Most people don’t know this about vitamin D

Most people don't know this about vitamin D. Let's talk about it. Welcome back to the Kidney Stone Diet Podcast, the show about reducing your kidney stone risk and living your best life.

I'm your host and fellow student, Jeff Sarris.

And I'm Jill Harris, your kidney stone prevention nurse. Nurse, nurse, nurse.

So, yeah, vitamin D. It is a big topic, especially in the winter right now, where I am as pale as I possibly can be.

I know. I glow. I'm translucent.

The only thing that gets, I have red because when I get a little excited, I get red here.

Yeah. But, yeah, this is the time of year, taking those supplements, doing everything, wishing for the sun, but there's some things with vitamin D that people don't know about.

Yes. So, vitamin D, it's it's there's there's a few things I want to talk about here. So, first of all, a lot of functional doctors, holistic doctors, naturopaths, they like to put a lot of the patients that come to me, I can only speak for what I see, my experience,

And that's decades. Decades of patients and that's decades of patients, thousands of patients.

Yeah, so it's a lot. It's a lot. Unfortunately, meaning when people try to say something, I'm like I've been doing this almost 30 years.

So, I do have I may not be the smartest person in the world, but boy, do I have experience. So, I've heard a lot. And I know what you guys do as patients because thousands and thousands of people I've talked to.

And so, I have heard this from many of my patients. "Well, Jill, I was sick of conventional medicine, so I went to a functional doctor. I went to the naturopath.

I went to my acupuncturist. I went to my chiropractor." All these other people. And all these other people who are not, perhaps, mostly, they're not thinking about kidney stones.

So, they're loading up patients on vitamin D. The problem with that is they don't know that vitamin D in excess can cause kidney stones. And that's simply because, well, vitamin D's tricky, like I said.

It's kind of like Goldilocks. So, we want vitamin D levels to be pretty much in the middle, 40s, 50s. Those are nice levels for vitamin D.

We don't want them way too high, like over 80. We don't want your vitamin D level way too low. That's why you get on supplements.

Because if it's too low, then you're not absorbing the calcium you're taking in. If it's too high, you may be over-absorbing. So, we want it right in the middle.

That's really important. But a lot of you get loaded up. Here's another common scenario.

"Jill, I went to my doctor, my functional medicine doctor, and they put me on 10,000 units of vitamin D every day." Okay. So, what's your When was that? "Well, it was about a year and a half ago." Well, has it been rechecked?

"No, it hasn't been rechecked." And now their vitamin D is sky high. And when they do their urine collection, because I ask all these questions when I'm taking a history on patients. I ask about their medical history, I ask about supplements, I ask about pills, I ask about No stone unturned.

Yes, I meant the pun. So, a lot So, when they tell me how much they're taking, I'm like, "When's the last time did you have that checked?" And they're like, "I haven't gotten it checked." So, now their vitamin D is so high and now their urine calcium is high because of that. So, when I'm looking at a urine collection, I'm trying to figure out why somebody's urine calcium is high so that they can talk to their doctor about that.

"Here's all the possible scenarios it may be high, and now go have that conversation with your doctor." So, number one, if you're put on a vitamin D supplement, you must get a check in 4 weeks, 5 weeks to see where that supplement's hitting you, especially if it's on a high dose. Some people are put on 50,000 units. So, if your vitamin D is super low, a doctor, naturopath, any of those doctors, holistic people, they may put you on a supplement, but please make sure it get your blood gets checked to see, because vitamin D slowly act- ac- accumulates.

You guys, most of the time you all think you take a vitamin, the next thing you know, you're immune, your vitamin C's good. It takes time for these things to be absorbed. Vitamin D takes time to be absorbed.

So, you want to get a follow-up test in however long your doctor tells you, and then see where your vitamin D falls. If it's still really low, the doctor may keep you on that dose. If it's where the doctor wants it to be, then you go on a maintenance dose.

