Issue #20: How important is Vitamin D? ☀️
Good morning. It’s Monday, September 12. It's the last day for Max to get Vitamin D from the sun in Chicago (you'll see what we're talking about below).
Did you miss any of our issues on MINDSET last week? Catch up on Issues #16-#19.
The focus this week is back on NUTRITION, specifically - Core Supplements.
“The body cannot make something out of nothing.”
Plus, we gave Connor the weekend off so I suited up for today's Monday Metabolic Workout, and we've got Vit D supplement brand recommendations.
Percent of Americans deficient in Vitamin D.
What are "Core Supplements"?
Always try to use food to get nutrients!
That said, even if we eat the right foods, there are a few nutrients that we probably can't get enough of from our diet to optimize our health & longevity - so we need to look at supplements.
I don’t know about you, but walking into the supplement section of Whole Foods is completely overwhelming. Where do I start? What do I need? How much is it going to cost?
There are 2 categories of supplements:
Core Supplements = take everyday 📅
Cyclical Supplements = cycle through intermittently or as needed
For us, Core Supplements are:
Massively beneficial (in some cases essential) to optimize our health & longevity
Deficient for most of us, regardless of our diet
Not found to be destructive if we take them everyday
This week, we’re going to cover 5 Core Supplements - starting with Vitamin D.
Vitamin D - The Sunshine Vitamin
Vitamin D is actually a hormone (why do they make it so confusing?) with more benefits than we can count. It turns on over 900 genes to support our health, plus it helps us:
Stay Strong: Vitamin D promotes strong bones and muscle strength 💪 (both key for longevity). It helps us absorb calcium - otherwise, our body will steal calcium from our bones to maintain the right blood calcium level (leads to osteoporosis).
Better Sex: A 2010 study cited in Super Human, shows that healthy Vitamin D levels are associated with more testosterone and that low Vitamin D levels are connected to ED.
Stop Disease: Still not sold? Vitamin D prevents cellular growth and is associated with lower cancer rates - specifically colon cancer - as well as lower heart disease, and even depression.
Reverse Aging: There are even recent studies - that show Vitamin D as the only intervention reduces your “biological age” by over 2.5 years! ⏲️
PRO TIP: Experts suggest if you take Vitamin D, you should take Vitamin K with it (D3 + K2). That’s because if you better absorb calcium then Vitamin K effectively sends the calcium to your bones and teeth. Otherwise, calcium can build up as plaque in your organs or blood vessels (happened to one of my relatives - not good).
Just make sure it's D3, not D2 and K2, not K1 (damn - why can't the numbers be the same??).
Deficiency
Vitamin D just isn’t in that many foods.
The average daily suggested amount is about 5,000 IU. Check out how much you'd have to eat everyday to get there without sunshine or a supplement:
*NOTE: Vitamin K2 is a little more prevalent in our food, but not much. It is surprisingly in the dark meat, not white meat, of chicken. I typically buy Organic Chicken Thighs and put them in the Instant Pot for 10 min with a cup of bone broth for shredded chicken salad on spinach or delicious tacos.
Sunlight
Most of our Vitamin D comes from sunlight. But, Vitamin D comes only from UVB rays (not UVA). The sun must be at least at a 50 degree angle and free of cloud cover for UVB to hit the earth's surface. Many cities in the US (like Chicago) go six (6) months without any UVB. **Time for Max to hibernate for the winter!
Here’s a great tool to input your location, date, time of day to see the angle of the sun and potential for Vitamin D:
But don’t worry if you don’t have this fancy website - you can use this trick:
Vitamin D Available if: Your Shadow Length < Your Height
They say it’s best to expose as much skin as possible - so if you’re up for showing off the six pack 10-15 min 3x per week, then you should be good to go.
If that’s not really an option every week (or bad for your neighbors' eyes), then we need to supplement - especially during the winter.
