Why are they not showing the facts about Vitamin D in mainstream media?

“You get vitamin D from the sun” — They say!

I remember back in the seventies and eighties growing up in Scandinavia.
Filled with energy running around on the grass barefoot.

Soaking in the sun and getting a tan.

My mother never put sunscreen on us until we got a bit sunburned.

Then the media started propagating skin cancer.

With the now-instilled neuroticism and heightened disgust sensitivity to cancer.

The production of sunscreen has increased as the savior of women and children. I created and produced sunscreen in one of my first employments after high school.

Needless to say, I know what it contains since I put it in the lotion and mixed it all together.

But around 2015 I started to see the pattern for the worse in my health.

2015

I had noticed a persistent dry cough every winter lasting two months every year.
When I started talking about it with a female coworker of mine.

She mentioned she had gone to a private nurse to get help with her stomach.

The medical system in Scandinavia goes under the guise of FREE.

“No proactive medical support and only support if you are dying”.

That was the exact verbal explanation I got from my blond female doctor in 2023 when asking to check the vitamin D level in my blood.

During my visit to the private nurse, in 2015, the nurse asked me about my last name and where it was from.

That was a strange question, I thought to myself, but told her my parents are from the Mediterranean.

She immediately told me that I did not have the genetics to live in Scandinavia to create a healthy immune system.

She then went on to tell me I needed to supplement with vitamin D to get better.

This is evidence for this according to Lips.

I did but always had this scary thought I might overdose since the media and everyone were propagating how dangerous vitamin D is.

“You can die from it and some have!” they all said. According to Victor Lindén back in 1974, “Vitamin D and Myocardial Infarction” that might be the case.

But Yang and colleagues show in their study in 2020, that vitamin D may be a promising public health strategy to prevent cognitive decline. Even the British Government is advising to supplement with Vitamin D during winter months every day.

However, according to Anum Asif; Nauman Farooq (2023) with no conflict of interest reported, vitamin D toxicity is not as bad.

“Most cases of vitamin D toxicity resolve without serious complications or sequelae. However, in some instances, severe hypercalcemia can lead to acute renal failure requiring hemodialysis. Cases of permanent renal damage due to vitamin D toxicity are rare.”

According to Pinzon you increase the risk of Alzheimers if you have low vitamin D levels which is also supported by Ghahremani.

And again by Chen in 2024.

Alcohol drinkers also show a 38% lower prevalence of Vitamin D serum in their blood.

Mr. McCullogh showed in his long-term study that supplementing with 50 000IU or 1.25 grams of Vitamin D3/day showed NO cases of vitamin D3-induced hypercalcemia or any adverse events attributable to vitamin D3 supplementation in any patient.

They further imply that the data support safe levels up to 384.8 ng/ml or 962 nmol/L.

That is translated into 5000–50 000IUs/day.

That is also supported by Rathish Nair, Arun Maseeh and

But how could I verify the vitamin D levels in my blood? Back then I had still not discovered where to find all the scientific reports. But when I did.

My life changed forever.

2019

In 2019 the doctors did X-rays of my lungs, spirometry, and checked my blood.

But nothing was wrong with me the doctors said.

Still, I coughed every winter for two whole months.

I started reading more and more about vitamin D directly from scientific papers.

2020

Then I came across this scientific paper in 2020.

Malgorzata Magdalena Michalczyk and fellow researchers disclosed data in their report titled “Influence of Sunlight and Oral D3 Supplementation on Serum 25(OH)D Concentrations and Exercise Performance in Elite Soccer Players”.

With 6000IU or 150mg oral vitamin D per day, for six weeks, together with sunlight, increased their levels of vitamin D and Testosterone.

This seemed, according to the researchers, to be a reasonable solution to enhance high 25(OH)D concentration in blood and physical performance.

This is also supported by Fabrizio Angelini and fellow researchers when investigating the “Seasonal pattern of vitamin D in male elite soccer players” back in 2011.

As Nikolaos E. Koundourakis and fellow researchers showed in 2014 titled “Vitamin D and Exercise Performance in Professional Soccer Players” there is an association between vitamin D levels and performance.

This is also supported by Giovanni Lombardi and fellow researchers in 2017, “Circannual rhythm of plasmatic vitamin D levels and the association with markers of psychophysical stress in a cohort of Italian professional soccer players” where they discovered 32.9% had insufficient level of 25(OH)D during the seasons and another 15 athletes or 9% showed at least once, a deficiency of vitamin D.

They also discovered that Testosterone peaked during the summer which indicates an association with fluctuations in vitamin D levels.

But regardless of the obvious facts that you can become more healthy, I was still under the influence of the priming and anchoring effect of media and the herd mentality.

“You can die from Vitamin D pills!”

I tried to find honest research that hinted at what would be natural levels in humans.

That was when I came across this paper published in the British Journal of Nutrition in 2012 by Martine F. Luxwolda and fellow researchers. They went to Africa where people live in the cradle of mankind. Namely, Tanzania and the tested Maasai and Hadzabe tribes. Their mean levels were 115 nmol/L within the range of 58–171 nmol/L.

