I was wondering if anyone gives their system a break from daily vitamins/minerals/herbs or supplements in general. If so, please tell why, and for how long.

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"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~Immanual Kant~

I hope that no one is daft enough to let their vitamin D status drop.

I've put a non copyright version of Vieth's paper on the reasons why you need to keep your vitamin D status both HIGH and STABLE here.
How to Optimize Vitamin D Supplementation to Prevent Cancer

Basically your immune system is extremely complex and has numerous checks and balances. It has to raise inflammatory status to call up the fire brigade that later damps down that inflammation. So for every start action their has to be a counterbalancing stop mechanism.

So when your vitamin d status changes the amount of hormones that are derived from that basic Vitamin D3 also will require adjustment. There can be a period of adjustment when the fine tuning of pro and anti proliferative mechanisms are out of balance.

I've noticed that some of my richer friends who can afford to go off to the tropics for a short winter sun break often return with a cold picked up on the flight home or maybe on arrival. You might think laying in the tropical sun would have raised their 25(OH)D levels such that they were impervious to upper respiratory tract infections. But the reason they are vulnerable is the sudden change in their status has left there immune system in catch up mode and while it is resetting it's set point they are vulnerable to infection and cancer.

So ideally you will NOT EVER forget to take your vitamin d and if you do miss a day you will double up the next day or if you miss a week you will double up on a weeks intake.
25(OH)D needs to be kept up above 50ng/ml 125nmol/l
The best way is daily 5000iu/D3
weekly or fortnightly is possible using a pro rata amount. 7x 5000 or 14x 5000

But monthly(30 X 5000) is the limit I would accept as not increasing the risk of increasing the periods during which the immune system has to re tune itself to the changes you are causing by an intermittent supplementation regime.

I take almost all of my supplements daily, esp Vit D3, Magnesium, Potassium,
Vit C, Resveratrol. CoQ10, and Iodine, as well as eating fresh garlic. They are
what keep me well!

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So, would it be correct to say that the person who has never taken a D3 supplement, except for the 200 IUs in their multiple, would be better off than somone who was taking 5,000 IUs a day, and then stopped?

Thanks for your reply, and all your informative posts!

Absolutely not.
It is safer to have a natural high status than be deficient.

There are far worse things that happen to people who are below 50ng/nl however if you can avoid periods when there is the potential for imbalance in immune function that is better than having sudden changes in level.

200iu leaves you deficient throughout the year and vulnerable to infection, cancer and heart disease 365days of the year. You cannot expect immune function to work at maximum power and sustain that action over a period if there isn't sufficient substrate Vitamin D3 and Calcidiol available.

As your body is only able to store D3 when in surplus it follows you only have any stored D3 when your 25(OH)D level is above 40 and significant stores above 50ng/ml. Having stored D3 helps smooth over the shortages as levels decline in winter.

Every day your status is over 50ng/ml and hopefully towards 60ng/ml the better and the lower your risk of chronic illness.

So getting above that threshold and building vitamin D3 reserves is the first objective.

The key point in Vieth's paper is
Higher summertime 25(OH)D levels are followed by sharper declines in 25(OH)D, causing inappropriately low 1-hydroxylase and high 24-hydroxylase, resulting in tissue 1,25(OH)2D below its ideal set-point.
We can avoid sudden drops in status by using effective strength supplements so we always stay above the threshold line.

It is also important that people understand that the Vitamin D2 form ERGOCALCIFEROL has a shorter half life in the body and tends to increase rapid cycling.So you see from this graph how those on D3 stay high for longer while those on D2 drop to lower at the end of the month than they were at the start.

I will occasionally miss one or two days a week. I do not think it matters much, as long as you do not drop them for weeks or months at a time. Of course, if you are taking them for a drug like effect, that is a different matter.

Dan

For me it's just part of my everyday routine to take some of my supplements
before breakfast when I take my glucose reading, then some after breakfast
for those that have to be taken with or after food like the D3. Since I came
up slightly deficient on my D3 test, I've been taking 5000iu D3 twice a day.