The "Vitamin D Dilemma" Story

Can you have too much fun in the sun?

It was an ordinary day.  Reading the health section of my Sunday News and found an interesting article about Vitamin D and seniors.  I guess I am starting to fall into the "seniors" classification even though I fear that to be called a senior means I'm old.  In high school it was neat being a senior, but …  Anyway, an 89 year old woman wrote that her husband is concerned that she is taking too much vitamin D along with all the other pills she takes.  Seems she takes a "Centrum" tablet of 1,300 IU of D every day as well as a fish oil tablet for her cholesterol.  The column advisor is a woman by the name of Linda Buch who once lived in Lancaster, PA and is now a fitness trainer in Denver, CO.  If you don't know what IU stands for, it means International Units which is just a standard of measure that the scientific community adapted to standardize the measurements of some vitamins and minerals.  If you go beyond the RDA (recommended daily average) you are taking in too much and it will just go to waste. There is no harm really in taking mega doses of vitamins, assuming normal kidney and liver functions are OK because you just poo and pee the excess away.  Some populations are at risk for getting too little Vitamin D.  Those who live in the northern hemisphere in winter, populations with dark skin and the elderly who do not get much natural sunlight.  The use of too much sunscreen can interfere, but you need a balance between protecting your skin from skin cancer and getting the vitamins you need.  Five to ten minutes of unprotected exposure to the sun is all anyone really needs. Vitamin D is fat-soluble, which means a certain amount of fat in food helps the body to utilize it for its primary functions such as building and maintaining bones, regulating the immune system as well as cells and promoting calcium absorption in the gut. Getting enough vitamin D also can help prevent osteoporosis and reduce the risk of fractures, help prevent falling, can be used to treat parathyroid problems, hypertension, some cancers, diabetes, heart disease, obesity and overall mortality.  Wow, a cure-all vitamin!  Vitamin D is unique in that, unlike other vitamins, it can be stored by the body when we spend time in the sun.  But, your body has only a limited capacity to store vitamin D and the effects of sun exposure on vitamin D levels only last a week or two at most. So, sunbathing in the summer will not get you through the winter.  Darn! I was hoping that if I laid out in the sun for three weeks, as I plan to do on an upcoming vacation, I could store that away somewhere in my body and ration it out as I need it.  According to the article I was reading, that isn't going to happen.  How do you know if you get too much Vitamin D?  Vitamin D toxicity symptoms include poor appetite, nausea and vomiting and kidney problems.  I imagine it could be a toughie to diagnose. With the amount of Vitamin D that the woman was taking, it is highly unlikely that she will create  Vitamin D toxicity in her body.  As for me, I am still hoping that I can find a place in my body to store the sun's rays for more than a week or two.  I need a socket on my body to plug in some sort of device that can store an infinite amount of Vitamin D to last until my next vacation. The Vitamin D gets stored on the device and I program the device to allow a certain amount into my system as needed.  Something like a zip drive or a floppy disc.  Maybe would be better if it were a zip drive, since I already have enough of floppy things on me.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.