DROP THAT VITAMIN D SUPPLEMENT, SISTER
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Do you need to supplement? It all depends on context, because MOST people who are deficient aren’t necessarily deficient in that actual vitamin, but rather, there is something off with the precursors.
What do I mean?
1️⃣ Magnesium: We need this mineral to synthesize and convert Vit D within the body. Conversely, it is particularly important in keeping inflammation (or any stress) at bay, which is one reason why so many people may have “low levels”

2️⃣Vitamin A (Retinol): We need retinol (not beta carotene) to ACTIVATE Vit D in our bodies within all the receptors and to convert cholesterol to pregnenolone
3️⃣Cholesterol: Did you know you need cholesterol to make hormones? Yup, this isn’t just your steroid hormones. Understand cholesterol comes from 2 places, the food that you eat (that contributes to about 20% of the cholesterol in your body) and your liver and intestines (which takes up about 80%). Without it, we cannot produce Vit D

4️⃣ Liver: Which brings me to my next point, if we need cholesterol to produce D, and 80% of the cholesterol we have in our body is made in the liver, we better make sure our liver is in tip top shape! What to be mindful over? That your liver has enough ENERGY to do its job properly (aka glucose), that it has all the co factors to work (b vitamins, amino acids, antioxidants, minerals) and that it isn’t being over burdened by toxins like endocrine disruptors, medication, heavy metals, etc

5️⃣ Thyroid: Buuuuut let’s not forget that every cell in the body runs off of thyroid hormone (T3), and if we are not making sufficient T3, we cannot convert cholesterol to pregnenolone, which then continues on the cascade of hormone production.
6️⃣Copper: This mineral is essential for energy production in every cell, but also imperative for making TRH (thyroid regulating hormone), which is then converted to TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone), which then makes a bit of T3 and a lot of T4 in our thyroid. This gets sent to our liver to transform T4 to T3, which is what most of our cells get for ENERGY.
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Everything is connected.
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So before jumping on the supplement bandwagon, are YOU checking these markers?

WHAT DO VIT D LEVELS MEAN?
Have you ever gone to the doctor and get a blood test to check your sunshine status?
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Well, if you looked at the report, you would only see this: 25(OH)D.
That would be considered the marker for D, but let’s look into it more and see if that’s right.
25(OH)D is considered a metabolite that represents the endogenous synthesis and vitamin D intake, where as we have ANOTHER marker that we RARELY get checked: 1,25(OH)2D.
The second marker represents the hormonal form. It is an active metabolite that is considered to be the most POTENT hormone in the body
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In most cases, if a doctor were to see your 25(OH)D levels low, they’d think you are deficient, but it has been stated in literature that both healthy and sick individuals can have low markers. How does this work? Well, let’s try and understand how we absorb and make it
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It all starts with the sun, where D3 is photosynthesized in the skin or if we get it from a food.
Once it’s in us, it is sent to the liver to be hydroxylated by an enzyme called CYP2R1 to make the D that your doctor checks (25(OH)D).
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That is then sent to the kidneys where it is hydroxylated again by another enzyme called CYP27B1 to make Hormone D aka 1,25(OH)2D.
With that, there is a feedback loop that helps regulate the production of 1,25(OH)2D in the kidneys with one’s parathyroid hormone, fibroblast-like growth factor calcium and phosphate.
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Conversely, a bit of 1,25(OH)2D is also made in some tissues like the skin, macrophages, pancreas, blood vessels, etc.
Once it is made, we have a vitamin D binding protein (VDBP) that takes the hormone and transports it to the vitamin D receptors (VDR) in the body which lay in the cell’s nucleus and mediates the transcription of DNA.
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So as you can see here, 25(OH)D is not necessarily the important metabolite, for it is only a storage form of the actual hormone we use. 1,25(OH)2D regulates the immune system via the VDR in immune cells.
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However, does this mean we need more 1,25(OH2D to be healthy?
Not necessarily, for too much of it can actually be a sign of inflammation. You know, too much of a good thing can be bad for you.

So they say that “low” vit D levels are dangerous and that it’s a sign of ill health, but has anyone ever bothered to talk to you about HIGH levels of hormone D?
Didn’t think so.
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As much as we need our sunshine, and I am NOT arguing that we need go out more, I think we’re looking at the wrong markers.
Remember, 25(OH)D is how much D you have in STORAGE, where as 1,25(OH)2D is your ACTIVE HORMONE.
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Think of it this way, we need enough stored up to USE when we need it, and when we do actually use 1,25(OH)2D it means something is WRONG in the body, hence it elevates. This means we are dealing with a stressor.
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Is there a particular source of inflammation that could be causing this? Well, it is speculated that it is bacterial pathogenesis (aka bacteria invade cells). An excess of 1,25(OH)2D is produced to up-regulate the vitamin D receptors to transcribe antimicrobial peptides and 25(OH)D is all used up in the process, resulting in a low serum levels. This is why this “vitamin” is so important for the immune system because it is considered antimicrobial.
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Conversely, blindly supplementing will only make things worse, for too much vitamin D can actually suppress the immune system AND we don’t even know if you have the right cofactors to USE 25(OH)D (like adequate magnesium, retinol, working liver to produce cholesterol, thyroid function, etc. as mentioned above)
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Thus the answer isn’t to add more D into the system because we aren’t solving the issue on as to WHY inflammation is there in the first place. In many cases where inflammation is present, our metabolic function has slowed, which could affect out thyroid, liver, minerals status and more (all in which help with the conversion of hormone D).
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Are you supplementing? Let me know below!