Gents, I think you will be interested in this.

Athletic Performance and Vitamin D
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/news-arch...vitamin-d/

It started when I found myself disappointed in my strength gains in the last month (much less than when I was at school, despite greater training volume and more free time). My diet has been poor, so I started looking up supplements.

Lo and behold, when I was able to enjoy sun for a few hours a week and drank roughly 2-3 quarts of milk a day, my gains were better. Turns out I am vitamin D deficient.

Vitamin D levels and building muscle is related, D boosts your T-levels and having very low vitamin D saps muscular strength. It's estimated that 90% of westerners are D deficient. Some folks also believe that a deficiency causes (seasonal) depression when there is less sunlight.

This is a broad article, here are the best quotes.

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To my surprise, I discovered that there are five totally independent bodies of research that all converge on an inescapable conclusion: vitamin D will improve athletic performance in vitamin D deficient people (and that includes most people). Even more interesting is who published the most direct literature, and when. Are you old enough to remember when the Germans and Russians won every Olympics in the '60s and '70s? Well, it turns out that the most convincing evidence that vitamin D improves athletic performance was published in old German and Russian medical literature.

Here is the conclusion. This is what you need to know.

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Most people are deficient or severely deficient of Vitamin D. If you are not working an outdoor job with significant sun or taking in significant amounts of dairy you SHOULD supplement. Those with darker skin are more at risk for Vitamin D deficiency.
1. There are significant health benefits to supplementing Vitamin D on borderline “panacea” levels if you are deficient which 85-90% of people are.
2. Getting a Vitamin D level of 50 ng/mL can increase your athletic performance.
3. Supplementing Vitamin D with fat post workout coupled with carbohydrates and protein may lead to increased muscle gains over just post workout carbohydrates and protein.

Vitamin D is fat soluble. Fat soluble hormones when taken “regularly” average out over 3-4 weeks. So if you wish to have say 5,000 IU/day and you only have 10,000 IU pills then one every other day is fine. Similarly, you could take 35,000 IU once every week. I have currently been taking 10,000 IU per day since this article was published until now (Oct 11 2009 – Oct 15th 2010) and feel great.

At 5,000 IU a day, Vitamin D supplementation is little more than $1 a month. And for the benefits above there is probably nothing that will benefit you more per cost ratio.

Personally my theory (and I have thought about this a long time) is that modern Westerners are sort of a deprived people. We're but a shade of our caveman ancestors in terms of fitness. They reached peak physical maturity (115-175 pounds of lean muscle mass) by the age of 15. This is not typical of most American men, and it must be somehow related to diet and general conditions.

Here are more links.

-Low Vitamin D linked to Muscle Fatness, Decreased Strength in Young People
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/201...112157.htm

Vitamin D, a closer look
Most useful article. Large aggregate of information
http://www.eatmoveimprove.com/2009/10/a-...vitamin-d/

The Miracle of Vitamin D
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/01...e-or-hype/

Some more useful quotes -

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Scientists have known for years that Vitamin D is essential for muscle strength. Studies in the elderly have showed bedridden patients quickly gain strength when given Vitamin D.

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7. Autism?

One meta-study review indicates that Vitamin D deficiency may be indicated in cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, autism, and a host of other illnesses.

There has been some debate about Vitamin D deficiency and autism. There may be a link as low Vitamin D levels in either the mother during pregnancy and/or the child during development. Further studies are obviously required.

The Vitamin D council has put together a nice comprehensive article on the topic. Here is another study and an article in Scientific American about Vitamin D and its potential link to autism.

8. Depression / Seasonal Depression / Schizophrenia

There is some indication that Vitamin D deficiency is also associated with depression and seasonal depression. (1), (2), (3), (4), (5). If you are prone to moody swings especially with the seasons, it may be a good idea to supplement with Vitamin D.

Vitamin D deficiency may also be linked up with schizophrenia (2) (3) because of abnormal brain development. This goes along with depression and autism as both of these are also potential neurological disorders.

Good data sheet.

You can get a blood test done to determine your vitamin d level.

It's best to take it with fat.

Vitamin D is the new big thing.

Thanks hades learn something new every day. What's got vitamin D in it heavily besides milk? My body is weird starting strength made me fat so i switched to that routine i posted up.

Sun isn't really gonna happen for me =/

I was going to go to the doctor with a list of questions (shit, I'll share them here), and going to add that to the list.
1. What are my T-levels?
2. How long will it take since I quit smoking to be back to 100%? (I am more fit now than ever, just don't know how good I 'could' have been if I never smoked)
3. What are my vitamin D levels?

Also WestCoast, according to one of the articles, the best way to combat vitamin D deficiency through diet is with fish or fish oil (that's how they get their vitamins in scandinavia, I would assume).
One of the studies used 1 gram capsules of that omega-fatty acid fish oil (which has lots of D). If you work out the math though, it says there's maybe 400 IUs per capsule, so you might want to take several in a day. They say toxicity is rare, but I would still be careful.

