How To Increase Your Vitamin D Naturally
How I got my vitamin D to 120ng/dl and how you can improve your vitamin D status too. Several weeks back, I underwent a comprehensive blood test in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. A unique process that I undertake annually to ensure my health is in order. My Vitamin D was 120ng/dl.
I do a comprehensive blood test once per year just to ensure everything is in order, which it was... practicing what I preach is critical and why many clients align with me.
I generally aim to get my clients to do this yearly. For some, it can be twice a year. Unlike some functional medicine tests, blood tests don't lie. That said, blood tests don't go below the surface—the cell and the metabolism view—although they can leave clues. There is a sweet spot in using comprehensive blood tests and functional medicine tests like the Nutreval Metabolomics test, genetics, or the Dutch test (which looks primarily at estrogen and testosterone metabolism) with cortisol/melatonin and other markers. I rarely use stool tests clinically. I have found them seldom to be decisive or only used to confirm a parasite infection.
The test cost me $140. It is a simple setup. In the clinic, there is a walk-in menu. You pay, they call you for the blood draw, and then email results 4 -24 hours later. There is nothing like this in the UK or the US. It operates freely from your doctor's order, which allows you to have more control in knowing what is going on with your body before health issues start appearing down the line.
It's important to note that ordering a private vitamin D test in the UK (Link to the test HERE) or in the US is a simple process, putting the power of your health in your hands.
I got my vitamin D test back, and to my surprise, it was 120 ng/dl. This is 300m/mmol—through the roof.
The last time I checked, it was around 80-ng/dl, slightly over a year ago.
Why is my vitamin D in the top 99%?
I have been making a massive effort with the sun for the last 8 years, and perhaps in the last 2 years even more.
I have not used sun cream or protection products on my skin since maybe 10 years ago.
Instead, I have used common sense—sought clothing, hat, shade, or going indoors at peak times.
I have consistently and gradually increased my solar exposure in the AM and PM to handle more UV light, building my solar callus.
I have moved and lived close to the equator—Nicaragua is at the 11th latitude.
I have white skin naturally.
I have NOT used any vitamin D supplement in more than 10 years.
I have a red light therapy device at my disposal.
I have a super nutrient-dense diet—loaded with zinc, magnesium, cysteine + methionine + saturated fat.
I have age on my side at 37 years old—not too old, but not too young.
I have no diseases, nor do I take medications, alcohol or drugs—signs of good health.
My mitochondria work well, which means I make sufficient ATP and deuterium-depleted water inside my cells to make vitamin D.
These factors have allowed me to achieve this naturally obtained vitamin D level.
The biggest one is that it is healthy to make vitamin D naturally.
Is this you? Scratching your head, going away on holiday, or spending all summer outside, but your vitamin D levels didn't move? This happens routinely in my clients. Example below.
Also, you need an optimal environment—free of pollution and nnEMF (radiation)—think Dubai, which alters your skin and sun interaction.
You need skin in the game—wear fewer clothes and have fewer tan lines. Even the locals in Nicaragua have tan lines from shorts and shirts. They don't even like to take their clothes off. I am the only one with my shirt off, walking around at 7am with Aisha.
A vitamin D supplement does not equate or replace your body's thirst for sunlight.
This is a standard error and flaw of our centralized black-and-white science world. Vitamin D from a pill does not equate to vitamin D made in your body from the sun.
The sun is MORE than just vitamin D.
Sunlight is a gift.
— Dr Sam Soete (@sam_soete) July 4, 2024
UVB = Vitamin D
UVB = Testosterone
UVB = Melanin
UVB = β-Endorphins
UVB = Analgesic
UVB = Leptin Sensitivity
UVB = Weight-Loss
UVB = Anti-Viral & Anti-Bacterial
UVA = Nitric Oxide = Blood Pressure Regulation
IRA = Melatonin Production
IRA =… https://t.co/iwPMb5snZm
Why does 90% of the population have low vitamin D?
