https://vitamindstopscovid.info/00-evi/ discusses and cites numerous research articles concerning the vitamin D compounds and the immune system. Neither vitamin D3 nor 25-hydroxyvitamin D function as hormones. The immune system does not use hormonal signaling. Many types of immune cell rely on a good supply of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in order to run each cell's intracrine (within each cell) and paracrine (to nearby cells). These signaling systems play a crucial role in how each cell responds to its changing circumstances. Immunologists and most doctors take far too little interest in vitamin D and have never heard of these signaling systems. https://vitamindstopscovid.info/00-evi/ starts with an explanation of these systems and the three vitamin D compounds.
Below are some of the highlights of research into the vitamin D compounds and the immune system . Please read the articles and the explanations for yourself.
Government guidelines recommend inadequate vitamin D3 supplemental intake quantities because they are only aiming to attain the 20 ng/mL 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels the kidneys need to regulate calcium-phosphate-bone metabolism. These recommendations are crude single values for particular age groups. Prof. Wimalawansa's article is the only peer-reviewed journal article which provides proper guidance for vitamin D3 supplemental intake quantities sufficient to ensure good immune system health, according to body weight and obesity status. A simplified version of these body weight ratios is:
No obesity: 70 to 90 IU vitamin D3 per day per kilogram body weight.
Obesity I and II (BMI 30 to 39): 90 to 130 IU vitamin D3 per day per kilogram body weight.
Obesity III (BMI 40 and above): 140 to 180 IU vitamin D per day per kilogram body weight.
For 70 kg 154 lb without obesity, this means 4900 to 6300 IU a day. "5000 International Units" sounds like a lot, but an IU is 1/40,000,000 of a gram. 5000 IU is 1/8 of a milligram. Once a day, on average (such as 50,000 IU every 10 days) this is a gram every 22 years - and ex-factory, pharma-grade vitamin D3 costs about USD$2.50 a gram.
About 1/4 of ingested (or produced in the skin) Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) is converted in the liver, over a period of days, to 25-hydroxyvitamin D (calcifediol, AKA calcidiol), which has a long half-life in the bloodstream (weeks) and which is used by the kidneys, many types of immune cell and other cell types.
"Vitamin D" blood tests measure the concentration (level) of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in the bloodstream. Government standards. Many doctors (not the FLCCC doctors) regard 20 ng/mL 50 nmol/L as an adequate level, though some doctors aim for the 30 ng/mL 75 nmol/L standard of The Endocrine Society. The FLCCC doctors correctly regard 50 ng/mL 125 ng/mL (1 part in 20,000,000 by mass) as the minimum level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D which everyone should attain in order to be be healthy. There are numerous reasons for this, but the most direct, clear, measurement of the needs of the immune system comes from research by doctors in Massachusetts General Hospital in 2013: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamasurgery/fullarticle/1782085 .
The 770 patients were all suffering from obesity III, which reduces the rate at which they can raise their 25 hydroxyvitamin D levels, from any given body weight ratio of ingested or UV-B generated vitamin D3. They had the same Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery for weight loss. There is no reason to believe that people who are suffering from obesity need higher levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D for their immune systems to mount strong responses to the primarily bacterial pathogens which cause these infections. The observations were stark.
Above 50 ng/mL, the risks of both surgical site infections and hospital acquired infections were about 2.5%. All these patients would have been supplementing vitamin D3 at healthy levels, well in excess of the lousy 600 IU (0.015 mg) a day quantity recommended by the U.S. government, unless they had just spent a lot of time outdoors with bare skin exposure to high elevation sunlight, and so generated sufficient vitamin D3 and so 25-hydroxyvitamin D themselves.
Most people, without proper vitamin D3 supplementation or recent high level ultraviolet B skin exposure have between 5 and 25 ng/mL circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D. The Massachusetts doctors found that their patients with 20 ng/mL had a 25% risk of hospital acquired infection and a 25% risk of surgical site infections. This is ten times the level which resulted from a fully supplied immune system: 2.5% for each type of infection.
20 ng/mL is a perfectly ordinary - normal and unhealthy - level for Americans with white skin who do not supplement vitamin D3 or get much high elevation sun exposure. At this level, we see gross immune system incompetency: ten times the risk of both types of infection. At 10 ng/mL - which is common for people with brown or black skin who live far from the equator - the dysfunction is even worse: 40% risk of each type of infection was observed in these patients.
