It\u2019s common for PCPs to recommend between 1,000 to 2,000 IUs per day of vitamin D3, Stadler said. Holick thinks adults should be on a higher amount than this, though.<\/p>\n
\u201cTypically, I recommend adults should be on minimum 2,000 units per day \u2014 and most I recommend 5,000 units a day because you want to get your blood level, in my opinion, of [vitamin D] between 40 and 60 ng\/mL, [but] up to 100 is perfectly safe,\u201d said Holick.<\/p>\n
Once you get the go-ahead from your doctor, you can buy vitamin D supplements online or in stores like CVS and Walgreens. You\u2019ll likely find vitamin D3 and vitamin D2 on the shelves, but vitamin D3 is more readily available and tends to be more recommended. Holick said vitamin D2 is perfectly acceptable, too, and is often preferred by vegans.<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s better to get some nutrients directly from food, that isn\u2019t easy or potentially even possible with vitamin D. Oily fish, milk and orange juice are all good for increasing vitamin D levels, but can\u2019t do so to the level necessary, said Holick. The same goes for the sun, which also carries a risk of skin cancer with too much exposure.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Holick said he recommends vitamin D supplementation to all of his patients, friends and family.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot get enough from your diet. You aren\u2019t able to get enough from sunlight, unless you\u2019re a … hunter-gatherer, so vitamin D supplementation is essential,\u201d Holick said.<\/p>\n
Older adults and people with darker skin are at higher risk of vitamin D deficiency, Stadler added. But, once again, it\u2019s advisable for most people to take a supplement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s common for PCPs to recommend between 1,000 to 2,000 IUs per day of vitamin D3, Stadler said.…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":475517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[210,45533,37421,67,132,68,45534],"class_list":{"0":"post-475516","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-syndicated-huffpost","10":"tag-topical","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us","14":"tag-womens-content"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115793135215505548","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=475516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/475516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/475517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=475516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=475516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=475516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}