Vitamin D

[lebeautemps]

Been doing some reading to make sure I'm covered and found that the reccommended daily levels vary widely.

I do eat fine for dietary Vit D but have low sun exposure. A recent  Australian position (2010) seems to be an order of magnitude above ours here in UK, which has me confused.  Anyone?

Wiki - You need 200 IU
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Comments

[lebeautemps]

Ha hah!

It just struck me as odd - if Australians, who in my head live their lives bathed in a golden happy glow, need more, don't we here in Blighty? I doubt I get more sun exposure than your average Australian on account of being covered up/spf 50 daily.

Will bear in mind your Sydney tip :)

[chiller]

Hmm. I supplement mine with Osteocare, which contains D3, the type of Vit D that is made via exposure to sunlight, and apparently the type the body metabolises best. It contains "100% RDA", which in the UK is apparently 5 micrograms.

A quick lookup tells me that 1000 iu of vitamin D equates to 25mcg. So either the RDAs are all a bit "finger in the air and pick a number" (which wouldn't surprise me a bit); or the UK's RDA is peculiarly low, at approximately a fifth of the Australian RDA.

Of course it's likely that "normal" is a figure which varies between populations, so the poor old Danes can muddle through on 600 iu, while the Aussies require 200 more per diem if we don't want to find them flapping and gasping on the veranda.

[lebeautemps]

I take a similar product and dose. I was reading that they're currently looking into Vit D deficiency as flare trigger for peeps like us and yes, the UK RDA looks extremely low. I want to assume that if we take somewhere between UK and Aus RDA, we'll be covered but taking too much is also very dangerous apparently. *sigh*.

[chiller]

It's a fine line to tread ...