We feel it is so important to stress this point to you because we know trustworthy health consultants who experimented with higher doses of Vitamin D from sunlight plus foods plus supplementation and who suffered TOXICITY. Since Vitamin D is stored in the body fat, it takes time to reverse toxicity and any damage to the body.
How to Be Safer - Minerals, Oils and Vitamin D
When people increase their Vitamin D to good functioning level, they run smack into the second greatest deficiencies of modern man: minerals and good fatty acids.
The active D hormone must use calcium and its partner magnesium, which many people are already not getting enough of. So deficiency diseases of calcium and magnesium are exacerbated by the increase of Vitamin D which requires use of those minerals! Also trace minerals are required, and the full complement of minerals that which are missing from our foods and poor modern soils. Most people in our society have mineral deficiencies, since we do not have the heavily mineralized soils and water which we once had.
So when you increase your Vitamin D to have well-functioning body, you must also increase your mineral intake by some means. Just taking supplements to improve your health can backfire, because you can often cause a deficiency of other nutrients that are needed to work together with the ones you are taking. Your body needs all the nutrients to work together to create good health. That is why we recommend to increase your nutrition as much as possible through pure whole properly grown foods - then supplement with whole food supplements when more of a boost to normal function is needed over a short period.
Good fatty acids are also needed in order to use VItamin D, a fat-soluable vitamin and hormone. Omega-3 fatty acids are the ones we are most. lacking. On the other hand, a deficiency of omega-6 is extremely rare in diets of those living in North America. In fact, we are eating far too much omega-6 fatty acids. Although some are essential, the ratio we eat is far out of balance: we eat several times too much omega-6 (vegetable oils, muscle meat fats) compared to omega-3s (fatty fish, real raw dairy, organ meats). A healthy diet should consist of roughly one omega-3 fatty acids to four omega-6 fatty acids. A typical American diet, however, tends to contain 11 to 30 times more omega-6 than omega-3 fatty acids. In tryng to stay away from adulterated meat and dairy, we have cut our sources of good omega-3 fats, so we are less able to utilize the fat-soluable vitamins and minerals - including Vitamin D!
Omega-3 oils reduce the tendency to sunburn. People who increase omega-3 oils can stay in the sun longer before burning, and can produce more Vitamin D. On the other hand, skin cancer has been largely related to the over abundance of omega-6 oils that we eat. When sunlight hits these fats it can convert them to cancer-causing molecules. And if one is not healthy, these cells then can develop into cancer.
In 2000, a study was done which was published and is available from the National Library of Health and National Institutes of Health, a comprehensive review showing that the omega-3:6 ratio was the key to preventing skin cancer development. From the study: "Epidemiological, experimental, and mechanistic data implicate omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids as stimulators and long-chain omega-3s as inhibitors of development and progression of a range of human cancers, including melanoma." The cancerous transformation doesn't happen with omega-3 fats. So, changing the ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 oils in your diet is one the keys to preventing skin cancer. The best sources of omega-3 fat are fatty fish, cod liver oil, and grass- fed animal foods.
You may have heard of studies done of Swiss, Peruvian, Eskimo and South Sea Island peoples who lived far back away from modern civilization and its diets - and who enjoyed excellent health from their natural diets. These peoples all had much higher amounts than we do of Vitamin D through sunlight and/or fatty foods, including fish, coconut, grass-fed milk, cream, cheese and butter, and animal organs high in fats and fat-soluable vitamins. Good fats were essential parts of the primitive diet. Most also had heavily mineralized soils or waters, with much higher levels of calcium and other minerals. Traditional methods of food preparation preserved these nutrients and enhanced them with fermented plants or animal foods that added beneficial bacteria which also contributed to their incredible health.
Once last point: Traditional cultures, even earlier American culture, often used Cod liver oil for its rich Vitamin A and D content. These fat-soluable vitamins work together, and are often found together in foods (egg yolks is another example). But each has its own toxicity level. Add cod liver oil to your diets, especially in northern latitudes, but don't expect that to be your only source of Vitamin D. You should also seek Vitamin D from other natural sources like sunlight, and enough Omega-3 fatty acids and minerals to ensure your body has balanced nutrition to function properly. Use natural food sources whenever possible to get the natural co-factors.