She’s probably not deficient in vitamin D.

I admit it, I’ve jumped on the vitamin D “bandwagon.”  I’ve been a part of the “vitamin D craze,” recommending larger-than-RDA doses of vitamin D to my friends and family.  Why?

  • The majority of Americans have low to borderline-low vitamin D levels, due to lack of sun exposure, overuse of sunscreen, overuse of soap (I’ll explain this in a minute), and extremely low consumption of dietary vitamin D.
  • Though most of the evidence is low quality (correlative rather than causative), there is still a great deal of evidence that points to lower risks of heart disease, many cancers, and depression when physiological vitamin D levels are on the high side.

So should every adult be taking 5000IU of supplemental D3 every day?  Absolutely not.