Chiropractor & Functional Medicine Headquarters
Dr. Steve Alukonis DC, DABCO
CONTACT US:
Melbourne Office
401 N Wickham Road Suite U
Why is Vitamin D so important?
You always seem to hear in the news that there's some new vitamin to consider or new deficiency to consider, but when it comes to Hashimoto's thyroiditis or autoimmune thyroid - it's very important that patients are taking Vitamin D to help their immune system.
Modern diets are lacking in Vitamin D rich foods. What are Vitamin D rich foods? Liver (to be honest with you, I can't stand liver), organ meats, lard, many forms of seafood, butter and egg yolks.(Remember what i said about eating protein for breakfast and how important it is in your blood glucose level?)
Sunlight is another important factor and source of Vitamin D. BUT, you should NEVER take Vitamin D without having your Vitamin D levels tested, specifically , 25 OHD and 125 OHD. Most M.D.'s will only test 25 ohd but it is very important to have both levels tested. This way, you are eliminating the gues work. You could be low in Vitamin D or on the low side of normal; either finding would constitute a different recommended dosage.
Why is Vitamin D so important? Vitamin D deficiency is associated with many, many autoimmune conditions including Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Frankly, autoimmune rates have been skyrocketing in the past 20 years, which correlates with decreased levels of Vitamin D in the general population.
Adequate Vitamin D levels help to keep the immune system in balance so it doesn't swing out of control into an autoimmune disease. When it comes to Hashimoto's thyroiditis, the problems with Vitamin D deficiency are made worse by genetics. There are studies that show that more than 90 percent of the people with an autoimmune thyroid or Hashimoto's have a genetic defect affecting their ability to process Vitamin D.
Therefore many people, especially these people, need higher amounts of Vitamin D to maintain health, even if their blood tests show sufficient Vitamin D.
In many cases, patients will come in to my office and their Vitamin D levels will be on the low side of normal and their M.D. has told them, "you're fine, There's nothing wrong with you" when actually if you're on the low side of normal you need to be supplementing with Vitamin D. I recommend that all my patients with any thyroid condition or any autoimmune condition take extra Vitamin D.
The Vitamin D - Magnesium Connection
After consulting with hundreds of patients, I am seeing a scary pattern that I want to bring to your attention.
The concern is the combination of rock bottom intracellular magnesium “and” low vitamin D levels.
It is important to know that if you have a low vitamin D level in spite of taking it, a magnesium deficiency can be one of the reasons you can't correct it.
Magnesium levels in the first quintile (lower 20% of reference range) or below that, could make you a victim of a fatal heart attack.
The following represents the quintile ranking. You want to see your intracellular magnesium in the 5th quintile.
In addition to increasing your intracellular magnesium levels to the 5th quintile, I recommend working on increasing your vitamin D levels to 75 nmol/L or more.
Don't accept a level of less than 50 nmol/L. It is simply insufficient to support good health. The most current medical literature has shown that 5000IU per day is safe. You can even go as high as 10,000 IU.
It is sad to see that many physicians are still recommending 400IU per day. This is out-dated information. This level is only for preventing a disease called rickets.
Much higher levels of vitamin D are needed for prevention and healing diseases such as diabetes, coronary artery disease, osteoporosis, depression, recurrent infections, dental problems, etc.
So the take away is make sure you have your physician test your intracellular magnesium levels in conjunction with vitamin D levels.
By the way, I mean intracellular NOT serum magnesium. This is commonly ordered on a basic blood test.
Dr. Steve Alukonis DC, DABCO
**NEW OFFICE LOCATION**
Merritt Island Office
2235 North Courtenay Pkwy Suite 4A
Merritt Island FL, 32952