNZ wrote: »
    seriously other studies say it's most effective in preventing it?!?!

    Oops! Maybe I wasn't clear, I'm saying D3 prevents cancer, looking back my phrasing was a bit crap!


  • Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 5,620 ✭✭✭El_Dangeroso



    Here is a video that explains the theory:

    www.uctv.tv/search-details.aspx?showID=16941/

    WARNING: It is incredibly long, science-y and dense but watch the first minute or so to see the map correlating cancer incidence and units of sunshine.

    Oops, completely wrong video!



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,962 ✭✭✭jumpguy


    If you can get Vitamin D in 10 minutes of sunlight, I'd say your alright, only in the height of winter could I possible manage one day without ever getting 10-15 minutes of sunlight.

    Supplement wise, I take HaliborangE vitamin A, C and D for as long as I can remember. It's a chewable tablet, very nice tasting.


  • Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 5,620 ✭✭✭El_Dangeroso


    jumpguy wrote: »
    If you can get Vitamin D in 10 minutes of sunlight, I'd say your alright, only in the height of winter could I possible manage one day without ever getting 10-15 minutes of sunlight.

    Supplement wise, I take HaliborangE vitamin A, C and D for as long as I can remember. It's a chewable tablet, very nice tasting.

    Bear in mind, to get enough D, it has to be 20 minutes of direct sunlight (not cloudy) from 12-2pm when you are not covered up, as in wearing short pants and a short sleeved t-shirt, and not wearing sunscreen.

    Most supplements don't contain nearly enough and most have D2 rather than D3 which is less absorbable and toxic at lower doses. Food manufacturers use D2 as it's much cheaper as in 'super-milk', but it's no where near in enough doses to be effective.

    Most people need at least 3,000IU at this lattitude, probably much more.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,962 ✭✭✭jumpguy


    Bear in mind, to get enough D, it has to be 20 minutes of direct sunlight (not cloudy) from 12-2pm when you are not covered up, as in wearing short pants and a short sleeved t-shirt, and not wearing sunscreen.

    Most supplements don't contain nearly enough and most have D2 rather than D3 which is less absorbable and toxic at lower doses. Food manufacturers use D2 as it's much cheaper as in 'super-milk', but it's no where near in enough doses to be effective.

    Most people need at least 3,000IU at this lattitude, probably much more.
    I see then...obviously more of a difficulty than I thought. What supplements do contain D3? Was having a look at what supplements are in the house and none list exactly what sort of vitamins they have. Just either "A" "B" etc.


  • Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 5,620 ✭✭✭El_Dangeroso


    You really need to purchase a dedicated supplement.

    Irish healthfood shops don't sell high potency vitamin D, you have to buy it from the internet, link where I get them is on the first page of this thread.

    I have tried supplementing pretty much everything and the only things that had a really noticeable effect on my general wellbeing was fish oil and vitamin d.

    I don't rarely get colds and if I do they're gone within 48hrs.

    It's also a excellent 'flu preventative, which is especially relevant this winter.
    From

    http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/51913.php :
    In the paper, we propose that vitamin D explains the following 14 observations:

    1. Why the flu predictably occurs in the months following the winter solstice, when vitamin D levels are at their lowest,

    2. Why it disappears in the months following the summer solstice,

    3. Why influenza is more common in the tropics during the rainy season,

    4. Why the cold and rainy weather associated with El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO), which drives people indoors and lowers vitamin D blood levels, is associated with influenza,

    5. Why the incidence of influenza is inversely correlated with outdoor temperatures,

    6. Why children exposed to sunlight are less likely to get colds,

    7. Why cod liver oil (which contains vitamin D) reduces the incidence of viral respiratory infections,

    8. Why Russian scientists found that vitamin D-producing UVB lamps reduced colds and flu in schoolchildren and factory workers,

    9. Why Russian scientists found that volunteers, deliberately infected with a weakened flu virus - first in the summer and then again in the winter - show significantly different clinical courses in the different seasons,

    10. Why the elderly who live in countries with high vitamin D consumption, like Norway, are less likely to die in the winter,

    11. Why children with vitamin D deficiency and rickets suffer from frequent respiratory infections,

    12. Why an observant physician (Rehman), who gave high doses of vitamin D to children who were constantly sick from colds and the flu, found the treated children were suddenly free from infection,

    13. Why the elderly are so much more likely to die from heart attacks in the winter rather than in the summer,

    14. Why African Americans, with their low vitamin D blood levels, are more likely to die from influenza and pneumonia than Whites are.

    Those Russian scientists wouldn't get past an ethics committee nowadays :)


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,291 ✭✭✭eclectichoney


    They really are pretty inexpensive though, even when you take into account shipping - it is only a few (literally!) euro a month. Worth it imo.


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,962 ✭✭✭jumpguy


    I've started taking a cod liver oil supplement that's in the house. Does that have the nessicary vitamin D?


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 602 ✭✭✭eman66


    The 5000IU product from iherb.com recommends one capsule every three days. Would that be a good figure? I see various sources recommend 0-10µg/ day. I don't know what that measurement is.


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  • Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 5,620 ✭✭✭El_Dangeroso


    It should say how much D is in it on the cod liver oil packet.

    The have just raised the official RDA to from 400IU to 2000IU per day for an adult in the US. But that is a recommendation that's good for someone who lives in Florida.

    At our latitude I would take 5000IU, but there is no way to know for sure how much to take unless you get your blood levels tested, which can be done over the internet (Use a reputable lab). It costs about 40 euro.

    You can get make 20,000IU from a whole day in the summer sun so supplemental doses of D3 are safe to 10,000IU for an adult.

    But well worth it when you consider the diseases it has been purported to prevent:

    Osteoporosis
    Influenza
    Tuberculosis
    Depression
    Prostate cancer
    Breast cancer
    Heart disease


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 7,962 ✭✭✭jumpguy


    It says there a 2 somethings in it (can't understand the symbol) or 100% of the RDA. :confused:


  • Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 5,620 ✭✭✭El_Dangeroso


    jumpguy wrote: »
    It says there a 2 somethings in it (can't understand the symbol) or 100% of the RDA. :confused:

    Is it µ? That's the symbol for micrograms, 25µ = 1000IU, so 2µ wouldn't be very much at all.


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,291 ✭✭✭eclectichoney


    Is it µ? That's the symbol for micrograms, 25µ = 1000IU, so 2µ wouldn't be very much at all.

    It would be 80 IU which is 20% of the old US RDA.


  • Users Awaiting Email Confirmation Posts: 5,620 ✭✭✭El_Dangeroso


    http://www.nutraingredients-usa.com/Research/Canada-examines-vitamin-D-for-swine-flu-protection/

    Is it just me or does Canada seem to be one of the most progressive countries with everything these days?


  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 195 ✭✭earlyapex


    I can also recommend iherb.com for great quality vitamins, etc. cheaply.
    The front page of the site doesnt look great, very plain but get into looking at the product pages and its all you need.
    cheap $4 shipping flat rate too!

    use this coupon code on your first order FIT211, get 5$ off.

    Nice!


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