It goes something like this… (sound familiar)
Let's recommend a naturally low vitamin D enriched diet because of cholesterol or saturated fat—eggs, butter, full-fat dairy, meat—because of cholesterol concerns and heart disease. Though there is more meat on the bone—discussed in this article that I wrote HERE.
Let's tell people the sun is dangerous without context—they must apply sun cream and cover up, wear sunglasses and stay inside.
Make people weak, fragile, can't sleep, and easy prey to sell things to…
Let's fearmonger people when it gets hot with a heatwave warning and red alerts, even though a few years ago, it was the same.
Perhaps it's due to "urban heat islands," the effect of more urbanization, or the fact that most statistical temperature measuring sites are at major airports worldwide, which run hotter and distort the true temperature in real areas we live in.
The real issue is not the sun or the need for more vitamin D supplements. It's about understanding and taking responsibility for our health, making time for the sun and nature, and reducing the need for frequent doctor visits and prescriptions.
Lack of time in the sun and nature means more visits and time in your docctor's office with prescriptions.
It is far easier to take a vitamin D supplement, thinking you're doing the right thing, when in fact, your good intentions backfire with a lack of skin in the game.
A false belief that a pill makes up for skin in the game and that you can continue with your indoor existence.
To make vitamin D naturally, you must acquire the instructions and recipe from sunlight on the full spectrum.
Too many focus on the 1-2% of the sun hitting the earth—UVB, but there's way more...
Sunlight with UVB exposure alone is more effective in raising your vitamin D than daily vitamin D supplementation.
Learn. Unlearn. Relearn.
— Prof. Feynman (@ProfFeynman) December 25, 2023
Learn: You need to wear suncream. Solar exposure = cancer. I am vitamin D deficient. Take a supplement.
Unlearn: The sun is terrible. Vitamin D pill is better and safer.
Relearn: The sun is the premise of life, food, and metabolism. It's our lack of understanding of the sun that is the problem.
Vitamin D is created on your skin when UVB penetrates it. But when UVB is out, there is a cocktail of light with it.
Most UVB-caused skin cancer studies use isolated UVB from a lab in artificial conditions, which means no full-spectrum sunlight.
Our bodies need to get primed for UVB just like you would warm up for a football game, a heavy squat, or a deadlift.
The various wavelengths and colors of light also work together to regulate your skin and lipid/water networks and prime them for vitamin D action. That's why using a red light therapy device can help.
We need to avoid thinking, "I got sun today, so I made vitamin D." Making vitamin D is not an automatic process; its rate of synthesis can be highly variable based on your health. Check the study below with factors.
Infrared light, as well as UVA light, makes nature's natural sunblock, creating unique photosynthetic compounds such as histamine, which creates filaggrin and melanin.
The near-infrared and red light spectrum is the type of light that most people are deficient in.
— Live Vitae 🌞💧🧲 (@livevitaeuk) September 4, 2024
The irony is - we don't measure it and only recognize the significance of measuring vitamin D.
It has been shown that priming your body with red light and near-infrared light - which is found in the morning and afternoon or from a red light device like EMR TEK - builds structure water (coherent water, exclusion zone water) networks that allow our mitochondria to make melatonin that helps protect from the UV light + improve mitochondria metabolism/health with antioxidant effects + be able to convert solar energy into electrical energy via the photoelectric effect explained by Einstein. This allows us to handle more stress and damage (from UV light) in a healthy way, like going to the gym, but it also makes vitamin D in our skin.
Alexander Wunch has shown that Near-infrared and red light protects the skin and allows us to make the unique water to hold the more intense energetic charge from the sun. It also improves our skin health by providing more radiant skin.
In an animal study of hairless mice, pretreatment of red light improved the skin's tolerance to UV light.
"A synergy of UV and post-treatment with red light in reducing the transcription levels of CD11b (p < 0.05) and inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) (p < 0.05) was observed. Conclusions: This is an initial observation that in mouse red light, LLLT more often than not causes opposite gene expression changes or reduces those caused by moderate UVA-UVB irradiation."
It has been shown that the time you eat or when eating abnormally, such as late at night when you should be sleeping, can also induce sun damage.
Eating late at night can impair your ability to deal with high UV-radiation.
