Veg Mastery Program: Q&A 11 With Michael Klaper, MD. Topic: Vitamin D. Copyright 2011 by The Vegetarian Health Institute

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Today’s topic is Vitamin D and today’s guest expert is Dr. Michael Klaper. How are you doing, Dr. Klaper?

Dr. Klaper: I’m fine, Trevor. Good to be with you again. This should be an interesting discussion. It’s an important vitamin.

Trevor: Yeah. I got that from the lesson you wrote, which was really good. Would you like to take five minutes and do a recap on the key points?

Dr. Klaper: Medicine has changed so much. I’ve been a physician for thirty-seven years. When I graduated in 1972, Vitamin D was very simple to understand.

Vitamin D is responsible for allowing us to absorb calcium through the intestinal wall and into our bloodstreams. That’s what Vitamin D did and that’s all we needed to know.

It was called the sunshine vitamin. When sunlight falls on substances in our skin, it can create Vitamin D. That was about all we needed to know about where it came from. Well, like so many other things in medicine, the story is much more complex.

As technology improved we began to see that Vitamin D is a major player in many important reactions in the body and many organ systems. It turns out that there are receptors for Vitamin D in most of the important organs in the body.

There are Vitamin D receptors in the brain, bones, heart, genitals, prostate gland and white blood cells. Vitamin D plays major roles in the immune system, preventing cancer growth, repairing tissues, and signaling cells to each other.

Vitamin D is a multi-faceted vitamin. Our original viewpoint was very simplistic.

Today, our understanding of Vitamin D is greater, as well as our need for it. Because we spend all day indoors as a society, 400 international units just isn't enough for everyone's daily requirements. The majority of people have low levels of Vitamin D.

Trevor: Let me interject right there. When you say the majority of people, are you talking about vegetarians and meat eaters alike?

Dr. Klaper: Both. Surprisingly, shockingly and sadly. Again, our ancient ancestors out in the African plains spent all day naked out in the sunshine. I’m sure they had no problem making enough Vitamin D.

1 Then again, I’m sure their skin was cracked and dried from sun damage by the age of forty. Of course, that wouldn't matter much since most of them were eaten by lions by the age of fifty.

For those of us living into our seventies and eighties, if we want to be free of melanoma and skin damage, we can't use skin as the sole organ of Vitamin D production. Besides, we're indoors with clothing on, so we don't get much sun anyway.

There’s a general deficiency of Vitamin D throughout the population. This may be a contributing factor for everything we're seeing arise today. Osteoporosis, immune problems, increased fracture rates, and increased cancer rates may all be in part due to lack of Vitamin D.

Vitamin D turns out to be a very important molecule. I’ve learned to be very aggressive in making sure I get enough Vitamin D every day.

If I’m not out in the sunshine that day then I take 1000 units of it orally. I’ll be having my Vitamin D level checked soon. It’s going to be higher than it was before, which was quite low.

Trevor: That’s good.

I used to hang out with a lot of raw food folks who are very into natural hygiene. They try to get their nutrients from nature in full form – whether it’s in food or sunshine – rather than from supplements.

My question is: If someone wants to get Vitamin D from the sun, but they’re north of Atlanta, Georgia in terms of latitude – Is that a possibility? Can twenty minutes out in the sun with no sunscreen daily be enough?

Dr. Klaper: Unfortunately, the answer seems to be no, for a number of reasons.

The key factor you mentioned is that they are north of the latitude of Atlanta, Georgia. At that angle, the sun’s rays simply do not come in with enough power to generate sufficient Vitamin D in the skin.

There are any number of factors that can lower a person's ability to get Vitamin D from the sun. Air pollution and sunscreen are two common issues. Also, darker skin is not only more resistant to sun burning, but also to Vitamin D absorption.

We find Vitamin D deficiencies in greater numbers the further north one goes in latitude. So alas that twenty minutes out in the sunshine that we used to dispense as advice really isn’t useful for people in northern latitudes.

Trevor: I'm glad you were able to tell us that.

A question has come in from Ronald. He says: “Does it really matter if a supplement is Vitamin D2 or D3?”

