The RDA for vitamin d is a lot lower than is optimal for most people, unless you're out in the sun a lot with some exposed skin. Up to 4000iu a day is safe, yet the RDA is 400iu! Ideally you should have a blood test to check your your vitamin d levels before taking a high dose supplement. I used to take a vitamin d supplement of 1000iu a day, as well as a multivitamin which contains 400iu, so quite a high dose. I spend little time in bright sunlight as I can't cope with high temperatures. I decided to up the vitamin d supplement to 2000iu last winter, as I read that it can help with depression, which I was suffering from badly. I also started taking high dose turmeric, which can also help with depression. I have ME too, which is very debilitating, and is worse in winter, so those combined with menopause wasn't a good combo. To my surprise after about a month to 6 weeks my mood lifted, and my energy increased a bit too. 🙂 I'm not suceptible to the placebo effect! Unfortunately as I increased the vitamin d at the same time as starting the turmeric, I don't know which is responsible for the improvement, it could well be both. Inflammation is heavily implicated in depression, and turmeric is a strong anti inflammatory. I've taken many, many supplements over the years, and never had the lasting improvement that I've had with these. I also take a multivitamin/mineral, you need co factors such as vitamin k, zinc and magnesium I seem to remember, to help the absorption of vitamin d. Cod liver oil isn't great, it's the filtering system of the fish and can be high in toxins including heavy metals, which are abundant in the sea (unless well filtered). Fish oils tend to go rancid very quickly, hence the awful taste, unless they contain vitamin e which slows the degredation down, and they should be refrigerated or even put in the freezer. Rancid fish oils are high in free radicals, which are damaging to the body.
I bought both products from Nature's Best, who supply quality supplements. They guarantee the purity and potency of their products, and virtually all of them are manufactured in the UK. Unbelievably, it's legal for supplements to be manufactured abroad and packaged in the UK, and to declare that they're made in the UK! 🙄 They're often made in China - I wouldn't knowingly put anything produced in China into my body! Many supplements contain nowhere near the potency stated on the label, and some contain contaminants like heavy metals, so you really need to only buy them from reputable companies rather than cheap stuff from eBay, supermarkets etc. Just wanted to make people aware how important it is to buy quality supplements for reasons of safety and efficacy.
