Hacker News Reader

Comment by jayess | Hacker News Reader

I started taking vitamin d because I have a family history of colon cancer, and it has been shown to reduce such instances. My doctor said it is one of the few vitamin supplements that has strong clinical evidence to support its use. A happy side effect was that vitamin d also nearly totally made my acne go away. I take on 5000IU in the morning and one at night.

View on HN

Examine.com offers a good roundup of research on Vitamin D, see https://examine.com/supplements/vitamin-d/

Do you regularly test your vitamin D levels?

This is sort of my concern. I had extremely low vitamin D, so I started megadosing on the advice of my doctor (50000IU/week). The problem is, without regular tests, I don't really know when I should be stopping. Vitamin D is fat soluble, and at some point, I'll in theory have levels that are too high.

True - you should just schedule a blood test. In most US states you can do it yourself without a physician via online lab ordering companies. You will pay out of pocket (or you can use health savings). I usually do this b/c its easier for stuff like this if I am curious about blood levels and procrastinate too much on setting up doctor appts ;)

EDIT: Wanted to mention that a Vit D test is usually around 30-50 bucks, so not too expensive

Ah thank you, this is something I would've looked into when I felt it had been long enough but this is pretty much exactly what I'm looking for.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com