— Dr Sam Soete (@sam_soete) August 8, 2024
This goes to show how everything in the body operates in synchrony, and when you have poor circadian health it will have a ripple effect on all aspects of your physiology.
"When mice were fed in the… pic.twitter.com/Ocov3VzMAI
Wrapping it up:
Building your vitamin D levels and solar health starts with many factors. Optimizing your diet and lifestyle with your "light diet" and circadian rhythm is critical.
Many people living in higher latitudes without UVB exposure should automatically take vitamin D supplements. I disagree with this due to its natural phenomenon of being absent—maybe there's a reason behind this and that if we take 365-day doses of vitamin D, it might backfire.
Instead, I would support the idea of prioritizing vitamin D-rich foods, such as egg yolks, fish, liver, and even dairy products like milk. If you have tested your vitamin D levels at the end of the summer and they are low, then think about cod liver oil, which is our ancestors' method of a vitamin D pill. But only if you are low and it's clinically justifiable in situations.
"Vitamin D is directly modulated by the photoelectric effect of UVB light, which is a foundational law of nature and quantum mechanics."
It's too easy to blame it on something we know little about and take on big pharma or the media agenda with it being dangerous.
Once we know better, we will be able to do better.
Start with yourself first. Actions speak louder than words, so when your friends, partner, and family see you with glowing skin and radiant energy, they see you've been outside with more skin in the game. You measured your vitamin D at the start of winter, and it was 30/dl, and now it's 60 ng/dl. They will follow and take action.
Remember, there is no need to expose ourselves recklessly to sunlight. We should always respect our natural instincts when we feel hot or follow wild animals that expose themselves very little to midday sun. They know. Unfortunately, we did know but unlearned it due to fear, and you are relearning it now.
References:
Bogh, M.K.B., Gullstrand, J., Svensson, A., Ljunggren, B. and Dorkhan, M. (2012). Narrowband ultraviolet B three times per week is more effective in treating vitamin D deficiency than 1600 IU oral vitamin D3 per day: a randomized clinical trial. British Journal of Dermatology, 167(3), pp.625–630. doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2133.2012.11069.x.
Giménez, M.C., Luxwolda, M., Van Stipriaan, E.G., Bollen, P.P., Hoekman, R.L., Koopmans, M.A., Arany, P.R., Krames, M.R., Berends, A.C., Hut, R.A. and Gordijn, M.C.M. (2022). Effects of Near-Infrared Light on Well-Being and Health in Human Subjects with Mild Sleep-Related Complaints: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Study. Biology, 12(1), p.60. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/biology12010060.
Heiskanen, V., Pfiffner, M. and Partonen, T. (2020). Sunlight and health: shifting the focus from vitamin D3 to photobiomodulation by red and near-infrared light. Ageing Research Reviews, [online] 61, p.101089. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2020.101089.
John Nash Ott (1973). Health and Light. Devin-Adair Publishers.
Myakishev-Rempel, M., Stadler, I., Polesskaya, O., Motiwala, A.S., Nardia, F.B., Mintz, B., Baranova, A., Zavislan, J. and Lanzafame, R.J. (2015). Red Light Modulates Ultraviolet-Induced Gene Expression in the Epidermis of Hairless Mice. Photomedicine and Laser Surgery, 33(10), pp.498–503. doi:https://doi.org/10.1089/pho.2015.3916.
Neville, J.J., Palmieri, T. and Young, A.R. (2021). Physical Determinants of Vitamin D Photosynthesis: A Review. JBMR Plus, 5(1). doi:https://doi.org/10.1002/jbm4.10460.
Sorenson, M.B. (2018). Embrace the sun. St. George, Ut: Dimension Design & Print.
Wunsch, A. and Matuschka, K. (2014). A controlled trial to determine the efficacy of red and near-infrared light treatment in patient satisfaction, reduction of fine lines, wrinkles, skin roughness, and intradermal collagen density increase. Photomedicine and Laser Surgery, [online] 32(2), pp.93–100. doi:https://doi.org/10.1089/pho.2013.3616.