So, for me, I take 2,000 units a day. I live in Chicago, my vitamin D is low. This keeps it where it needs to be.

I did a really poor job one year not consistently taking my vitamin D. And so when I went in for my primary, I'm not perfect, when I went in for my primary visit, she's like, "Jill, what the hell? Your vitamin D's low again." I said, "Oh, mea culpa.

I wasn't taking my pill." She's like, "Well, start taking your pill. You know better. Look what you teach for a living." I said, "I know, Courtney, I know." Anyway, I took my extra dose, 4,000.

She tested me in 4 weeks. It got to the middle where it should be, and then I stay on my 2,000 to keep it there. Like a good girl, I take my little kitty pill.

Okay. The other thing is when you take vitamin D, here's another thing nobody's telling you. You got to take it with fat!

Because it's a fat-soluble vitamin. So, it will absorb better when you're having a fat, a food that has fat in it. "Oh, good.

Can I have a Can I have Doritos, Jill? Can I have" No, I don't want you having Doritos with your vitamin D. Have something like avocado.

So, typically, I have avocado. I do have that pretty much every day. It works well for my gut issues.

It's a great healthy fat, and it has a nice fiber in it. So, that's a staple in my diet, and it is then that I take my vitamin D pill. So, please take your vitamin D supplement with a higher-fat product, okay?

Healthy product. Avocado's a great thing. And no, you Yes, you can have avocado on a low-oxalate diet, okay?

There's videos on avocados on this YouTube show. So, the other thing, so if your vitamin D is too high, the doctor may say, "Let's get you off vitamin D for a minute, and then we'll recheck you, and then we'll put you on a supplement that will keep you where we want you to be," okay? So, that's important, too.

Here's another common scenario. I'm taking my medical history. "Do you take vitamin D?" "Oh, Jill, no.

No, no. I don't take vitamin D. As soon as I got a kidney stone, I went on the internet, and it says 'Don't take vitamin D' all these places.

So I got off of it." "Did you Do you know what your vitamin D level is?" "No." Well, you need to go get a blood test. You need to see where your vitamin D level is because if it's too low, you may need a supplement. That is so very common, people tell me, "Oh, Jill, no.

As soon as I made a stone, I took away my supplement." You need vitamin D to help you absorb the calcium you're now, especially with kidney stones, going to start consuming. So, vitamin D is important for a lot of things, but it helps us absorb calcium, and we do want to absorb it so our bones stay happy, all right? So, vitamin D, it's annoying because we do want it to be in the middle.

It's like Goldilocks, not too high, not too low. If you need a supplement, take it with a fat for a healthy fat like avocado. Don't forget to take it, don't be like Jill.

Make sure you take it every single day. Of course, if you forget a day, you forget a day, get right back on track. I forget sometimes, but I do get right back on track.

And make sure to get your blood If you've never had your vitamin D checked, and a lot of doctors will say, you know, doctors will say, " you don't need that." I do, because I have high urine calcium. So, I want to rule out that my vitamin D is not too high or not too low. So, that's super important.

So, do you have to stop taking vitamin D when you have kidney stones? Absolutely not. In fact, you may need vitamin D to help you absorb the calcium you're now getting.

I think that's it, Jeff.

Yeah.

I think so.

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Jeff, I can't tell you how many people say, "I told my Aunt Irene," "I told my father," "I told," you know, because there's there's so many people, there's millions and millions of people that get kidney stones every year, so. And also, guys, it really does, Jeff said to subscribe, it really does help if you press the subscribe button because YouTube will show us higher in the ranking so people get good, credible information.

We don't feel popular from it, we just want YouTube to show our videos, otherwise we just get lost in all the muck that there is. And we want to show higher in the ranking so people get great, credible, easy-to-understand information on how to prevent kidney stones and stop this nonsense. Painful nonsense, by the way.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And speaking of YouTube, think you'll like the video that's on the screen right now, and we will see you next week.

Bye, guys.