 Hey this is Dr. Gundry. The three things you should know about vitamin D that will surprise you. Number one, the vast majority of people, even in sunny climates, don't get enough vitamin D. In fact studies in Southern California showed that 80% of Southern Californians were deficient in vitamin D. 80% Southern Californians right here. Why is that in Southern California? You might ask because we're all addicted to sunscreens quite frankly and we'll talk about getting rid of sunscreens in just a minute. In Brooklyn, New York, 84% of people were vitamin D deficient. That means they were below the threshold that the federal government recommends as vitamin D levels. Now the vitamin D deficiency is actually less than 30 nanograms per milliliter. In my practice my bare minimum for vitamin D levels is 80 nanograms per milliliter. So they're way way off. Now why is it impossible to get enough vitamin D in our food? First of all most foods don't have a lot of vitamin D. Interestingly enough mushrooms are the highest source of vitamin D. And as I've talked about in previous YouTube videos you can't get enough mushrooms into your diet. Now how do you get vitamin D? Well sun exposure is the easy way. Believe it or not I grew up at a time when there was no such thing as sunscreen. And like in places that still do not use sunscreen we basically build up a callus of sun exposure by slowly introducing sun in the middle of the day for 15 minutes. And quite frankly my mother and father would send us out, kind of set a timer in our swimsuits in the backyard or at the pool and expose us for like 15 minutes a day at the top of the sun. Then we'd cover up or we'd go back inside and each day we'd get out longer and longer. And many cultures that do not use sunscreen still use this traditional practice. Now there's a professor at Boston University, Dr. Hollick, who's really one of the fathers of vitamin D. And he became infamous as a dermatologist for recommending that people get full sun exposure and to ditch the sunscreen. Now he was way ahead of his time and it turns out that sun exposure is really one of the most important ways to make vitamin D. And that cultures that do get sun exposure, interestingly enough, live a very long time. Here's a fun fact that most people don't put together. All five of the blue zones, those areas of the world that Dan Buckner described in the Blue Zone books, all of those are in high sun exposure areas, including where I practice for most of my life, Loma Linda California, the only blue zone in the United States. All the other blue zones are in very similar latitudes. Okinawa, Japan, the Costa Rica, Sardinia, and Greece. All of these are in sun exposed latitudes. And that ought to tell you something. In fact, the French government believes that the idea that the grape growing regions of France correlate with good health also explains where olive trees can grow and olive trees follow the sun. And most olive trees can't grow above a particular parallel. So if you've got olive trees growing, you're in the right place to get sun exposure. Now it's very hard to overdo vitamin D. Studies at the University of California, San Diego, another center that's dedicated to studying vitamin D, have shown that the average American, get this, the average American, to have adequate vitamin D levels to prevent cancer and to improve longevity should have 9,600 international units a day. That's 10,000 international units a day to improve and maximize your health. That's a whole lot higher than most people take. I personally take 10,000 international units a day. If you're at all worried, take 5,000 international units a day. Now some of the labels are now changing. That 5,000 international units is 125 micrograms. 10,000 international units is 250 micrograms. So if you're into micrograms, that's what you're looking for. The University of California, San Diego has never seen vitamin D toxicity up to a level of 40,000 international units a day. Never seen it. Have I ever seen vitamin D toxicity? No. I've been measuring vitamin D levels sequentially every three to six months in all my patients for 25 years now and I've never seen vitamin D toxicity. Can it exist? I have a few women, as they up their vitamin D, they notice that they have more skipped heartbeats and when they lower their vitamin D, they notice that those skipped heartbeats go away. But out of 10,000 people, two women, to tell me that it's very, very unusual. How do you know you're getting enough vitamin D? You've got to have your vitamin D level measured. Ask your doctor to measure it and then please don't take their advice that you're vitamin D toxic. Let me give you a recent example. I have a woman who had very severe rheumatoid arthritis, was on two drug immunosuppressive therapy, was doing very poorly. We started on the plant paradox program. I put her up to 20,000 international units of vitamin D a day. Following that program, her vitamin D level went from about 22 to 160. I was delighted with that level. She had no evidence of vitamin D toxicity and the good news is we weaned her off her two immunosuppressant drugs and her marker for rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatoid factor, fell to normal. She was delighted. I was delighted. She went like this for two years. She visited her rheumatologist to tell her how well she was doing. Her rheumatologist saw her vitamin D level of 160 and told her she was vitamin D toxic and to stop the vitamin D. I saw her last week. She was complaining of joint pain. Her blood work showed that her vitamin D level was 52, which to me is woefully inadequate, and her rheumatoid factor had gone from zero to 36, which is very positive. That's a classic example of a well-meaning practitioner not knowing the effect of vitamin D in preventing leaky gut, in sealing leaky gut, and in helping reverse rheumatoid arthritis. Needless to say, she's back on 20,000 international units a day and we'll be happy to report what happens in three months. Vitamin D is the powerhouse for supporting your body's immune system, not vitamin C. It turns out that leaky gut occurs in a great number of us and we have stem cells in the wall of our gut to fill in the gaps of our leaky gut that happens when, for instance, we eat legged and containing foods. But interestingly enough, vitamin D is essential to tell these stem cells to grow into place and seal these leaks. Without vitamin D, they just sit there and twiddle their thumbs. Vitamin D is very essential. The other interesting thing is if you look at longevity, people who have the highest vitamin D levels live the longest, just like the Blue Zones. Now, again, if you get a blood test, I want your vitamin D level above 80 and please do not be afraid when somebody tells you you're vitamin D toxic. It just doesn't exist. I found in my practice that the gel capsules of vitamin D work the best. There are sublingual tablets that also work. I found interestingly that the drops are the least effective and I think that's because it's very hard to measure those drops and put them under your tongue. Some of my least effective vitamin D taking patients are the drop patients. Get the gel capsules. They're cheap and they're easy to take. They're tiny. Finally, if you're taking more than 5,000 international units of vitamin D, please supplement with vitamin K2. Not K1, K2. 100 micrograms or more will do the trick. Vitamin K2 actually helps take calcium assisted by vitamin D and put it in your bones. There's some very interesting human studies that show vitamin K2 takes calcium out of blood vessels. It's a win-win. Vitamin D and vitamin K2, there's a number of companies now are making a supplement with vitamin D and K2. That's why vitamin D is really, really important to get. If you're going to spend the money for one supplement, it's vitamin D. Number 2, please do not be afraid of the sun. Number 3, sunscreens contain hormone disrupting chemicals that have been now shown to enter our body and disrupt our hormones. They're estrogen disruptors. Please don't use it on yourself. Don't use it on your kids. If you're going to use a sunscreen, get a zinc based or titanium based sunscreen that blocks sun rays rather than absorbing them and you'll be perfectly safe. I don't use sunscreen. I haven't used it for 20 years and don't plan on using it anytime soon. All right, that's it for today. Thanks for tuning in because I'm Dr. Gundry and I'm always looking out for you and your vitamin D level. If you found this video helpful, I think you're going to love this one. Be vitamins in general. Bother women's stomach much more than they bother men. So if you're taking a multibee, it's probably best to eat it with food.