The lesson says that Vitamin D3 could come from sheep’s wool or fish oil. I've also learned that it can come from pig's skin or cow's skin. There’s really no way to know what the source is of Vitamin D3.

Dr. Klaper: Well, that is correct in what you said. If it is Vitamin D3 cholecalciferol then it is coming from an animal source. These days there is no telling what that animal source really is.

2 Ergocalciferol comes from plants, also known as Vitamin D2. Ergo as in energy.

Trevor: If you’re looking on a container of Tropicana orange juice or breakfast cereal, it won't say “ergocalciferol” or “cholecalciferol” on it. It will say Vitamin D2 or D3.

Dr. Klaper: Right. Vitamin D2 is plant-derived.

There has been a general assumption that plant-derived Vitamin D2 wasn't as potent as Vitamin D3, but now Dr. Hollak and other researchers say they’re absolutely equivalent.

Vitamin D supplements are very low toxic vitamins so I don’t have a problem using an abundant amount of either of them. If I’m going to prescribe Vitamin D2 or D3 for someone with a low blood test number, I usually prescribe 2000 international units of either D2 or D3 and they both will do the trick after a week or three.

Both D2 and D3 bring the levels up. There’s no real danger of overdose at 2000 units of Vitamin D. If a person comes back with a low number – below 30 – on their blood test, they should take 2000 units of Vitamin D2 for about a month and then drop it down to 1000 units daily for another couple of months. Then they should have their levels rechecked.

Trevor: I’m imagining that almost anyone listening is thinking, “I don’t want to buy any foods that are fortified with Vitamin D3 since there’s a chance it could be coming from the skin or cows or pigs.”

I want to mention that I took a trip to my local grocery store to see which foods were fortified with Vitamin D3. Dannon and Yoplait yogurts are fortified with Vitamin D3, and the milk which says “Vitamin D” on it, contains Vitamin D3. Tropicana fortified orange juice has D3. Cheerios, Kix and Total cereals had Vitamin D3 as well.

I also checked some soy milks, rice milks, almond milks and oat milks, all of which had Vitamin D2, the plant-based Vitamin D.

If you’re buying any kind of packaged food that says it’s fortified, and you want to see whether it's Vitamin D2 or D3, check the ingredients.

Dr. Klaper: Good advice. Well said.

Trevor: Let me ask you a question about Vitamin D2, which is plant-based. The lesson says mushrooms, algae and a few other plants make the ergosterol.

Dr. Klaper: Ergosterol, yes.

Trevor: Ergosterol becomes the Vitamin D2 when irradiated by the sun’s rays. Does this mean that if someone eats specific types of mushrooms or algae that they could get D2 directly from that food source?

Dr. Klaper: That’s a very important question.

It would be nice if that were the case. The algae and the mushrooms make the substance ergosterol. In order to turn that into Vitamin D2, you’ve got to really blast it with ultraviolet light.

3 This is done in a production plant. They really amp up the voltage on the ultraviolet rays to produce Vitamin D in industrial amounts. That’s how it’s done.

If you were to eat these mushrooms and algae, you’ll get just the tiniest traces of Vitamin D2 that’s been produced naturally. Alas, just eating the mushrooms is not going to give you anywhere 1000 i.u. of Vitamin D every day.

Trevor: Well, then that brings me to the next question. I read online that the USDA scientists report that the mushrooms that have been exposed to ultraviolet B light for five minutes have very high levels of Vitamin D. Vitamin D-containing-mushrooms are expected to become commercially available within the next few years.

Dr. Klaper: Lovely.

Trevor: Is it something that’s not yet available? What’s your knowledge about that?

Dr. Klaper: That’s new and welcome news to me. It certainly is logical.

I’m sure if you went to the factory where these are actually made, you would see these are extremely high intensity lights. For five minutes, they really bombard these mushrooms.

That’s the first I’ve heard about them becoming publicly available as mushrooms. It does make sense. But again, it’s nothing you’re going to find in nature. Good for the people who are making that product happen. It will be welcomed by the vegan and vegetarian communities for sure.

