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Wisdom Wednesday: Vitamin D Helps With Depression - And There's an Optimal Dose · Hardiness with Dr Paul Taylor

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, welcome to another edition of Wisdom Wednesdays, and
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  Speaker 1: today we are going to talk about the sunshine vitamin D,
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  Speaker 1: which actually has a bit of an identity crisis. It's
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  Speaker 1: more of a hormone than a vitamin, and I have
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  Speaker 1: spoken about it before, but I want to revisit it
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  Speaker 1: because there's been a new meta analysis release of thirty
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  Speaker 1: one different randomized control trials, which is really good evidence
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  Speaker 1: when we get that number of RCTs and the end
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  Speaker 1: there's a meta analysis pulling all the data together. And
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  Speaker 1: what this meta analysis looked at was supplementing vitamin D
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  Speaker 1: and its effect on depression symptoms. So the studies included
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  Speaker 1: a total of twenty fourth thousand, just over twenty four
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  Speaker 1: thousand adults and from age twenty two to sixty most
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  Speaker 1: of had depression. And I just want to jump to
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  Speaker 1: the findings and then discuss about it. And what they
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  Speaker 1: find was that vitamin D supplementation reduced depressive symptoms with
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  Speaker 1: small effects size, which is moderate certainty of evidence, and
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  Speaker 1: that is exactly what you see with antidepressant medication like SSRIs,
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  Speaker 1: So it would appear that vitamin D is as effective
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  Speaker 1: with SSRIs, but without the side effects. Now, they only
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  Speaker 1: confirmed the benefits in the patient two did have depression
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  Speaker 1: because they were looking at mood, right, But what they
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  Speaker 1: find was that higher doses of vitamin D up to
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  Speaker 1: and this is from supplemental form up to eight thousand
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  Speaker 1: IUS per day reduced depressive symptoms to a greater degree. Right.
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  Speaker 1: So when I said that the effects size was small,
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  Speaker 1: that was across all of it. But when the people
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  Speaker 1: had higher doses, that had a greater impact. And most
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  Speaker 1: of the impact was about people's supplement ending with about
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  Speaker 1: five thousand I used per day. And the study lasted
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  Speaker 1: for twenty four weeks, so there was no long term stuff.
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  Speaker 1: But this is pretty important stuff. And let's look at
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  Speaker 1: a big picture. So you see in observational studies low
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  Speaker 1: levels of vitamin D, people who have low levels. And
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  Speaker 1: by the way, estimates are that anything from seventy to
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  Speaker 1: eighty five percent of people around the world have suboptimal
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  Speaker 1: levels of vitamin D. So you have vitamin D deficiency
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  Speaker 1: and then you have vitamin D insufficiency. I mean you
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  Speaker 1: pull those two together. We talk about suboptimal, all right,
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  Speaker 1: So there's a lot of people out there with suboptimal
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  Speaker 1: vitamin D that is probably affecting their mood because vitamin
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  Speaker 1: D does so much shit in the body. Neither's Several
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  Speaker 1: prior meta analysis actually looked at the evidence for vitamin
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  Speaker 1: D and symptoms of depression and they also find small
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  Speaker 1: to moderate benefits in patients with depression, particularly those who
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  Speaker 1: had low vitamin D levels. And the main result in
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  Speaker 1: this meta analysis brings to the table is the dose response.
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  Speaker 1: So a large range of vitamin D doses have been
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  Speaker 1: studied and that can contribute to the difference that you
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  Speaker 1: see in the effects between different studies. Now, this meta
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  Speaker 1: analysis was designed to clarify the relationship between the doses
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  Speaker 1: and the effects size. So they used a method that
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  Speaker 1: was devised by Swedish researchers in twenty sixteen and combined
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  Speaker 1: the data from randomized control trial of many different dosages
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  Speaker 1: to plot what we call a dose response curve that
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  Speaker 1: then estimated the effects size of different doses. And as
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  Speaker 1: I said in the analysis, the effects size of five
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  Speaker 1: thousand ius per day was roughly the three times the
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  Speaker 1: effects size of people taking a thousand iu per day.
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  Speaker 1: So in comparison, the recommended daily amount for VINAM and
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  Speaker 1: D supplementation is four to eight hundred I used per day,
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  Speaker 1: so that would suggest that that's nowhere near enough to
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  Speaker 1: have those benefits on mood. Now, the plot that they
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  Speaker 1: did suggest that there were diminishing returns above around five
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  Speaker 1: thousand I use per day, right, so that would have
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  Speaker 1: seemed to be the optimal amount if you're going to
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  Speaker 1: supplement with it. Now, one thing that I would say
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  Speaker 1: is to get your vinamin D levels checked and then
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  Speaker 1: and once you get them checked, and then you go
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  Speaker 1: on the supplement and then you check them again. You
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  Speaker 1: can get vinamin D toxicity, but it's highly unlikely if
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  Speaker 1: you're taking five thousand I use per day. But really
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  Speaker 1: you should be checking your levels if you're taking that
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  Speaker 1: supplement for six months or longer, because then it could
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  Speaker 1: nudge your levels up if you have first gain in
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  Speaker 1: your spur, spend a bit of time in the sun,
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  Speaker 1: so we need to know what your levels are and
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  Speaker 1: then I actually am a big fan of getting your
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  Speaker 1: levels up to one hundred milli males per liter, which
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  Speaker 1: is I think it's forteen nanograms per milli lider. So
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  Speaker 1: in Australia we use milli males and in the US
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  Speaker 1: to use nanograms and it's a factor of two point five,
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  Speaker 1: so one hundred to one hundred and fifty millimles per leader.
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  Speaker 1: That's where I like to get my vinamin D levels.
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  Speaker 1: And then if you're in nanograms per per millileter, you
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  Speaker 1: just divide that by two point five, right, so that
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  Speaker 1: is forty to sixty is what you're looking at here.
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  Speaker 1: So the takeaway is that in the short to medium term,
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  Speaker 1: supplementing with vinamin D does appear to reduce depression symptoms
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  Speaker 1: and individuals with depression and or low vitamin D levels
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  Speaker 1: and higher that dosages up to about five thousand value
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  Speaker 1: per day lead to greater benefits. So and as I
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  Speaker 1: said right at the start, it's the similar, very similar
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  Speaker 1: effects size to antidepressant medication, but vinamin D doesn't come
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  Speaker 1: with the whole host of scurry side effects that antidepressant does.
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  Speaker 1: So it really is important. I mean, our biology really
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  Speaker 1: is oriented around the sun a lot of it, and
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  Speaker 1: vitamin D is so critical. I think it is absolutely
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  Speaker 1: the most important vitamin in the body bar none, and
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  Speaker 1: particularly if you live in Australia. We're obviously all aware
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  Speaker 1: of the dangers of the sun, but it is very
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  Speaker 1: clear that not getting enough sun is bad for your
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  Speaker 1: mood and it's bad for so many other processes in
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  Speaker 1: your body. So we need to strike that balance and
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  Speaker 1: the best way to do it is go and get
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  Speaker 1: your vitamin D levels measured. If your doctor doesn't want
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  Speaker 1: to do it, you can get it done commercially. That
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  Speaker 1: is it for this week, folks, Catch you next time.