50 ng/mL or more circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D is needed to ensure rapid, full strength, innate (general) and adaptive (antibodies to specific pathogens) immune responses to cancer cells, bacteria, fungi and viruses.
This proper level also greatly reduces the risk of dysregulated, self-destructive, overly-inflammatory (indiscriminate cell destroying) immune responses. (The primary cause of this is absence of helminths - intestinal worms: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/06-adv/. Inadequate 25-hydroxyvitamin D makes this very much worse.) Excessive inflammation causes sepsis, Kawasaki disease, MIS-C, autoimmune disorders and most deaths from COVID-19 and influenza.
In clinical emergencies, such as sepsis, COVID-19, severe influenza and ARDS, it is vital that the 25-hydroxyvitamin D level be raised over 50 ng/mL 125 nmol/L within hours, not the 4 days or so it would take with even a bolus dose of vitamin D3: for 70 kg BW 10 grams 400,000 IU. As Registered Nurse Carol Crevier wrote, the 25-hydroxyvitamin D level can be raised safely over 50 ng/mL in a few hours with a single oral dose of 0.014 milligrams calcifediol per kg bodyweight. For 70 kg, this is 1 milligram. Calcifediol *is* 25-hydroxyvitamin D. It goes straight into circulation, while vitamin D3 takes days to be hydroxylated in the liver. This calcifediol protocol has been part of the FLCCC protocols since Prof. Wimalawansa introduced it in early 2022.
If everyone had at least 50 ng/mL 25-hydroxyvitamin D there would be numerous health benefits, not least the elimination of seasonal influenza and the pandemic spread of COVID-19. The incidence and death toll (11 million a year, worldwide https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)32989-7/) of sepsis would be greatly reduced. Those who did contract COVID-19 would be well protected from severe symptoms and death, by their own fully functional immune system
Failing that, if all people newly infected with COVID-19 who had not been properly supplementing vitamin D3 for several months were treated with the calcifediol protocol, few would suffer serious symptoms or die.
Proper vitamin D3 supplementation is the most important and urgently needed health intervention for the great majority of the population in most countries. This pattern of deficiency for many peoples began ca. 50,000 years ago when humans migrated from Africa to Northern Europe and beyond. Today, it is easy to fix, but lack of understanding and the corrupting influence of pharmaceutical companies mean that most doctors do not understand what needs to be done.
Failing that, the calcifediol protocol is by far the most important early treatment protocol for COVID-19. Enabling the immune system to work properly is more important than ivermectin or all the other treatments listed at https://c19early.org.
Robin, thank you for writing what I did not have the time nor eloquence to do. Your work has saved so many lives, and I am both grateful. You are an extraordinary and beautiful man.
VitD also is sequestered in adipose tissue; therefore those whose body mass exceeds the boundaries set for being at a ‘normal’ weight may require higher amounts of vitD in order to reach therapeutic level. ( yes I know the BMI is contested as being a sound index)
Please revisit Wimalawansa’s work. It was included in the FLCCC protocol in Jan 2022-- but then disappeared. 🥲 Calcifediol is a great ‘rescue option’ for those entering a fall season who experience a serious infection. In four hours we can correct the D deficit and then vitD can direct the Th1 and Th2 response properly to mitigate against a cytokine storm.
Yes, but vitamin K2, aka MK7, is needed to direct that freed calcium to the bones, not to be mistaken for plain vitamin K, which will misdirect it to blood vessels!!! 😳
I have registered for Wednesday's FLCCC Vitamin D Webinar. If it is possible, I have a question that I hope can be covered.
1. I understand that Magnesium *glycinate* is the type of Magnesium that is needed, or at least glycinate is appropriate.
Say, someone sees a health care practitioner, and they have been recommended to take "500 mg Magnesium" so they will have good Vit D3 absorption. (Just a fyi, this person is taking, for example, 8000 iu Vit. D3.)
A bottle of Magnesium glycinate, says:
"Magnesium Glycinate 500 mg.
(Magnesium 70 mg)"
Would the person be getting the "500 mg Magnesium" they had been recommended to take for good vit D3 absorption, or only 70 mg?
I am guessing they would be getting the "500 mg Magnesium" recommended to them, but I'm not sure. I understand that not getting enough Magnesium may result in a lower absorption %, and blood level, of Vit. D3 even if the person is taking an optimum amount of Vit.D3.
Hi Karen, I am an electronic technician and computer programmer. I have at least partly read hundreds of research articles on vitamin D3 in the last few years - and I have never heard of anyone having gastro-intestinal upset from vitamin D3 supplements. Even a scarily high sounding amount of 50,000 IU is 1/800th of a gram, so the quantities are small in the scheme of things.