Trevor: We have a question from Bobbie, he says: “Dr. Klaper says in lesson 11 that latitude north of Atlanta the sunlight will not be intense enough to create sufficient Vitamin D at any time of the year. She says this is shocking to those of us in Michigan, Ohio or Virginia.”

Her question is: “How do you know? Why do we hear so often that you can just go outside several times a week and get enough Vitamin D?”

Dr. Klaper: Excellent, important and disturbing questions. First of all, let me couch the answer. Everybody is different. There are some people who are extremely efficient in making Vitamin D in their skin, whereas others may not be.

In the height of the summertime out in the Michigan corn fields, an efficient body may make enough Vitamin D for a few weeks during the summer. As the sun fades in the south and the winter sets in, the Vitamin D stores get quickly used up.

The little we can gain in the summer is not sufficient to supply you with Vitamin D through the winter. You certainly can make Vitamin D in Michigan sunshine, but it's a modest amount, and it's not enough.

Why were were told that twenty minutes a day was enough?

It seemed to make sense. There were studies of people done with people who did not take Vitamin D orally, and it didn't seem like the participants spent more than twenty daily minutes outdoors. Because this group of people seemed to have enough Vitamin D, the researchers made an unwarranted generalization that anybody.

4 When they actually went and measured the levels of Vitamin D in people’s blood in Michigan, they found that levels were shockingly low. They have even found that forty to fifty percent of people in Florida are deficient as well. It could be that people just aren't synthesizing Vitamin D as effectively anymore.

No matter how you slice the data, you just can’t look to the sun as a valid source of Vitamin D production today.

Trevor: I'd like to clarify a few things.

You’re saying that originally the tests were done based on people in southern latitudes like Jamaica. And these study results were generalized to everybody around the world and that was a mistake?

Or are you saying that even people in Michigan or Ohio used to get enough Vitamin D being in the sun and something has changed in the environment?

Dr. Klaper: A bit of both.

If you go up to a Michigan at the end of August to a farm hand that has just spent all summer out in the sun eight hours a day, he will have a deep tan. If you measure his Vitamin D level it’s going to be high or at least adequate.

Therefore, on that one sampling they based their advice, saying yes, you can get all the Vitamin D you need from sun exposure.

Nobody went back to that farm hand in the middle of February and rechecked his Vitamin D level. If they had, they would have found it would have been quite low.

So they made an unjustified generalization from isolated measurements of Vitamin D. They didn’t really check people all through the year cycle to see that Vitamin D levels drop precipitously during the winter.

It depends where you are and when you are. Timing is everything in life, including sun exposure for Vitamin D production.

Trevor: So if someone had excess, their body wouldn’t store it for any significant period of time?

Dr. Klaper: No. It lingers for about a month or two, but by February or March, it’s absolutely gone.

Trevor: All right. Well, Bobbie has another question. It says: “When a product is fortified with Vitamin D and it says it provides 25%, I don’t know what that means. Is that 25% of the current US RDA?”

Dr. Klaper: We would hope so. That’s an excellent point, Bobbie.

The previous RDA used to be 400 international units of Vitamin D. That was enough to prevent rickets, a disease of bone metabolism. Back then we thought that if it prevented rickets, you got enough Vitamin D.

5 Now we see that it’s involved in so many other functions that 400 units of Vitamin D is not enough to maintain the blood level at an appropriate level. They’ve raised it up to 1000 units of Vitamin D a day for adults, or whatever level is needed to get your level up to at least 30 nanograms per ML. You want that number between thirty and fifty.

Trevor: When you say they raised it to 1000, is that the US Government or is that another group?

Dr. Klaper: I believe that’s the food nutrition board of the NIH, but I can verify that for you. But the folks that make the RDAs have raised it up to 1000 units.

If there’s any question, get your Vitamin D levels checked. It should be between thirty and fifty nanograms per ML. For our friends in Canada, that’s ninety to one-hundred and forty nanomoles. That’s the ultimate way to check.

Once a year you should get your Vitamin B12 level checked anyway. So as long as they’ve got a needle in your vein, have them check the Vitamin D level.

