Why I stopped using vitamin D supplements

Firstly, the sun and vitamin D are not the same thing. Not even close. Sun exposure to the skin and the eyes, not just vitamin D, is protective against many things like heart disease, cancer, hypertension, and bone fractures.

Second, seeing a correlation between an illness and low blood serum vitamin D levels and then prescribing a vitamin D supplement to increase the blood markers of vitamin D is a very reductionistic way of viewing the body. One that I’ve been actively trying to move away from. I like to take a big picture approach and ask questions related to why might this be happening in the body?

Low vitamin D levels are likely a result of not enough sun exposure. But are there other factors? Other causes for low Vitamin D levels? What else do we gain from the sun? When do we get the most Vitamin D from the sun? Does the person matter? Ie gender, race, age, lifestyle like dietary choices, sleep habits, screen habits, etc.

Asking these types of questions, doing research and just observing my own experience and what I’ve seen working with thousands of people over the past 13 years is a big part of my work as a holistic health professional.

I spent most of my life as many do, afraid of the sun. Constantly told to stay out of the sun, wear your hat, wear your sunglasses, WEAR YOUR SUNBLOCK or you’ll burn, get skin cancer, and die. Oh and the wrinkles too, some people like to use that as their motivation for avoiding the sun. That didn’t concern me as a young person, burning and skin cancer did however.

But I started to question this advice a few years back and have since had a shift with my relationship with the sun; reducing my application of sunblock and switching to safer mineral type versions once I learned of all the toxic ingredients in common sunblocks. I was especially worried about the aluminum, the nano particles and the effects of those things on my health and the life in the ocean! I started to see more research that actually showed skin cancer rates were going up in step with the use of sunblock! This did not make any sense to me… Then I found Stephanie Seneff and her work on glyphosate, and Gerald Pollack and his work on 4^th phase, h3o2 structured water. These two rabbit holes have drastically shifted my understanding of health and disease in general but also my view on sun exposure and vitamin D.

It was a lecture from Stephanie Seneff where I first learned that Vitamin D isn’t even a vitamin, it’s a hormone. Specifically, a signaling hormone that you’ve been under the sun. I began to wonder what taking a signalling hormone that you’ve been in the sun when you haven’t might do to the body…this may be confusing to the body and have unintended consequences, like artificial sweeteners do on your insulin response and satiety. I also learned that “vitamin” D has to be activated by the Cyp450 enzymes in the liver to actually work. What if you are unable to do this and this is why your vitamin D levels are low?? So taking more via a supplement may just lead to toxicity of inactivated vit D or very likely a deficiency in vitamin A (this is not good).

And how do we get the D to the liver from the skin in the first place? It has to be sulfated, meaning it has to be bound to a sulfate molecule (sulfur is a mineral) so it can then be transported around the body to the liver (the liver benefits from the sulfate too btw). So are the people measuring vitamin D serum levels and recommending/taking D supplements aware of their sulfate levels? Or their cholesterol-sulfate levels? I doubt it; as no one is talking about the importance of sulfate in general let alone as it relates to vitamin D or the importance of cholesterol-sulfate (doctors are STILL prescribing cholesterol lowering medications!!).

What if their sulfur metabolism and/or sulfation pathways are messed up leading to a sulfate deficiency? this then can lead to a vitamin d-sulfate AND a cholesterol-sulfate deficiency (as well as many, many other problems, stay tuned for blogs on sulfate). And did you know a systemic sulfate deficiency in the presence of excess vitamin D supplementation will actually drive calcium into the arteries and away from the bones!?

I could be wrong but I don’t think the benefits outweigh the risks for supplemental “Vitamin” D. If you still want to take the vitamin D supplements, I would encourage you to at least take a bioavailable, non synthetic form, take it with K2 and magnesium, and optimize your sulfur metabolism and sulfation pathways. Eating an organic diet will be key here to fix the sulfur issues (I’m also working on a protocol to fix sulfur metabolism!).

So what do I do personally for my vitamin D? I optimize my sleep to support my liver, skin and the production of all the molecules involved in supporting and using vitamin D. I am actively getting outside as soon as I wake up for at least 3 minutes, usually 10 minutes (as close to sunrise as possible). I face the East and expose my bare eyes and as much skin as possible to the natural morning light (the pineal gland makes sulfate and melatonin in response to morning sunlight through the eyes). The 90 minutes of sunlight before sundown is also beneficial. I go for at least one walk a day, it’s usually around 10 or 11am so I will get lots of UV. I wear a hat and use coconut oil on my face and neck. If the UV is really high and I’m out for awhile I’ll seek shelter, wear longer clothing and maybe use my mineral based sunblock (although I haven’t had to use any in a year and a half!). I stopped wearing sunglasses 2 or 3 years ago and this has definitely helped my sensitivity to light and has reduced the frequency and intensity of skin burns from the sun. I also eat a mostly organic diet to avoid as much glyphosate as I can. Glyphosate makes the sun more toxic as it reduces our ability to withstand that stress; it depletes B12, it depletes melanin which is needed to tan (a natural protection from the stress of UV rays), glyphosate ruins our sulfate supplies needed to transport the D from our skin to the liver and glyphosate wrecks our cyp450 enzymes needed to activate the  vitamin D in the liver. I also eat food high in natural vitamin D and cholesterol like organic pastured lard, organic free range eggs, wild salmon, and raw organic cheese (limited choices here in Canada ☹ ).

My opinions and behaviors change as I see new information and understand things in different ways. Always learning with an open mind is my motto.

It’s okay to change your opinion. It’s okay to be wrong.
It’s okay to be right.
It’s okay to keep asking questions.
It’s okay that we choose different things for our bodies. We are different people with different needs and goals after all 😉👍

Thanks for reading 🙏