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Episode-2847- Judson Somerville MD on Vitamin D3 — 17 Comments

  1. This was probably one of the most informative and important podcasts you have ever produced. I started taking D3 after reading an article regarding its importance to fight Covid. You have now turned us onto the resources to get the real information needed to make good decisions. Thanks for the great work!

      • That’s the one I take too. I take 1 pill for every 10,000 IU of D. MK4 is better than MK7 IF you are going to be doing high dose D, because MK7 can sometimes cause heart racing.

        • Yes this is exactly what happened to my wife, it was Jeff Bowles’ book that I got that from, I am reading his follow up book now. I think I may try to get him on as a guest.

  2. Read Jack’s recommended books and started regularly taking D3 + K

    Took on a VERY stressful, multi month remodeling project in some pretty bad conditions (gutted unconditioned house, in the middle of the winter), poor food and very little sleep (4 “all nighters” in the last month).

    Did NOT get sick…or die. And I’m 50+.

    I credit the regimen.

    Seriously…check this stuff out.

  3. Hi Jack, I understand you can’t prescribe or recommend dosages but is my math correct here?

    If I take Vitamin D3 5000iu (125 mcg), based on the “The Optimal Dose,” I should be taking 6 pills a day?

    Along with that, I should, again, based on the book, look at taking Vitamin K2 (MK4) (100mcg) twice a day for a total of 200mcg?

    Also, should I start with 500mg of Magnesium? In the podcast, Dr. Somerville said 400, 800, 2000 but don’t say mg, mcg, iu.

    And yes, I did hear you on getting the blood tests. I’m going to do that, but I’m ordering the book, D3, and K2 now.

    BTW, my wife and I have been on the Zinc, Quercetin, and Green Tea Extract since you recommended it, and we’ve both been exposed to covid multiple times and haven’t gotten it. She’s a cashier, and I’m a driver. We both deal with the public, and I don’t wear a mask unless forced by a customer. Almost everyone in our family has had it (with little severity, by the way), including three people living with us at the time. We haven’t gotten it yet. Maybe a coincidence, I don’t know. Just thank you.

    That dude’s laugh is fantastic!

    • No I am not touching that!

      That said there is not a single word about K2 in Dr. Somerville’s book. It was done before the relationship was even understood.

      I will talk about what I take and why soon but if I didn’t know your name I would swear you were working for the fuckin FDA trolling me with that comment.

      My advice is get at least the first and second book on my list of three and make your own choices and DO TEST YOUR LEVELS.

    • Ha, I’ll side-step too.

      CYA statement: This is what I take, for my self, and NOT making any suggestions is…

      -Dr’s Best D3 5000iu: 6 per day (30,000iu total), early in the day along with…
      -Now Foods K2 Mk7 100mcg: 1 per day

      FWIW I like Dr’s Best D3 because they use extra virgin olive oil vs crappy veg oil used in most brands.

      As for Magnesium, it’s typically measured/dosed in milligrams (mg). I take Dr’s Best Magnesium Glycinate 100mg at night. Only taking 2/night. It is supposedly 6x more bioavailable than Mag Oxide, so if the marketing is to be believed, my dose is the equivalent of 1200mg of Mag Oxide.

      I’ve taken all of the above for several years, no complaints.

    • No one said it was “new”. Dr. Somerville’s book was published in 2018.

  4. So many brands of vitamins and supplements out there. I know you mentioned you would talk about what you take in the near future. Could you also touch base on what you look for in a quality supplement? Things you avoid? How do you select the brands you take? TIA

  5. Hey Jack,

    Do you have any references for historical / paleo / hunter gather vitamin D levels? is 100ng/ml a historically supported value that modern life is ruining or is this a a bio-hack were we are super saturating with vitamin D?

    Also the last sentence of the summary above is vague and depending on how it is read can be miss-leading (based on the audio) [edits] added below.

    The blood levels he has for years recommend as being optimal, 100-140 ng/ml, were not that long ago [levels above 100 ng/ml] were listed on lab results as possibly toxic. Turns out that it is much more complex and [vitamin D’s blood toxicity level is ]three times higher 300-400 ng/ml.

    • No idea what paleo level were but they were likely higher over all.

      As to what is toxic being listed as toxic does not mean a thing is toxic. No one has ever had a toxic reaction to even 200 or more.

  6. Hi Jack,

    I loved this podcast. I started looking into vitamin d earlier this year after hearing you talk about it. I’m curious though about the testing – after reading more on vitamin d it seems like there’s two different qualities of testing. For example, I ordered a standard lab test through my primary doctor, and my results were 49, which I thought was pretty great for not having supplemented at all yet. Then, I got the blood test recommended by Dr stasha gominak (https://drgominak.com/faq/) at Ultalabs https://www.ultawellness.com/shop/items/item/cardio-iq-vitamin-d-25-hydroxy-lc-ms-ms?q=Mg%3D%3D
    . This was after two months of supplementing with 7000 IUs, and my results were 31…. Significantly lower. So when dr judson says we should be aiming for a blood level of 140, I’m curious which type of testing he’s using. Dr gominak’s site recommends levels between 60-80ng/ml, using the more conservative testing. The explanation from Dr gominak’s site: “The laboratory testing companies have made D testing machines that are cheaper and easier for the labs to use. Unfortunately the results are not accurate above a vitamin D level of 40ng/ml. (They usually read 10-20 points higher than the accurate LC/MS test .) In order to have accurate D blood level results, once your level is above 40 ng/ml, you must be able to have your D tested using a large, expensive machine called a LightChromatograph, Mass Spectrometer = LC/MS.”