Hypothesis – Optimize vitamin D at home by measuring excess Calcium in urine

It is difficult to determine how much vitamin D an individual needs

Need to add vitamin D for each of the following reasons

IU of vitamin D to add vs X

Even within the same risk group the vitamin D needed will vary by 4X

According to Dr. Vieth - May 2011 (see charts below) the body starts dumping calcium via the urine long before serum levels of calcium become elevated.

Hypothesis: The body starts exponentially dumping calcium via the urine would at the top of the personal optimal serum vitamin D range.
Thus we can interpret the urine dump of calcium as a precursor to the optimal D range.

Calcium increases in urine before increasing in blood if too much vitamin D - Veith

on wikipage = http://www.vitamindwiki.com/tiki-index.php?page_id=1660

Calcium/Creatinine ratio in urine vs vitamin D - Veith

in wikipage: http://www.vitamindwiki.com/tiki-index.php?page_id=1660

Hypothesis assumes that an individual will not have so much vertical variability

No increase in Calcium in Urine for vitamin D between 30 ng and 80 ng – July 2011

Urinary calcium response to high dose vitamin D3 with calcium supplementation in patients with multiple sclerosis.
Clin Biochem. 2011 Jul;44(10-11):930-2. Epub 2011 May 5.
Kimball SM, Burton JM, O'Connor PG, Vieth R.
University of Toronto, Department of Nutritional Sciences and Mount Sinai Hospital, Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, Toronto, ON, Canada M5G 1X5. samantha.kimball@utoronto.ca

OBJECTIVE:To characterize the effect of vitamin D(3) intake on urinary calcium:creatinine ratios across predefined ranges of serum 25(OH)D.

DESIGN:Patients with multiple sclerosis (n=25) received escalating doses of vitamin D(3) (4000-40,000IU/d) with calcium (1200mg/d).

RESULTS: Urinary calcium:creatinine was driven by increased 25(OH)D when concentrations were <75nmol/L (r=0.424, p=0.009) and >200nmol/L (r=0.281, p=0.01), but no relationship existed when 25(OH)D concentrations were 76-200nmol/L.

CONCLUSIONS: A "safe", physiological range of 25(OH)D concentrations is 75-200nmol/L.

Low-cost test for Calcium in the urine

Sulkowitch Urine (Calcium) Test – see attached PDF – very low cost ($1.30 per test) and can do at home

10 tests for $10 + shipping most anywhere in the world

Test is very simple - but will have to guess conversion between units on the graph and turbidity