Can't get enough of that vitamin D3, right? Yes, you can. In fact, you can get
way too - you can get too much, way too much. It can actually kill you.
Usually, it's caught before it's a really big deal.
Usually, if there is damage, it's a short-term damage to kidneys - kidney
function. You see, vitamin D3 actually acts like a
hormone, in terms of helping the kidneys manage calcium. Julie has had an episode
and it's like every other episode that you see or read about in the science. It
was a little bit overzealous supplementation. This one associated with
some miscommunication so - but let's let Julie tell the story. So, Julie, thanks
again for offering to share your story with - with others. You know, there's a lot
of - a lot of focus and a lot of emotion around vitamin D3 and its impact on
health. It's been f- what was it? 5 years ago - between 5 and 10 years ago
more and more discoveries came out to indicate that vitamin D3 was usually
underutilized. It was actually discovered, almost a cent- maybe a little over a
century ago; and we found out that people that had - had deficiency had significant
- they head rickets, they had bone problems; we had no idea though until just the
past 5 to 10 years that it has an impact in terms of diabetes, mental
health, tons and tons of other hormonal healths - tons of issues. In fact,
sometimes I think the pendulum may have swung and sometimes maybe too far. You
saw somebody and started getting some updates on and some supplementation on
D3 and ended up with a very high level.
Again, I appreciate you sharing that you want to tell us a little bit about what
happened. (Julie:) Yeah, why - I discovered that I had Stills disease which is an auto
inflammatory disease, back in 2017 and have really spent the last two years
trying to find answers, as I'm sure a lot of your patients do. You try and find the
cause for why you might be sick and so that led down the path of trying to find
a provider that would actually work with me and become creative and not just
treat the symptoms but more find the cause and so I ended up looking to
almost - well a lot of different providers but one of them finally was a DO and
that DO ran a full breadth of tests that found that my D3 levels were low and so
she had - it was - she was out of town and I met with her once out of town and then
she did everything else online and she sent back that I needed to start taking
D3 and she said I needed to take 50,000 IU and so I went in and I filled it and
I was kind of coming up with my supplementations and I just started
taking it and it found out that that was extremely dangerous levels for me once I
started working with you. (Dr. Brewer:) Just a quick comment, I didn't know that the provider
was a DO, I've worked a little - with a lot of DO's - and great Docs. There's
been a hope - just like everything else, there's been a lot of professional back
and forth between MDs or allopathic Docs like I am, and DOs like you
mentioned; but, especially over the past 20 to 50 years, it's the medical training
and background tends to be very, very similar. I think the question here is
more of an idiosyncratic or an individual issue and I think part of the
question is - how much of it was just - maybe the wrong prescription and how
much of it was a misinterpretation? If you look at vitamin D3 overuse
or toxicity, every episode I've ever seen was from supplementation sometimes from
the individuals, sometimes from the provider, and sometimes from a
miscommunication between the two. So how often - Was this an oral pill of 50,000
units? (Julie:) It was. She carried a broad line of products in her office and this was
something that she sold to me, kind of at checkout and just went as a recommended
product and just kind of sold that to me. At the same time, I think she sold me
some DHEA and then CoQ10 product. (Dr. Brewer:) How often were you taking the 50,000 units?
(Julie:) Well, I didn't really get any guidance so I was taking it every day so it was
really supplementing heavily and, of course, really didn't know the downside
risks of that but whether she was giving that to me or I take it myself, I can
tell you I had no knowledge of what was right or what was a good level and what
I really needed. (Dr. Brewer:) My guess at this point is that it was probably a
miscommunication because 50,000 units - I mean it is a lot, but I've seen it given
quite often on a once a week basis, especially to get somebody caught back
up; Not once a day.
What kind of levels did you get to? (Julie:) I would say I've heard from some of the
people doing my testing that it was probably within a week or two of
permanent kidney damage. (Dr. Brewer:) Yeah, you've - you've been seeing Charlene and
you and Charlene - and you and I got together and did some review on some of
the labs and I think I remember, do you mind me giving you the number? Quoting you? (Julie:) No,
I don't mind at all. No, that's fine. It was - it was very high. (Dr. Brewer:) It got up to 178. I was
prepping for the Orlando Health Summit and - and that - that number came through.
It's called a panic value - a value that's too high and could impact
your health. I saw that; we had tons of things going on, we had to drop
everything and make sure that Charlene got - got to you so that's maybe some of
the back story that you are not aware of. I asked Charlene to call you, let you
know the seriousness of this, ask you to stop taking any, and then we would start
repeating the vitamin D levels until we got them down to a better level. When you
and - and Charlene and I last talked, I believe your number was down to like
what? 125? right around 125. You know, a lot of people would say that 125 is a safe
level. I tell you in terms of review of the science and the literature, I've seen
some toxicities as low as 109 so I advised you - I'd still like for you to
stay - to stay off of the supplementation until we get to between 60 and 80. (Julie:)So
once we get to that level, is that - is that a test that you recommend that
people do or that I have her run for me fairly often? (Dr. Brewer:) Yeah, well, especially - (Julie:) Is there a level you think we can
maintain just using a normal supplementation level? (Dr. Brewer:) Well, I have not
run into - here's what - here's what I end up doing with most - most patients. Vitamin
D3 is clearly one of the supplements that I use; one of my top 5 go-to
supplements. The vast majority of people do great on 5,000 international
units a day, they don't get into trouble they but they are able to usually get to
an - to an appropriate level. Again, the level that - that I recommend is between
60 and 80. Now, so we will probably target that in terms of an expectation but I
would also tell you this. There's a significant variation. People say "Well,
it's - it's very much associated with sunshine" and, theoretically, at least it
is but you know that line between San - when I think it's like San Diego and
northern Florida, everybody says if you're below that line, you don't have
problems; and if you're above the line, you do. Not true, totally not true at all.
They also say, again, about the sunshine - if you get plenty of sunshine, you're
gonna have plenty of that. I'll have husbands and wives who have
the same level of exposure, she's got a fine
D3, he doesn't. So there's a lot of internal variation we have on our
metabolism, there are people - I just did a video, there was a study that came out
recently. Last - just a couple of days ago, from Tufts University and it was
published in the annals of internal medicine and what they said was "Don't
take any supplements. Get everything through food." I don't agree with that
either. In fact, when you look at their study,
they did - they did a fatal flaw. They basically looked at all-cause mortality
and - okay, all-cause mortality is way to have a bar for almost every prescription
medication and any supplement; so they're just never going to show that. So bottom
line - Yes, we do need to supplement with it. The actual - the usual number is going
to be about 5,000 units a day. This was just a quick video to make sure - Number
1. That we were able to catch some of the key points and - and unless you have
other things to add to this, we'll go ahead sign out on this one. Use that
as the summary video, and then do the full video in just a minute.
(Julie:) Sounds great. (Dr. Brewer:) Thank you.