I would appreciate it if you wrote to me - my email address is at https://vitamindstopscovid.info - to discuss this. I can't provide medical advice and I probably won't have any suggestions for how to resolve this. However, I am keen to understand problems which some people seem to have with vitamin D3 supplementation which may not be reported in the research literature.
As you've noted, Vitamin D is critical to human health. I love that you emphasize the importance of spending time in the sun without sunscreen. Getting your body to manufacture vitamin D through exposure to the sun is the very best way to get vitamin D, although as you mention supplements work for many people.
Whatever food, it's important to look at the bio-availability of Vitamins (not just what they contain). Then one might be able to improve upon that by chopping/blitzing before eating.
I do this with nuts and seeds. From memory the bio-availability goes from 20% to 80%.
This introductory information is all vital and correct. For more detailed explanations of how 25-hydroxyvitamin D is an essential input to many types of cell, especially those of the immune system, please see: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/00-evi/ , https://brownstone.org/articles/vitamin-d-everything-you-need-to-know/ and Professor Wimalawansa's July 2022 article in the journal Nutrients: "Rapidly Increasing Serum 25(OH)D Boosts the Immune System, against Infections - Sepsis and COVID-19": https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/14/2997.
https://vitamindstopscovid.info/00-evi/ discusses and cites numerous research articles concerning the vitamin D compounds and the immune system. Neither vitamin D3 nor 25-hydroxyvitamin D function as hormones. The immune system does not use hormonal signaling. Many types of immune cell rely on a good supply of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in order to run each cell's intracrine (within each cell) and paracrine (to nearby cells). These signaling systems play a crucial role in how each cell responds to its changing circumstances. Immunologists and most doctors take far too little interest in vitamin D and have never heard of these signaling systems. https://vitamindstopscovid.info/00-evi/ starts with an explanation of these systems and the three vitamin D compounds.
Below are some of the highlights of research into the vitamin D compounds and the immune system . Please read the articles and the explanations for yourself.
Government guidelines recommend inadequate vitamin D3 supplemental intake quantities because they are only aiming to attain the 20 ng/mL 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels the kidneys need to regulate calcium-phosphate-bone metabolism. These recommendations are crude single values for particular age groups. Prof. Wimalawansa's article is the only peer-reviewed journal article which provides proper guidance for vitamin D3 supplemental intake quantities sufficient to ensure good immune system health, according to body weight and obesity status. A simplified version of these body weight ratios is:
No obesity: 70 to 90 IU vitamin D3 per day per kilogram body weight.
Obesity I and II (BMI 30 to 39): 90 to 130 IU vitamin D3 per day per kilogram body weight.
Obesity III (BMI 40 and above): 140 to 180 IU vitamin D per day per kilogram body weight.
For 70 kg 154 lb without obesity, this means 4900 to 6300 IU a day. "5000 International Units" sounds like a lot, but an IU is 1/40,000,000 of a gram. 5000 IU is 1/8 of a milligram. Once a day, on average (such as 50,000 IU every 10 days) this is a gram every 22 years - and ex-factory, pharma-grade vitamin D3 costs about USD$2.50 a gram.
About 1/4 of ingested (or produced in the skin) Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) is converted in the liver, over a period of days, to 25-hydroxyvitamin D (calcifediol, AKA calcidiol), which has a long half-life in the bloodstream (weeks) and which is used by the kidneys, many types of immune cell and other cell types.
"Vitamin D" blood tests measure the concentration (level) of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in the bloodstream. Government standards. Many doctors (not the FLCCC doctors) regard 20 ng/mL 50 nmol/L as an adequate level, though some doctors aim for the 30 ng/mL 75 nmol/L standard of The Endocrine Society. The FLCCC doctors correctly regard 50 ng/mL 125 ng/mL (1 part in 20,000,000 by mass) as the minimum level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D which everyone should attain in order to be be healthy. There are numerous reasons for this, but the most direct, clear, measurement of the needs of the immune system comes from research by doctors in Massachusetts General Hospital in 2013: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamasurgery/fullarticle/1782085 .
The 770 patients were all suffering from obesity III, which reduces the rate at which they can raise their 25 hydroxyvitamin D levels, from any given body weight ratio of ingested or UV-B generated vitamin D3. They had the same Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery for weight loss. There is no reason to believe that people who are suffering from obesity need higher levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D for their immune systems to mount strong responses to the primarily bacterial pathogens which cause these infections. The observations were stark.
