Vitamin D is

called the sunshine vitamin because the body produces it

through sun exposure. But about 3 out of 4 Americans arent
getting all the vitamin D they need. (Photo by Vladimir Serov/Blend
Images/Corbis)
How much vitamin D should you take? Our current guidelines suggest
identical amounts for 1-year-old kids all the way to 70-year-old adults. But
new research has disproved this one-size-fits-all dosage, suggesting we
consider one factor over all others your weight.
First, a little background
There are two different vitamin D dosage recommendations floating around
out there. The official Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) from the

Institute of Medicine does not account for body size suggesting that folks
of varying heights and weights consume an identical dose. TheEndocrine
Society, on the other hand, recommends that obese adults take two to three
times more vitamin D in order to meet their bodys needs.
This week, Canadian researchers published the first large study to confirm
the Endocrine Societys recommendations for obese individuals. The study
also adds that overweight people need extra vitamin D as well.
Low vitamin D levels are linked to a higher risk of developing high blood
pressure, diabetes, stroke, and of dying from cancer and heart disease. The
vitamin also helps the body absorb calcium, a mineral that keeps your bones
strong.
Why your weight matters when you take vitamin D
Vitamin D is most useful to the body when its in the bloodstream. Thats
why experts use a serum vitamin D blood test to assess whether a person is
deficient in the vitamin. But vitamin D is also fat soluble, meaning that its
absorbed by body fat.
So if you have a large body with lots of body fat, then thats where the
vitamin D goes, said study author Paul J. Veugelers, director of the
Population Health Intervention Research Unit at the University of Alberta in
Canada.
Body fat cells absorb vitamin D quickly, removing it from the blood,
Veugelers told Yahoo Health. When that happens, the vitamin isnt available
for the metabolic processes that use it. In order to reach a healthy blood
level of vitamin D, therefore, an obese person needs to supplement with
more vitamin D than a normal-weight person.
Landmark study questions current guidelines
Scientists knew about the relationship between body size and vitamin D, but

no study had clearly established exactly how much more vitamin D obese
people need to take. Veugelers and his colleagues were finally able to answer
this question by using data from a nonprofit health promotion campaign
operating in the Canadian province of Alberta.
Related: Supplements: How to Cut Through the Nonsense
Because Alberta is so far north, many of its residents are at risk for vitamin
D deficiency due to a lack of sun exposure, and the campaign made vitamin
D supplementation one of its key messages. Participants in the program had
their height and weight measured, and reported how much vitamin D they
took daily. They also had their blood drawn and tested for vitamin D levels.
The University of Alberta team crunched the data more than 22,200
samples from about 17,600 volunteers to try to understand how
supplements impact blood levels.
On average, obese and overweight subjects had lower serum vitamin D levels
than normal-weight individuals, and they had lower blood concentrations at
any given amount of supplementation.

Blood concentrations of vitamin D depend on the amount

supplemented per day and weight status.(Graph: PLoS One 2014
Nov 5;9(11):e111265)
The researchers also calculated how much vitamin D people would need to
take in order to reach a blood serum level of 100 nmol/L. (Less than 30 is
generally considered deficient, although some experts say deficiency occurs
below 50.) On average, normal-weight adults would reach that benchmark
with about 2,000 IU (international units) daily the amount in many overthe-counter D supplements. Overweight people would need 3,000 IU, and
obese people would need about 5,500 IU. The findings led the research team
to conclude that overweight individuals should take 1.5 times the dose of

normal-weight people and that obese individuals should double or triple

their dose.
"The suspicion that there is this difference has always been there," Veugelers
said. "The Institute of Medicine guidelines that give the same
recommendation for 1-year-old kids all the way to 70-year-old adults, theres
not really a good logic behind it. People have always suspected that was not
right."
Veugelers research also showed that taking too much vitamin D through
supplements isnt much of a concern. The body tends to self-regulate
vitamin D, with high levels of supplementation having only a small impact
on blood concentrations, the results showed. And of the many people in the
study who took high doses of vitamin D, including 69 people who took over
20,000 IU per day (more than 30 times the RDA of 600 IU per day), none
experienced health problems that can be associated with extremely high
vitamin D levels.
How much vitamin D should you take?
Almost everyone could benefit from taking a vitamin D supplement, says
nutritional medicine expert Dr. Joel Fuhrman, author of The End of
Dieting. Less than one quarter of U.S. teens and adults get enough vitamin
D, according to a study in JAMA Internal Medicine. Andresearch published
earlier this year in the journal BMJ found that people with low vitamin D
levels had a higher risk of death during the study, including a 35 percent
greater risk of dying from heart disease. The same study found that people
who took vitamin D3 (the type produced naturally by the body) had an 11
percent lower risk of mortality.
"We have an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency in the U.S.," Fuhrman told
Yahoo Health. Its not realistic for people to meet their needs through diet,
he said, because most foods dont have significant amounts of naturally
occurring vitamin D. Sunlight is the best way to get vitamin D, Fuhrman

added, but its difficult to get the daily sun-to-skin exposure necessary nor
do many of us want to, as it increases our risk of skin cancer. "For most of us
in America who wear clothing and work indoors, we have to rely on vitamin
supplements to get additional vitamin D," he said.
Related: 10 Biggest Nutrition Myths
Veugelers stopped short of giving specific IU recommendations by weight
status. For one, he explained, experts disagree on what blood concentrations
are considered optimal. In addition, individual vitamin D supplementation
needs will vary depending on your lifestyle, your health, and how much sun
exposure you receive.
In general, Fuhrman recommends that adults take 1,500 to 2,000 IU of
vitamin D3 daily. Its also a good idea to ask your doctor for a blood test to
check your levels, he says. If youre deficient, some doctors will recommend
taking a weekly megadose to correct the problem quickly, but Fuhrman
advised against this strategy. Instead, he said, try increasing your dose by
1,000 to 2,000 IU and then have another test so that you can determine how
much you should take long-term.