I am pretty leery of supplements so I will probably try to go swimming once or twice a week. They say that you can produce 20,000 IUs of D with 20 minutes of full-body sun exposure, which if the math works out is roughly a week's worth of D. I'm a lily-white Norwegian so it might even be less than 20 minutes.
Since it is fat soluble you can take all of your vitamin D dose once weekly (like ~30k IUs).

I drink Carlson's cod liver oil (lemon flavor) with a Carlson's vitamin d.

I take 5,000-10,000 ius of vitamin d a day.

You have a legit job, so when you get some time off, get a dr. appt. He can test all your blood, white blood count, red blood count, whole blood count, vitamin d, testosterone, dhea, etc.

Just bought some vitamin D from the natural food store this past weekend, the stuff I got is derived from Cod Liver. My buddy who is absolutely ripped as can be (squats and dead lifts 450 lbs) said Vitamin D is what's up, good to see this data sheet to support that.

Yes, I've started taking 1000IU/25lbs of bodyweight for Vitamin D3 and I feel soooo much better. I think I'm loosing weight with it too. For a $12 vitamin bottle, it's pretty amazing. It makes sense too, since even a few hundred years ago, humanity was mostly outside with their shirts off as long as there was daylight. I got the idea from here: http://www.bulletproofexec.com/optimize-...pplements/

Quote: (07-03-2012 10:41 PM)MikeCF Wrote:  

I drink Carlson's cod liver oil (lemon flavor) with a Carlson's vitamin d.

I take 5,000-10,000 ius of vitamin d a day.

You have a legit job, so when you get some time off, get a dr. appt. He can test all your blood, white blood count, red blood count, whole blood count, vitamin d, testosterone, dhea, etc.

Right on. Went in for a routine physical and Dr. said everything was perfect, except my vitamin D level was low. Recommended to take an OTC supplement. Kind of shocking to me considering I lift/grapple/exercise 6 times a week. Made a big difference for me.

Make sure is D3 and not D2.

Also K2 will be the next big vitamin. Its best to get it from dairy sources so far, although that is controversial. It helps move calcium into the bones and removes calcium from blood vessels. It does more, but I don't remember everything it does additionally.

Quote:Hades Wrote:

I am pretty leery of supplements so I will probably try to go swimming once or twice a week. They say that you can produce 20,000 IUs of D with 20 minutes of full-body sun exposure, which if the math works out is roughly a week's worth of D.

A year ago I tried telling people about sunlight and Vitamin D but I was met with criticism (as usual).

It will do you no good to get vitamin D from the sun if you shower daily.

Quote: (07-04-2012 01:57 PM)velkrum Wrote:  

Quote:Hades Wrote:

I am pretty leery of supplements so I will probably try to go swimming once or twice a week. They say that you can produce 20,000 IUs of D with 20 minutes of full-body sun exposure, which if the math works out is roughly a week's worth of D.

A year ago I tried telling people about sunlight and Vitamin D but I was met with criticism (as usual).

It will do you no good to get vitamin D from the sun if you shower daily.

Mind explaining how the hell that works?

UV radiation is trapped by the oil on your skin. it takes at least 48 hours 2 Full Days for the UV charged sebum (oil) to convert into D3.

Showering washes off the oil on your skin. If you sun bathe on a Sunday, you should shower Wednesday afternoon. You can wash your armpits and your groin, but a full body shower should be avoided.

When sun bathing you need to make sure your entire back, front side and legs are covered in bright sunlight for an adequate amount of time.

Quote: (07-04-2012 05:16 PM)velkrum Wrote:  

UV radiation is trapped by the oil on your skin. it takes at least 48 hours 2 Full Days for the UV charged sebum (oil) to convert into D3.

Showering washes off the oil on your skin. If you sun bathe on a Sunday, you should shower Wednesday afternoon. You can wash your armpits and your groin, but a full body shower should be avoided.

When sun bathing you need to make sure your entire back, front side and legs are covered in bright sunlight for an adequate amount of time.

So that's why sweaty, smelly mofos are also the strongest and most sexually virile mofos...

Makes sense. Since I've left Europe and started showering daily, my strength and sexual stamina has taken a dive south

That explains why I was (by far) the most manly and aggressive I'd ever been when I was roofing. I wouldn't shower for three or four days and I'd be busting my nuts in the 110 degree heat without sun block or anything.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20050857

High vitamin D levels correlate to higher levels of testosterone. Pasty, doughy, basement dwellers produce little vitamin D and have lower T levels.