But vitamin D and Africa would only show positive results, right?
Not so fast. Ann Prentice did a study “Vitamin D Deficiency and Its Health Consequences in Africa”, in 2009, where they put all research together. The conclusion is surprising and I suggest you go through Table 2 to understand the implication and reality.

It is not as straightforward as you might think.

Through my blood test, done November 26th, 2019, I could see that even with my supplementation of vitamin D3 I only had 77 nmol/L. As did my 7 mother back in 2023.

2021

After, yet again, two months of dry coughing in January and February.

I decided to start supplementing.

I had the good fortune to meet a teacher out in the forest walking with her dogs telling me that she supplemented with 5000IU vitamin D3 every day.

I thought that was a bit much at the time.

However I was fed up with the poor medical system in Sweden and started to supplement with 5000IU vitamin D3 every day.

On May the 19th after a few days of early sun exposure I went back to the doctor to get my blood tested.

Lo and behold I had a value of 145 nmol/L.

Naturally, I did not know if it was the early summer sun or the pills.

So I knew I had to validate and verify this further.

But for the time being, I was happy I got my levels up.

Sorry to say, that I did not stay consistent in vitamin D3 supplementation which was discovered as a problem in late 2022.

2022

To verify my vitamin D levels I went back to the doctor to draw blood.

To my surprise, it had gone down to 104 nmol/L on, 20th of December, which was not too bad. From all the results I finally got hold of a company that could test my levels without the hassle of explaining myself to a doctor.

So on January 13th, I started my year-long test campaign to validate how my body works with vitamin D levels in my blood.

2023

13th of January

I tested my blood and at the time I was taking 2000IU or 50mg of vitamin D3 every day.

The result came and I got scared. It had dropped from my previous value in December the month before. It read 96 nmol/L.

Needless to say, I was baffled since the European Commission (EU) was trying to ban the sales of larger doses of Vitamin D3 pills in Europe at the time.

This can’t be right!

15th of March

I kept taking my 2000IU vitamin D3 every day for the following two months.

So I paid for yet another test to verify what was going on with my body. Again I was stunned by the results since it came back as 83 nmol/L. Now I was freaking out a bit and could not understand why the EU was trying to block the sales of larger doses of vitamin D3 in Europe.

But I decided to validate what the teacher had told me so I started taking 4000IU or 100mg of vitamin D3 every day. It was AG1 drops.

17Th of May

Two more months went by and summer was approaching in Sweden.

It was time yet again to give a bit of blood to validate my body's performance with oral vitamin D3. It came back with good news. My levels had increased to 137 nmol/L.

Now the scary part was that back in 2021 the 19th of May I had 145 nmol/L and now only 137 nmol/L and with higher doses.

“Strange” — I thought to myself.

26th of June

So everyone says you get vitamin D from the sunlight hitting your skin.

I love to lay in the sun soak up the photons and get a tan without sunscreen.

But I understood that I had an amazing opportunity to validate my skin's production of vitamin D.

So I tested my vitamin D levels and it came back as 171 nmol/L.

Then I stopped supplementing with vitamin D3 for a month during high summer in Sweden and only relied on the sun to produce vitamin D in my body.

26th of July

The month-long experiment went along and I only sat in the sun and sunbathed to give myself vitamin D.

After the one-month experiment, I went back to test my blood. I must say I was shocked. Because it means I cannot trust Swedish doctors or the media for that matter. My values had dropped from 171 nmol/L to 147 nmol/L. That is minus 24 nmol/L only relying on Swedish sunlight.

So back on 5000IU or 125mg of vitamin D3 per day I went.

27th of September

Two months after my last test and with 5000IU per day of vitamin D3 it was time to see the results.

It was good news but not what you would expect. It had only got up in two months 8 nmol/L to 155 nmol/L. So something is missing here.

Yes, the Swedish summer sunshine does produce vitamin D but not to the extent that I can solely rely on the sun.

5th of December

So a year has concluded with vitamin D tests done at least every other month.

Now remember that I had taken 5000IU or 125mg of vitamin D3 every day. The results came back and this shook me a bit more. It had dropped again.

The results came back as 146 nmol/L.

Good, but it did drop.

6th of February 2024

A year and then some had passed so it was time for the big health checkup. As you can see from the image above it went up to 158nmol/L. But I had started to take 10 000IU every day since the 16th of January.

My health

I have not been sick since 2023.

My testosterone levels have gone way up to teenager levels and I feel more alive than before. I quit all alcohol on the 2nd of November and I am awaiting my next test on the 3rd of February.

Vitamin D and Aging

So why do we see the results of vitamin D blood serum the way we do in me?

I turn 51 in 2024 so you have a reference.

It fits the research done by J MacLaughlin and M F Holick back in 1985, “Aging decreases the capacity of human skin to produce vitamin D3".

As you can see from their research on skin samples.

Your skin does not produce as much vitamin D in your body with age.

It loses its ability fast already between 8 years of age and 18 by a whopping 20%. At 77 years of age, the skin only produces 37%.

We knew this back in 1985!