Above 50 ng/mL, the risks of both surgical site infections and hospital acquired infections were about 2.5%. All these patients would have been supplementing vitamin D3 at healthy levels, well in excess of the lousy 600 IU (0.015 mg) a day quantity recommended by the U.S. government, unless they had just spent a lot of time outdoors with bare skin exposure to high elevation sunlight, and so generated sufficient vitamin D3 and so 25-hydroxyvitamin D themselves.
Most people, without proper vitamin D3 supplementation or recent high level ultraviolet B skin exposure have between 5 and 25 ng/mL circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D. The Massachusetts doctors found that their patients with 20 ng/mL had a 25% risk of hospital acquired infection and a 25% risk of surgical site infections. This is ten times the level which resulted from a fully supplied immune system: 2.5% for each type of infection.
20 ng/mL is a perfectly ordinary - normal and unhealthy - level for Americans with white skin who do not supplement vitamin D3 or get much high elevation sun exposure. At this level, we see gross immune system incompetency: ten times the risk of both types of infection. At 10 ng/mL - which is common for people with brown or black skin who live far from the equator - the dysfunction is even worse: 40% risk of each type of infection was observed in these patients.
50 ng/mL or more circulating 25-hydroxyvitamin D is needed to ensure rapid, full strength, innate (general) and adaptive (antibodies to specific pathogens) immune responses to cancer cells, bacteria, fungi and viruses.
This proper level also greatly reduces the risk of dysregulated, self-destructive, overly-inflammatory (indiscriminate cell destroying) immune responses. (The primary cause of this is absence of helminths - intestinal worms: https://vitamindstopscovid.info/06-adv/. Inadequate 25-hydroxyvitamin D makes this very much worse.) Excessive inflammation causes sepsis, Kawasaki disease, MIS-C, autoimmune disorders and most deaths from COVID-19 and influenza.
In clinical emergencies, such as sepsis, COVID-19, severe influenza and ARDS, it is vital that the 25-hydroxyvitamin D level be raised over 50 ng/mL 125 nmol/L within hours, not the 4 days or so it would take with even a bolus dose of vitamin D3: for 70 kg BW 10 grams 400,000 IU. As Registered Nurse Carol Crevier wrote, the 25-hydroxyvitamin D level can be raised safely over 50 ng/mL in a few hours with a single oral dose of 0.014 milligrams calcifediol per kg bodyweight. For 70 kg, this is 1 milligram. Calcifediol *is* 25-hydroxyvitamin D. It goes straight into circulation, while vitamin D3 takes days to be hydroxylated in the liver. This calcifediol protocol has been part of the FLCCC protocols since Prof. Wimalawansa introduced it in early 2022.
If everyone had at least 50 ng/mL 25-hydroxyvitamin D there would be numerous health benefits, not least the elimination of seasonal influenza and the pandemic spread of COVID-19. The incidence and death toll (11 million a year, worldwide https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(19)32989-7/) of sepsis would be greatly reduced. Those who did contract COVID-19 would be well protected from severe symptoms and death, by their own fully functional immune system
Failing that, if all people newly infected with COVID-19 who had not been properly supplementing vitamin D3 for several months were treated with the calcifediol protocol, few would suffer serious symptoms or die.
Proper vitamin D3 supplementation is the most important and urgently needed health intervention for the great majority of the population in most countries. This pattern of deficiency for many peoples began ca. 50,000 years ago when humans migrated from Africa to Northern Europe and beyond. Today, it is easy to fix, but lack of understanding and the corrupting influence of pharmaceutical companies mean that most doctors do not understand what needs to be done.
Failing that, the calcifediol protocol is by far the most important early treatment protocol for COVID-19. Enabling the immune system to work properly is more important than ivermectin or all the other treatments listed at https://c19early.org.
Robin, thank you for writing what I did not have the time nor eloquence to do. Your work has saved so many lives, and I am both grateful. You are an extraordinary and beautiful man.
Thank you
Thank you so much for your effort & time for posting this great information.
VitD also is sequestered in adipose tissue; therefore those whose body mass exceeds the boundaries set for being at a ‘normal’ weight may require higher amounts of vitD in order to reach therapeutic level. ( yes I know the BMI is contested as being a sound index)
Please revisit Wimalawansa’s work. It was included in the FLCCC protocol in Jan 2022-- but then disappeared. 🥲 Calcifediol is a great ‘rescue option’ for those entering a fall season who experience a serious infection. In four hours we can correct the D deficit and then vitD can direct the Th1 and Th2 response properly to mitigate against a cytokine storm.
