Vitamin D and Cholesterol

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March 19, 2010
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If you, like me, have been doing any sort of research on improving your cholesterol profile, you’ve probably run into a few articles about Vitamin D.

Vitamin D came to prominence for its role, along with calcium (Vitamin D regulates calcium levels in the blood), in preventing rickets, a nutritional disease that causes a softening of the bones. You don’t see rickets in developed countries much any more, but you still see it in children in developing countries where food is inadequate.

Modern research into Vitamin D has discovered it has a role in a lot of other body processes, and can impact everything from mental health, to regulating blood sugar, to preventing or inhibiting the development of certain cancers, and - important to us cholesterol challenged people – in preventing heart disease.

Now here’s an interesting fact: when Vitamin D is processed by the body, it’s actually processed into an endocrine hormone, so it’s really a precursor to a necessary hormone. Don’t get enough Vitmain D and you don’t get enough of this hormone, and that can cuase problems above any beyond poor cholesterol levels.

Another interesting fact? Your body actually makes Vitamin D when your skin is exposed to sunlight, and that Vitamin D is manufactured from cholesterol!

However (and this is a big however) studies have shown that as we age, our body becomes less efficient at making it. So while 10 – 15 minutes of sun a day might be enough for someone in his or her twenties, once you get into your 30s and 40s, you body’s Vitamin D manufacturing ability can be cut in half or even more. This means most people over 30 (and people living in areas were there is isn’t a lot of sun, and people with dark skin) are most likely Vitamin D deficient.

But what about Vitamin D and cholesterol, which is what we’re concerned about?

Much like Niacin, Vitamin D has been show to promote large – in some cases extraordinarily large – increases in HDL, the ‘good’ fat that helps clear away the LDL, the ‘bad’ fat from the blood. It’s also been shown to reduce LDL particles and triglycerides as well. All good stuff if you have a tendency toward the bad side with your cholesterol profile.

When it comes to supplementing Vitamin D, there are a few things you need to know:

The USRDA is too low. Here’s the recommended intake for Vitamin D:

These levels aren’t nearly enough to raise your Vitamin D blood levels to where they need to be.

If you do some Internet research (which I already did for you) you’ll learn the recommended average intake is 4,000 IU a day for men and 3,000 IU a day for women, with the recommendation that you raise this by 1,000 IU every decade after your 20s. So for me, at 44, my recommended intake would be 6,000 IU a day.

These are general guidelines, since different people respond to Vitamin D differently. There are actually Vitamin D test kits you can buy to test your blood levels of Vitamin D. If you go that route, you want to aim for a supplementation level that results in a blood l level of 40 – 70 ng/ml.

You want Vitamin D3 (cholecaliciferol), NOT Vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol).

Vitamin D3 comes from animal sources and is easily processed by the human body, while Vitamin D2 comes from plants and is not. There have been cases where patients have supplemented with up to 50,000 IU of Vitamin D2 a day, and their blood levels were still too low. Make sure you’re taking the D3 version, not the D2.

Vitamin D must be taken with fat.

Vitamin D tablets taken by themselves are absorbed with less than 10% efficiency. Vitamin D binds with the fat, which is then digested, resulting in the Vitamin D being processed. Research has shown the Vitamin D taken by itself gets processed at a much, much lower efficiency.

So when you’re buying Vitamin D supplements, look for gel caps that already combine the Vitamin D with a fat. Another alternative is to take tablet, but take these tablets with a teaspoon of Olive Oil or your fish oil supplement.

So there you have it. If you’re struggling to improve your cholesterol profile like I am, Vitamin D could prove to be a valuable weapon in your arsenal.

In addition to its proven beneficial affect on cardiovascular health, Vitamin D has been shown to provide a host of other health benefits as well:

Do a bit of poking around and you’ll see all kinds of health claims made, with many of them backed up by studies.

So I don’t know about you, but I ordered my Vitamin D and will start with 6,000 IU a day once it comes in.

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Cardiovascular Health, Cholesterol, How to Lower Cholesterol, Supplements,

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