Pro Tip: Also, too much sun is bad (like really bad) for our longevity. We're not suggesting going to the beach sans sunscreen everyday. We all have different Vitamin D production based on our genetics, skin tone, where we live. But on average, 15 min 3x per week should be good. Suncreen prevent Vitamin D production? That remains unclear.
How to Supplement
Ok so first - find out your current Vitamin D levels. The basic test is called 25(OH)D. It’s part of a standard blood panel when you go to your doctor.
In looking at the optimal ranges from many medical experts - the consensus is to be at least 50 ng/ml and maybe slightly higher for most of us.* Optimal Range = 50-80 ng/ml.
If you do get tested, here’s a great rule of thumb from Dr. Dale Bredesen on how much Vitamin D to take as a supplement:
Subtract your current level (say 20 ng/ml) from your optimal level (say 50 ng/ml) and multiple by 100
So in this example 50-20 = 30 * 100 = 3,000 IU
Always check with your doctor for recommended dosage!!
Supplements are a bit of the wild west when it comes to quality and counterfeit.
Make sure you find a reputable brand that doesn’t include any bulls*** sugar, gums or other artificial crap in it. Don’t skimp on quality - here are 17 ingredients to avoid.
Check out our Vitamin Product Recommendations below!
Pro Tip: Vitamin D helps regulate your circadian rhythm and so best to take before 12pm. It is also fat-soluble so take it with a spoonful of nut butter (my go-to), yogurt or some other fat/oil.
*There was concern about too much Vitamin D, but a study where participants took 30,000 IU supplements for an extended period of time showed no levels of toxicity or negative symptoms.
Speed Read
Health & Longevity in the News
Running Meditation: find out how a simple running meditation on easy runs can help you tap into that much-desired flow state–where running feels effortless. Wait, effortless running? I'm in! 🏃🏽
Health is Essential: according to an Accenture survey of 11,000 consumers, even with uncertainty in the economy, most of us now consider health and fitness to be as essential as groceries and cleaning products.
Kindness = Wellbeing: going back to last week's focus on Mindset, a University of Texas study shows random acts of kindness significantly improve wellbeing (VIDEO).
Monday Metabolic
Giving Connor a break this weekend so I (yes that's me in the video) went outside for this workout (thanks to my wife for filming).
It's a Pyramid - Start with 7 reps of all 3 exercises, then do 6 of everything, then 5, then 4...all the way down to 1.
Click HERE to view the workout on our YouTube channel.
Workout and video courtesy of Connor J. Obrochta. Check out all of Connor's workouts on Playbook!
Product Recs
The following are reputable brands with high quality Vitamin D supplements as a starting point to identify what might be best for you.*
Athletic Greens - liquid drops of both D3/K2 from the makers of AG1
Thorne - also liquid drops of D3/K2 from a highly regarded supplement brand
Live Conscious - clean supplement softgels with organic avocado oil
Renue by Science - liposomal (pump under tongue) D3/K2 to be better absorbed by the body
*Thrive25 currently has no affiliation or commercial partnerships with any of the above listed brands
Thanks for joining us today! Tomorrow, we'll talking about Core Supplement #2 - magnesium!
Check out the latest workout videos on our YouTube channel
Got feedback? Tell us what you think at team@thrive25.com
Want this direct to your inbox? Sign up here
Why Thrive25
We’re 40-something dads that felt our bodies and minds start to slow down and we’re not ready for that. We found too much information on every subject. So we started Thrive25 to transform what we’ve learned into something useful for the rest of us to spend just 3-5 min a day to optimize our health & longevity.
This newsletter is for you and we truly value your feedback. Never hesitate to reach out to us at team@thrive25.com.
To health!
Sign up for free:
The information in this newsletter is for informational purposes only and may not be appropriate or applicable based on your individual circumstances. Thrive25 Labs LLC does not provide medical, professional, or licensed advice. Please connect with your healthcare professional for medical advice specific to your health needs.