Yes, but vitamin K2, aka MK7, is needed to direct that freed calcium to the bones, not to be mistaken for plain vitamin K, which will misdirect it to blood vessels!!! 😳
Which is why the article said: "This is best taken along with 100 mcg of vitamin K2 daily (or 800 mcg every week)."
And K2 has multiple forms including MK4 and MK7
Bears repeating…. So much material, these days, the two trees get lost in the forest. Maybe it would’ve been good to have had a secondary title?
I had NO IDEA that Vit. D3 should be supplemented with Vit. K (MK7) to help Vit. D absorbency!!
Here I've been dutiful popping my Vit. D3 gelcaps thinking that would do it. Wish I'd realized before now that Vit. K is necessary.
Lots of people can use this information.
I buy from Vitacost (Kroger owned) for good prices and products. Their Vitamin K Complex has 200 mcg of K1 & K2 (90 gels).
So I need to look for Vit K2 and make sure it is MK4 ?
Dr. Mercola and others recommend Mk7
Here is a discussion of a research study re MK4 vs MK 7. MK7 looks best for me.
https://www.naturalmedicinejournal.com/journal/choosing-right-vitamin-k2-menaquinone-4-vs-menaquinone-7
Bronson has 10,000 D plus 120 mg Mk7 currently taking two daily. Mak back down after next test.
Here is a discussion of a research study re MK4 vs MK 7. MK7 looks best for me.
https://www.naturalmedicinejournal.com/journal/choosing-right-vitamin-k2-menaquinone-4-vs-menaquinone-7
Not necessarily. I was just clarifying statement that "K2 is aka MK7". MK7 is only 1 type of K2. And some might think it is the best type.
https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ftsa&q=difference+between+vitamin+k2+mk4+and+mk7&ia=web
I have registered for Wednesday's FLCCC Vitamin D Webinar. If it is possible, I have a question that I hope can be covered.
1. I understand that Magnesium *glycinate* is the type of Magnesium that is needed, or at least glycinate is appropriate.
Say, someone sees a health care practitioner, and they have been recommended to take "500 mg Magnesium" so they will have good Vit D3 absorption. (Just a fyi, this person is taking, for example, 8000 iu Vit. D3.)
A bottle of Magnesium glycinate, says:
"Magnesium Glycinate 500 mg.
(Magnesium 70 mg)"
Would the person be getting the "500 mg Magnesium" they had been recommended to take for good vit D3 absorption, or only 70 mg?
I am guessing they would be getting the "500 mg Magnesium" recommended to them, but I'm not sure. I understand that not getting enough Magnesium may result in a lower absorption %, and blood level, of Vit. D3 even if the person is taking an optimum amount of Vit.D3.
Thanks
I can't take vitamin D supplements, they tear up my stomach. Do the patches or cream work?
Hi Karen, I am an electronic technician and computer programmer. I have at least partly read hundreds of research articles on vitamin D3 in the last few years - and I have never heard of anyone having gastro-intestinal upset from vitamin D3 supplements. Even a scarily high sounding amount of 50,000 IU is 1/800th of a gram, so the quantities are small in the scheme of things.
I would appreciate it if you wrote to me - my email address is at https://vitamindstopscovid.info - to discuss this. I can't provide medical advice and I probably won't have any suggestions for how to resolve this. However, I am keen to understand problems which some people seem to have with vitamin D3 supplementation which may not be reported in the research literature.
>20,000 IU per day CAN be dangerous.
Do you know if the D3 level from the bloodtest the equivalent amount of D3 as the amount of D3 that has been actually absorbed by the body?
So, you're saying that the blood level test will reflect anyvloss from absorption by, for example, a leaky gut (diarrhea)?
As you've noted, Vitamin D is critical to human health. I love that you emphasize the importance of spending time in the sun without sunscreen. Getting your body to manufacture vitamin D through exposure to the sun is the very best way to get vitamin D, although as you mention supplements work for many people.
You mention the studies that point to adequate vitamin D levels as being important in the prevention of cancer, but they can also cut the risk of heart attack as well. https://mattcook.substack.com/p/load-up-on-this-vitamin-to-cut-your
Whatever food, it's important to look at the bio-availability of Vitamins (not just what they contain). Then one might be able to improve upon that by chopping/blitzing before eating.
I do this with nuts and seeds. From memory the bio-availability goes from 20% to 80%.
Thanks