Re: Vitamin D flashlights?
I just read through both of those, and they sound like the regular seesaw research that is typical with eggs, butter, etc. The nutritional, preventative health fringe becomes Big Vitamin.
Too much of anything can't be good for you.
I notice that the first link mainly talks about increased falls and fractures, makes me wonder if the patients aren't going with the magic bullet theory and becoming too ambitious with their activities without ramping up slowly enough, or if the supplementation is making them want to dance around.
My experience has been that I can most often tell when I'm liable to get sick, if I'm liable then even without much contact with other people I'll seem to absorb whatever virus is available and come down with it. On the other hand when I'm feeling bullet proof it mostly bears out, spending time with someone with a cold or flu is a non issue.
For myself, if I feel cold all the time, have low energy, and my sinuses feel irritated, chances are that I'm going to get sick if anything comes into contact with a mucus membrane.
When I take D3, I take a lot of it for a few days, and then back off when I don't feel chilled and low energy. A lot for me is about 100 times the daily recommended, backing off means I keep taking about 10 times the daily recommended whenever I feel like it through the rest of the winter. Really scientific, but I go by how I feel.
Everything I've read recommends that people get their levels checked by bloodwork, and that while overdosing on the fat soluble D3 is a very serious matter that can damage heart and bones, that it is very difficult to accomplish, and they don't have many cases of it to study.
What I've read seemed to say that I'd have to maintain my mega dose for several months rather than the few days that I take it, in order to run much risk of doing harm.
If also heard that you can get a fatal dose of vitamin A from eating a single hearty meal of arctic sea mammal liver, seals and polar bear both iirc.