Trevor: A minute ago you said that it used to be thought that the only function of Vitamin D was to prevent rickets. So could that be why there was the misconception that just getting some sun a few times a week was sufficient?

Dr. Klaper: Good point. Yes, that would complete the story of our misconception.

Trevor: Let’s go to the last part of Bobbie’s question. She says: “My granddaughter, because she is a small child, requires five micrograms (that’s 200 i.u.) daily of Vitamin D. I guess this is according to the US Government. I'm over fifty and the government is indicating that I need twice as much. Is there any standard requirements for these labels? When it says 25% of the daily value, is that for babies, children or adults?”

Dr. Klaper: Good question. Twenty-five percent of what? That’s an excellent point.

I would think that they are talking about adult RDAs. That’s the usual reference point. Yet that certainly doesn’t help the children who are drinking the same beverage. You have to cut all those values in half, basically. We have to assume those were based on adult recommendations.

Trevor: So if it’s 25% of what an adult needs, it’s 50% of what her granddaughter would need.

Dr. Klaper: Correct.

Trevor: Here’s a question from Nancy Ann. “Are there any foods that interfere with the absorption of Vitamin D?”

Dr. Klaper: Interesting point. Not that I’m aware of. It’s a pretty stable vitamin. It’s a fat soluble vitamin so you want to have a little bit of fat in the diet. Not much. It’s absorbed pretty well.

Some pumpkin seeds, avocado slices or olives eaten at the same time would probably increase the Vitamin D absorption a little. By and large however, nothing is going to inhibit the Vitamin D uptake.

Trevor: That’s great. I’m glad you mentioned that it’s fat soluble.

6 If someone is getting most of their Vitamin D from a supplement, should you make sure to eat a fatty food at the same time as the supplement?

Dr. Klaper: It doesn’t take very much fat. The little bit of soybean oil that’s in the glass of soy milk is probably enough to get the Vitamin D absorbed. You should be taking vitamins with food anyway. So whatever you just ate is going to surely have some small amounts of fat or oils in it.

I don’t think you have to go overboard to eat extra fat just because you want to get your Vitamin D absorbed.

For the folks who are on just a few fats on every level, they’re just adi-phobic. Fat does have an important role in the body. And this is one of them. It does facilitate the absorption of fat soluble vitamins.

Some salad dressing with just a few drops of olive oil in it would be plenty. Small amounts of fat- containing foods are appropriate in a diet with most meals.

Trevor: Let’s just say that someone is theoretically eating fruits and green vegetables. No avocadoes, no olives and no oils. Nothing that’s high in fat. Do they need to worry that their Vitamin D isn’t going to get absorbed?

Dr. Klaper: If they’re just eating fruits and greens basically? The eighty-ten-ten diet?

Trevor: Yeah. I know some raw food people that’s basically their diet. That’s why I’m asking.

Dr. Klaper: That’s a good point.

I’m trying to think of the kinds of fat that might be in such a diet. Bananas. There’re tiny little bits of oil there. You may be cutting it pretty close as far as Vitamin D absorption. Any fruit with seeds will have small amounts of fat in the seeds.

Overall, there’s not a lot of fat in that diet. Most folks can probably get away with it however. If you want to be sure, take your Vitamin D and continue eating the way you feel is best and good, and then in a year get your blood checked.

Trevor: If someone only eats fat in one meal a day –

Dr. Klaper: That would be the meal to take the Vitamin D at. Absolutely. You got the idea.

Trevor: So to ensure you absorb the Vitamin D, if you eat one meal in a day with nut butter, a small amount of oil, tahini, olives or avocados, that would be the meal to take Vitamin D during.

Dr. Klaper: Well said, Trevor. That is exactly right.

Trevor: So really, we all need to supplement, even ovo-lacto vegetarians. One cup of fortified milk only contains 100 units, and an egg yolk only has 25 units. Even if we drank two cups of milk and ate two eggs – which I don't recommend – we'd only get 250 units, which is a small portion of the 1000 units we need in a day.

