[00:01] vitamin recommendations in America was based on a statistical mistake? This people to take far less vitamin D than the recommendation was supposed to guarantee. For years, most adults were told that 600 IU's of vitamin D per day
[00:14] was enough. However, it might be that their required number is over 10 times greater, up to 8,900 IU's. Let me explain. In 2014, researchers Paul Veugelers and John Paul Ekwuru published a paper with a blunt title, A
[00:28] Statistical Error in the Estimation of the Recommended Dietary Allowance for Vitamin D. The paper argued that the recommended dose of vitamin D per day was not only too low, but it was statistically misinterpreted. The 600 IU
[00:41] vitamin D recommended daily allowance was established in the 2011 report by the Institute of Medicine. They came to the 600 IU RDA by focusing on bone health outcomes, not broader claims about cancer, immunity, or longevity.
[00:54] They conclude that that for vitamin D, an intake of 600 IU's per day for ages 1 to 70 and 800 IU's per day for ages 71 plus would correspond to a serum vitamin D level of at least 20 nanograms per milliliter, which they said would meet
[01:08] the needs of at least 97.5% of the population. The RDA was never supposed to be about the average person. It was supposed to cover almost everybody. make sure that most people would meet their requirements. Vitamin D levels
[01:21] below 20 nanograms per milliliter or less than 15 nanomoles per liter are associated with an increased rate of bone loss. Vitamin D levels over 20 nanograms per milliliter are considered sufficient. However, it's been suggested
[01:35] that the insufficiency line should be at 30 nanograms per milliliter or 75 that there would be even more people at accounted for. The vitamin D intake of 600 IU's would get 97.5% of the people
[01:50] threshold. The Institute of Medicine based that recommendation on 10 supplementation studies, which together produced 32 study averages. They plotted those averages against vitamin D intake, created a dose-response curve, and from
[02:04] that concluded that 600 IUs per day would get 97.5% of individuals above the target level. But, here's where the problem begins. The authors of that 2014 study claimed that the 2011 study authors looked at group averages, but
[02:18] not how individuals would respond to supplementation. And this difference changes a lot because the RDA, as I said, is supposed to cover most people, not the average person. It's like saying the class average on a test was high, so
[02:30] everyone must have passed. In reality, some people passed, and some people paper, that's exactly what happened. So, the 2014 study authors went back and looked at the data. This time, they looked at how did supplementation affect
[02:43] individuals individually. Their analysis suggested that if you take 600 IUs per day, 97.5% of individuals would be expected to get above 26.8 nmol/L, not
[02:55] above 50 nmol/L, which is what the recommendation was assumed to achieve. level to be considered not deficient. This means that 97.5% of people taking only 600 IUs of vitamin D would be severely deficient unless they get a lot
[03:09] of sun exposure. The authors estimated that to get 97.5% of individuals above 50 nmol/L, they needed to take up to 8,900 IUs per day of vitamin D. Now, of
[03:21] should immediately start taking 9,000 IUs of vitamin D every day. The authors clearly warned against that. Whether or not you need vitamin D supplementation And you don't need to take vitamin D. You can realistically have optimal blood
[03:35] supplementation. But, what it means is that the official gap between the RDA and the dose predicted to cover 97.5% of individuals is a lot higher than people expected. It's not 600 IUs. It's a lot higher. I want to take a quick break I'd
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[05:21] where vitamin D deficiency remained common even among people who are supplementing. In one study, despite vitamin D supplementation of 400 IUs or more with a total intake of about 632 IUs, 10% of participants still had
[05:35] levels below 50 nanomoles per liter. In another study, 15% of supplement users were still below that level. On page two, the figure based on study averages makes the 600 IU recommendation look to be enough, but on page three, once the
[05:49] analysis shifts towards individual variability using the lower tail picture changes. The corrected lower line sits dramatically lower, which shows why a dose that looks sufficient on average may still leave many
[06:02] individuals under the target. Unfortunately, the vitamin D RDA hasn't been updated. It's still at 600 IUs, but this doesn't mean that you should take 9,000 IUs of vitamin D. That's because the vitamin D dose isn't the same for
[06:15] of vitamin D, and they respond differently to sunlight exposure and to supplementation. Things like your body size, your body fat percentage, your age, your skin pigmentation, they all influence your vitamin D status. So, the
[06:28] most important lesson is to actually measure your vitamin D and to see if you are deficient or with optimal levels. So, what's a good vitamin D level to have? We've established that vitamin D levels below 20 ng/mL or less than 50
[06:40] nmol/L are considered insufficient. Vitamin D levels over 20 ng/mL are sufficient, but it's likely that the insufficiency line should be at 30 ng/mL or 75 nmol/L. This would mean that the requirement for vitamin D would be even
[06:56] requirement for vitamin D would be even higher than 8,900, probably up to 10,000 IUs per day. When it comes to the range for lowest all-cause mortality, then this 2017 meta-analysis showed that compared to vitamin D levels of 30 to 40
[07:08] compared to vitamin D levels of 30 to 40 ng/mL or 75 to 99 nmol/L, those with vitamin D levels of 16 to 20 or 40 to 49 nmol had a 15% higher risk of all-cause mortality, and those with a vitamin D of below 12 ng/mL or less than 30 nmol/L
[07:24] saw a 67% higher risk. Similar results have been found with cardiovascular disease mortality. A 2017 meta-analysis of prospective studies found that serum associated with cardiovascular disease events and mortality. The lowest risk
[07:39] was at 30 to 40 ng/mL or 75 to 99 nanomoles per liter, which is the same range as the one in the previous study on all-cause mortality. Vitamin D levels above 40 nanograms per milliliter or over 100 nanomoles per liter are
[07:52] cardiovascular disease mortality and myocardial infarction. It's very hard to exposure unless you're also supplementing with vitamin D. So, it looks like the vitamin D range of 30 to 40 nanograms per milliliter or 75 to 99
[08:07] for the lowest all-cause mortality risk and cardiovascular disease risk. Yes, but you don't need to supplement if you get it from sunlight. Things that affect how much vitamin D you make from the sun include your skin pigmentation, with
[08:21] sun, body fat percentage, being overweight makes you store vitamin D in the fat and less in the blood, time of the day, with morning and evening sun more time to get enough vitamin D, the season, summer providing more vitamin D
[08:36] and winter less, and the UV index, higher UV index equals higher vitamin D, but also more skin damage. So, there is a fine balance between excess skin aging from UV damage and making vitamin D. You definitely don't need to roast out in
[08:48] the sun for 8 hours to make enough vitamin D. When supplementing vitamin D, you should also take vitamin K2 MK7 to prevent calcification from excess vitamin D, especially when taking larger doses of thousands of IUs of vitamin D.
[09:00] Overall, this study doesn't prove that 8,900 IUs is a dose for everyone, but it does suggest that the official recommendation of 600 IUs may how much most people would actually need. So, the real takeaway isn't that
[09:13] everyone should megadose vitamin D or spend a lot of time in the sun. It means status to know what is your blood vitamin D status, and then adjust your accordingly. Vitamin D as a supplement is controversial. It has some evidence,
[09:26] but it's not a panacea. Check out my video where I rank 100 supplements from video where I rank 100 supplements from worst to best next.