Just One Mega-Dose of 200,000 IU of Vitamin D3 Noticeably Reduces Skin Damage After Sunburn!

Although NHS suggests that adults and children over the age of one should have a ridiculously tiny dose of only 10mcg (400IU) of vitamin D every day, experts and research repeatedly confirm much higher daily doses are needed to prevent various health problems, and it looks like often mega-doses are required to reverse problems associated with vitamin D deficiency.

A new study published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology shows that just one very high dose of 200,000 IU of vitamin D3 ingested one hour after sunburn was able to noticeably decrease skin damage, redness, swelling, and inflammation. Lower doses of the same vitamin didn’t make a difference.

Dr Jeffrey Scott, a dermatologist specializing in skin cancer at the University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center in Ohio, wanted to know if a very high, one-time oral dose of vitamin D3 could reduce the effects of sunburn in human participants. In the experiment, healthy adults received either a 50,000 IU, 100,000 IU or 200,000 IU dose of vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) one hour after a sunburn was induced on one of their arms by the ultraviolet (UVB) radiation. Of all the participants only the subjects who received the highest single dose of 200,000 IU of vitamin D experienced a visible reduction of redness, and damage.

Though in the study, no participants showed any side effects yet such very large doses are not recommended as regular overdosing of vitamin D3 may over time lead to vitamin D toxicity which may occur when blood levels rise above 150 ng/ml (375 nmol/l). Because the vitamin is stored in body fat and released into the bloodstream slowly, the effects of toxicity may last for several months after you stop taking supplements. However, vitamin D toxicity is very rare and occurs exclusively in people who take long-term, very high-dose vitamin D supplements without monitoring blood levels. Some experts maintain it is actually very hard to overdose vitamin D. There are cases of individuals who have taken more than even a million units per day by accident for several months and while they had signs of toxicity, it was reversible.

I personally take 10,000 IU a day between October and April and 5,000IU during summer time, as there’s no chance of getting enough UV-B rays here in England. Only when I feel I got infected with a cold or flu virus I immediately take mega-doses of vitamin D3 (50-100,000) two times a day with 100mg of zinc citrate after meal and 800mg of magnesium citrate (3 times a day) for 2 or 3 days. It always works like a miracle as every time I do it the symptoms completely disappear after only one or not more than two days although normally it always took me about two weeks to fully recover due to my naturally weaker immunity.

While supplementing vitamin D3 I always make sure I take about 200 to 400 mg of good quality magnesium citrate (high in elemental magnesium). I remember about this very important principle because when long time ago I started supplementing vitamin D without magnesium after a month or so I developed deficiency of this mineral (as vitamin D uses it in the body for its conversion) and as a result I started waking up very early and slept only few hours every night.

Unfortunately, the recommended by UK and US authorities daily doses of vitamin D (400IU) are ridiculously inadequate. According to the Vitamin D Council’s standards, research has found that children require 1,000 IU per 25 pounds of body weight and adults require 5,000 IU vitamin D per day to reach optimal vitamin D levels (40-60 ng/ml; 100-150 nmol/l).

WARNING

Recently I have read an article about a lady (aged 86) who was prescribed by his physician 40,000 IU of vitamin D3, which dose was supposed to be taken once a month, but by a mistake she was taking it every day. As a result, she died, having suffered gastrointestinal bleeding caused by high calcium levels in her blood (hypercalcaemia). The problem, however, is we don’t know all the details behind that tragedy in order to know what really contributed to her the death. It is impossible vitamin D alone, under normal conditions, could lead to death as there were many studies that demonstrated even extremely high mega doses of this vitamin taken for more than 6 months resulted in some level of toxicity but ware not lethal. I can only assume that the person who died suffered from some underlying serious health problems, was on medication, and probably was taking calcium supplement (as she was diagnosed with osteoporosis) or consumed dairy products (high in calcium) on a regular basis. As a result mega doses of vitamin D accumulated too much calcium and caused calcification which together with underlying health problems resulted in bleeding and death. Another problem is that physicians should always prescribe Vitamin D with vitamin K2 (50mcg per every 1000 IU of vitamin D) to prevent vitamin D from leading to calcification of different organs and from accumulating calcium in the blood, colon, kidneys, brain, arteries, etc. Unfortunately only few of them know about the role of vitamin K2 in preventing calcification and therefore prescribe vitamin D (often with calcium) without K2.

Taking 5000 IU of vitamin D3 per day is perfectly safe and never caused any problems. It should be taken with magnesium (without which it can’t be converted in the body) and with Vitamin K2 (MK7 – 50mcg per every 1000IU of D3)  to prevent Vitamin D from leading to calcification.

RELATED ARTICLES

Read more fascinating facts about VITAMIN D >

Another excellent source of information on Vitamin D: http://www.vitamindcouncil.org

Read about SKIN CANCER >

REFERENCES

– Jeffrey F. Scott, Lopa M. Das, Sayeeda Ahsanuddin, Yuqi Qiu, Amy M. Binko, Zachary P. Traylor, Sara M. Debanne, Kevin D. Cooper, Rebecca Boxer, Kurt Q. Lu. Oral vitamin D rapidly attenuates inflammation from sunburn: an interventional study. Journal of Investigative Dermatology, 2017; DOI: 10.1016/j.jid.2017.04.040

– https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28576736

– https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170706125020.htm