Dr. Klaper: That’s true. 7

That’s why supplements are ultimately necessary unless you’re spending all day out in the sunshine with your shirt off, every day. Short of that, you’re going to want to take supplements.

Trevor: Once again, this is all in the written lesson. I want to reiterate the supplement you mentioned once before. Dr. Furhman’s Gentle Care formula has 800 i.u. of Vitamin D as well as sufficient B12 for a day. And a whole bunch of good vitamins and minerals. You want to chime in here?

Dr. Klaper: Correct. That should be enough for most people.

Even if you are supplementing you should still get checked. Some people have increased needs due to low absorption.

Do what feels right for a year, then get tested. If you come out low, then you may consider Dr. Fuhrman's Osteo-Sun which has Vitamin D, calcium and magnesium in it.

Trevor: If you’re combining that supplement with having some soy, rice or almond milk that is fortified with Vitamin D, then you should easily be getting 1000 units in a day.

In the lesson I’ve given this link. I set up a URL that goes directly to Dr. Fuhrman’s vitamin mineral supplements. It’s www.veganmultivitamin.com . If anyone wants to check it out. That’s where that URL will take you directly to.

We have a question from Meredith McCarty. “Is there any amount of sunshine that will produce the amount needed at the latitude you mentioned?”

I’m not sure which latitude you’re referring to. Since you’re in Marin County, I'm guessing that is what you're asking about.

So, is there any amount of sunshine that will be enough that you will not need a supplement?

Dr. Klaper: There probably is.

Eight hours of sunshine would likely be sufficient, especially in the summer.

However, done day after day after day, that make your skin like an old leather suitcase.

To our ancient ancestors it didn’t matter: Leathered, weather-beaten skin was a mark of wisdom, experience and veneration. Nowadays it’s an unacceptable appearance for us. Yes, physiologically, the summer sun is still a source.

Yet, it would change our appearance, age our skin and put at risk of skin cancer. It’s not a very practical source these days.

It may be adequate in the warm Marin County sunshine in August, but in February your inside, hiding from the cold California rain. Your Vitamin D levels will drop and will not be sufficient. It works just for those months that the summer sun is high in the sky.

Trevor: I don’t know how realistic it will be to spend eight hours every day in the sun. I guess it depends on your occupation. 8

Dr. Klaper: That used to be the norm when we were growing our own food. You did spend all day out in the fields weeding and harvesting. Kids were given summer vacations because they needed to spend all day out in the fields helping their parents bring the crops in.

Under those conditions, I am sure there was plenty of Vitamin D in August in those folks’ bodies. But come February, there probably wasn’t.

Trevor: So, Meredith, I think the bottom line is that you need to have your Vitamin D levels checked once a year to be sure. And as Dr. Klaper said earlier, you might as well get B12 checked at the same time.

Dr. Klaper: Correct.

Trevor: The next question is from Cindy. “Can you have the Vitamin D test by mail? Or do you need to see a local medical doctor?”

Dr. Klaper: Good question. There are labs that will check your Vitamin D level for you by mail. I think MetaMetrix and Genova are two that will. They’ll send you out a little tube and a little kit.

You’ve got to go to your local lab and stick out an arm and get it done. But it’s a cheap common test.

Any of the local labs that your doctor uses can order Vitamin D levels. It’s easy just to ask your doctor or just walk into the lab directly. Some labs will also draw blood on request. Your doctor won’t object to ordering a Vitamin D level for you. You shouldn’t have to use a specialty lab.

Trevor: I had read that little quote off the web indicating that the mushrooms that are given five minutes of super light in a man-made environment would be available in a few years.

Meredith just sent in a comment saying she just bought some at Whole Foods. They’re not organic, but they do exist. She said they’re called “Vitamin D Button Mushrooms.”

Dr. Klaper: Welcome to the 21 st Century. Amazing. Wonderful.

Trevor: I’m curious why they call them “button mushrooms.”

Dr. Klaper: Those are the standard white button mushrooms that are common.

Trevor: I guess I’ve just given away the fact that I’m not a shopper.