Quote: (07-04-2012 05:16 PM)velkrum Wrote:  

UV radiation is trapped by the oil on your skin. it takes at least 48 hours 2 Full Days for the UV charged sebum (oil) to convert into D3.

Showering washes off the oil on your skin. If you sun bathe on a Sunday, you should shower Wednesday afternoon. You can wash your armpits and your groin, but a full body shower should be avoided.

When sun bathing you need to make sure your entire back, front side and legs are covered in bright sunlight for an adequate amount of time.

Im no expert on my skin an oils...Can I still jump in the shower an just wash my armpits an such an not wash or scrub the rest of my body, or will just beingin the shower wash all the oil off my skin?

Cause after comming back from the beach theres always sand everywhere it would be nice if i could just rinse off hit my stinky parts hop out an still get my vitamin sunny D alright!

Quote: (07-04-2012 05:16 PM)velkrum Wrote:  

When sun bathing you need to make sure your entire back, front side and legs are covered in bright sunlight for an adequate amount of time.

And what is the adequate amount of time?

Quote:Cr33pin Wrote:

Can I still jump in the shower an just wash my armpits an such an not wash or scrub the rest of my body, or will just beingin the shower wash all the oil off my skin?

Do your best to avoid water from making contact with any areas other than the groin or armpits. Getting sand off your body will be tricky and if you wash your whole body, you will remove the UV charged sebum.

Quote:Samseau Wrote:

And what is the adequate amount of time?

Good question.
I would say anywhere between 20 - 45 mins of continuos exposure (2 - 3) X a week would be good.

For those who are malnourished and/or have sensitive skin, you will need to improve your nutrition and gradually increase exposure.

example: 1 - 2 min intervals until all those intervals add up to 20 mins or more.
Don't quote me on that. I don't have a proven answer as I'm only offering a suggestion.

Why bother with the sunbathing when there are supplements?

Quote: (07-10-2012 07:33 PM)Vice Wrote:  

Why bother with the sunbathing when there are supplements?

Why bother with supplements when there are whole foods?

In general, supplements are far inferior to eating healthy, minimally processed foods, getting exercise, and some amount of sunlight.

I used to be a supplement nut myself, but tons of research studies and my own experience has convinced me to go the natural route.

Think about it. Is taking a Vitamin C tablet the same as eating a ripe orange? Hell no. The orange has 10x the nutrition value with lots of healthy chemicals we don't even know about yet.
Its like the difference between jerking to porn and having real sex.

Interesting post. Was actually looking for Vitamin D in a pharmacy a couple of days ago, but the only ones they had were at max 150% RDA, which is a tiny fraction of the levels mentioned above. I am getting that in a multivitamin I take anyway.

Speaking to an assistant she said that "mega-doses" of any vitamin/mineral had recently become scheduled substances in South Africa and you need a doctors prescription for them. That sucks since I don't want to have to go to a doctor every time I want to go on some supplement regime. And what do you say to the doctor? I want a prescription of Vitamin D at 1500% of RDA because.....?

Why would these need be scheduled? What are the dangers of mega-doses of Vitamin D? I thought if you take more than your body can handle you just piss it away relatively harmlessly.

Quote:Bad Hussar Wrote:

1. What are the dangers of mega-doses of Vitamin D?
   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002561/
2. I thought if you take more than your body can handle you just piss it away relatively harmlessly.
   You are thinking about Vitamin B.

• Your body can regulate the amount of Vitamin D
  it receives from the sun.
• Your body can not regulate Vitamin D from supplements
  You can experience toxicity if taken in excess. (anywhere from 15,000 - 20,000 on a daily long term basis)
  

Quote: (07-16-2012 03:01 PM)velkrum Wrote:  

Quote:Bad Hussar Wrote:

1. What are the dangers of mega-doses of Vitamin D?
   http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002561/
2. I thought if you take more than your body can handle you just piss it away relatively harmlessly.
   You are thinking about Vitamin B.

• Your body can regulate the amount of Vitamin D
  it receives from the sun.
• Your body can not regulate Vitamin D from supplements
  You can experience toxicity if taken in excess. (anywhere from 15,000 - 20,000 on a daily long term basis)
  

Thanks for the info Velkrum. Can't open the ncbi link for some reason, but will google it.

Interesting info on Vitamin D and showering. Don't know ahow to incorporate that into my lifestyle though.

I added 1000iu to my diet (I am already getting 1600 from the multivitamin I am taking) and with no changes to my diet I am already noticing positive results. My heart rate is a few notches lower when I am using the elliptical, I am a little leaner while maintaining strength, and i never had striated glutes before. I'm thinking about adding another 1000iu to my diet (bringing my daily intake to 3600). Should I see a doctor before doing this?

I ended up buying some little candy chew things from GNC with 600mg of Calcium an 800 IU of vitamin D-3 i eat two a day

Is this enuff?