The Optimal Protective 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Level for Different Health Outcomes in Adults: A Brief Summary of Dose–Response Meta-Analyses
Metabolites 2025, 15(4), 264; https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo15040264
by Cem Ekmekcioglu * and Michael PoteserORCID
Department of Environmental Health, Center for Public Health, Medical University of Vienna, 1090 Vienna, Austria
Vitamin D is very important for bone metabolism as well as for the prevention of various diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and different types of cancer. Although vitamin D deficiency is widespread and an important public health problem, there exists controversy in the scientific community, with no established standard definition of adequate and deficient vitamin D status. To add new information on this topic, the aim of this brief opinion paper is to identify and discuss the optimal 25(OH)D concentration (range) for a reduction in the risk of various disease outcomes by summarizing dose–response reporting meta-analyses.
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VitaminDWiki – Consensus Vitamin D category contains:
- Target level: >40 ng
- Dose:- 4,000+ IU average daily
dose varies a lot with weight, age, type of health problems, etc - How often to take: daily or as infrequently as 50,000 IU once every 2 weeks
- Type: Vitamin D3 (Note - Vegan and gut-friendly forms of D3 are available)
- Note: Some doctors still mistakenly prescribe D2, which has been found to not be nearly as good as D3
- Form: any (capsule, gelcap, sublingual, spray, topical, etc.)
- When to take: during or after a fatty meal - unless use water-dispersable vitamin D
- Cofactors adjustment to aid vitamin D and prevent imbalance - essential if >40 ng for more than a year
Increase Magnesium, Vitamin K2, Omega-3, and reduce Calcium - Increase Vitamin D to cells ~30% of those with health problems have poor Vitamin D Receptors
- Increasing Magnesium, Omega-3, Resveratrol, Zinc, etc, increases Receptor activation
- It is important to restore levels even if Vitamin D has not been proven to treat a specific disease
- Loading dose: (400,000 IU over 8 days) provides very quick restoration is sometimes required
- Whom to treat?: Virtually everyone
- <1% of people have conditions or use drugs that are not compatible with Vitamin D
- How long to treat?: Generally, supplement with vitamin D forever.
- Note: Many doctors prescribe 50,000 IU of vitamin D weekly for only 8 weeks
- This 8-week supplementation wears off in about 8-12 weeks
74 Vitamin D consensus publications
- Another Vitamin D consensus for 40-60 ng – India March 2025
- French pediatric consensus: 30 – 60 ng of Vitamin D – Feb 2022
- 15 Clinical guidelines now recommend vitamin D – Nov 2021
- 34 clinical practice Vitamin D guidelines, huge diversity – Nov 2021
- Minimum National Vitamin D recommendations range from 200 to 4,000 IU – July 2021
- Controversies and consensus in Vitamin D – 3rd Conference Sept 2019
- Vitamin D Consensus 4,000 to 10,000 IU, upper limit 100 ng – Italy 2018
- 4,000 IU of Vitamin D is OK - 19 organizations agree - 2018 six say 10,000 IU is OK
- 17 reasons why are doctors reluctant to accept vitamin D
- Doctors and medical communities appear to be poor audiences to convince that vitamin D is good
37+ VitaminDWiki pages have OPTIMAL in the title
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