Dr. Klaper: Not the shopper in the family? Fair enough.

Trevor: I personally don’t care for mushrooms. Apparently, they’re at the Marin County Whole Foods Market. If the Whole Foods in Marin County has it, other Whole Foods stores may also. It may be worth checking out.

Even a local health food store may have them. Obviously, they’re for sale. Somebody must be selling them over the web too. I would suspect a lot of people sell these extra specialty foods through Amazon.com.

9 We have another question from Cindy, “What have you heard about the SunSplash Healthy Tanning System by Dr. Mercola which supplies your Vitamin D?”

Dr. Klaper: I have not heard anything about that. I’m not surprised that Dr. Mercola is selling something like that. But I have not heard about that particular system. So I cannot comment on that.

Trevor: Bobbie is asking a question that we just answered for Meredith: “Do you feel that Vitamin D should be checked annually?”

Dr. Klaper: I definitely do, these days. After you’ve done it for a few years and you know a certain amount of Vitamin D orally keeps your blood level at a certain level that’s between thirty-five and fifty. At that point then you can probably stop doing it every year. Until you know what your Vitamin D levels are and what the supplementation does in your body, then, yes, I would get it checked once a year.

Trevor: Are any things that are not foods – such as stress – that might interfere with Vitamin D absorption?

Dr. Klaper: Not that I’m aware of.

Trevor: What about the usual culprits like caffeine, salt and sugar?

Dr. Klaper: Because Vitamin D is fat-soluble, it's very stable. Caffeine and salt are water soluble, so I don't think physics allows much mixing. I’m not a molecular bio-chemist.

Vitamin D is really a hormone that’s made internally. In that ideal natural state where we were making it all in our skin from the sun, no substance could inhibit it. It wasn't being “absorbed” per say, but simply being made within the skin.

This might be more information than you guys are interested in.

If you're wondering why you get Vitamin D out of Lanolin from sheep’s wool – well here is the answer. It makes sense when you think about it. Cows and pigs, and many animals, like humans, have fairly short hair. When they are out in the sunshine for hours at a time in nature, the sun allows them to generate Vitamin D in their skin.

Nature is just so wonderful.

It's not so with a sheep. The sheep skin is shielded from the sun by this thick layer of curly wool. How is that poor sheep out in the sunshine going to get Vitamin D made? Well, nature made this beautiful adaption.

Sheep don't hold the Vitamin D in their skin. Every bit of Vitamin D that they make is secreted in this oily material called lanolin. The oil, secreted on the surface of the skin.

Sheep lick them selves constantly, always grooming. They are actually getting their Vitamin D orally. That’s why it ends up in the Lanolin. Sheep’s wool is so thick the sun doesn’t make it to their skin. It’s a very ingenious mechanism.

A more gruesome but vegan-associated issue, is that it obviously didn’t take the humans long to say “Hey we can get the Vitamin D out of animal skin.” 10

At your local slaughterhouse, there is a huge supply of cow skin and pig skin going by on the assembly line. They use that skin mostly today, and not so much lanolin to extract Vitamin D3.

Trevor: You’re saying if I was stranded on a desert with a wool sweater – I could just lick my sweater?

Dr. Klaper: It’s a good theory. It’s probably washed out. If you had a sheep standing next to you, then you could lick the sheep's wool to get enough Vitamin D, that would be true.

Trevor: I have a question – How much dietary fat do you recommend that we take in as a percentage of our total calories? Obviously, this pertains to Vitamin D as well as other fat soluble vitamins.

Dr. Klaper: It's hard to say, and hard to measure. To measure the percentage of fats someone is eating in relation to everything else is a tedious process. It can get to be so: How many angels can dance on a pin? type of conversation.

Somewhere between a 10-20% is reasonable. 10% is as low as I would go. 20% is certainly as high as I would go. It’s somewhere in that range. And 10% is plenty for your Vitamin D absorption.

Trevor: That jives with what John Robbins reports in the great book, Healthy at 100 . John journeys around the world and visits the societies where people not only live the longest, but are still healthy and fit even after they are one hundred years old.

John analyzed the diets of these different societies and found that these people were consistently getting 15-20% of their dietary calories from fat. And not more than 20%.

Back to Vitamin D.

One cup of fortified non-dairy milk typically has 100 i.u., which is about 10% of what Dr. Klaper is recommending. And it’s D2, which is the plant-based.

One-fifth of a block of fortified tofu has 120 i.u.

One serving of fortified cereal on average is 40 i.u. Although I’m concerned because the cereals I looked at like Total and Cheerios had Vitamin D3, which is not vegetarian.

Do you know of fortified foods besides these that have Vitamin D2?

Dr. Klaper: I think that about covers it. There is Vitamin D2 available in products from Eden Foods and soy-milk makers, but it hasn't reached commercial orange juice yet.

The corporations, as a whole, don’t particularly care. Vitamin D3 is cheaper. No doubt about that.

Trevor: Is that right? Vitamin D3 is cheaper?

Dr. Klaper: Well, there is an infinite supply of cow skin moving down the assembly line. They usually extract it from there as opposed to irradiating mushrooms or algae. So Vitamin D3 is definitely cheaper stuff.

11 Trevor: Meredith just submitted a question. “If Vitamin D2 is plant based, what plants is it coming from?” You mentioned mushrooms and algae, anything else?

Dr. Klaper: Vitamin D2 – they call it the sunshine vitamin. It has the property of absorbing ultraviolet light. When ultraviolet light hits chromosomes or genes it can make them vibrate so quickly that it disrupts the structure of the molecules. That is why sun damaged skin happens.

Some fisher guy who’s been out on the boat for 40 years with a marked up wrinkly neck has been exposed to a lot of sun. The ultraviolet light from the sun has oxidized the elastic fibers in the skin and the skin has lost its elasticity.

This is one example of the problem that sunlight can inflict. Well, these poor mushrooms or some algae on a tree trunk is exposed to the same ultraviolet light. That ultraviolet light can be disruptive to that organism’s DNA.

So nature being pretty egalitarian says: Why don’t we give that little algae or mushroom the availability to make a molecule that absorbs this ultraviolet light before it causes any damage? And this is why some mushrooms and some algae have the ability to make Vitamin D as a shield against ultraviolet light that may cause some damage.

Just small traces of Vitamin D is sufficient for an individual mushroom or bit of algae. It's not enough for larger organisms like us. But nature has given some plants the ability to make Vitamin D to protect them from sun damage. Again, it’s just trace amounts. It’s not enough to help us and meet our nutritional needs.

The algae that grows on the surface of trees out on the edge of forests tend to be the kind that produce Vitamin D. And the types of mushrooms that are exposed to bright sunlight on occasion. I'm not a mushroom expert so I can't give exact names.

Trevor: Is there anything else you want to add on this topic?

Dr. Klaper: I just to invite everyone to take this subject seriously. This is one of the great medical sleeper stories. It took every physician by surprise. We were all shocked and disbelieving when these reports first came into the medical literature.

Imagine, you discover all of the sudden that 80% of your patients are Vitamin D deficient. None of us wanted to believe that. None of us knew enough about Vitamin D to even care. So what?

We were forced to open up our textbooks and view not only what we had learned in medical school but what has been learned since medical school. It's an eye-opener.

Shortage of Vitamin D can be a contributor to the increase in cancer rates. The less Vitamin D you have the higher your risk of colon cancer and various other cancers. This certainly affects every family doctor who’s looking out for the welfare of his patients.

It’s one thing to keep their cholesterol down and their blood pressure down. But, Doctor, you better make sure they keep their Vitamin D levels up.

Getting ample Vitamin D is as important as preventing high blood pressure. It's just as important as watching cholesterol and all those other aspects of health. 12

One-thousand units a day, or several thousand a few times a week... It's not that hard to do, but it can be devastating if you ignore it.

Trevor: Well, I really appreciate your time. Thank you, everyone for your questions.

Dr. Klaper: Okay, Trevor and everyone. Good night and a happy, healthy new year to all our listeners and participants. Thank you very much.

Trevor: Have a good night.

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