00:05 – It turns out that vitamin D, which everybody has heard of, plays a very important role
00:13 – in your immune system and protecting your bladder and helping to fight infections. It
00:21 – turns out the vitamin D causes the bladder wall itself to secrete a substance called
00:28 – Cathelicidin and that Cathelicidin fights bacterial infections. Vitamin D is also the
00:36 – reserve unit of the immune system and the activated form, not the stored form, is so
00:44 – potent it can even kill Tuberculosis. Vitamin D is the precursor of cortisol that your adrenals
00:52 – need to handle stress, and if you’re having chronic infections you certainly experience
00:57 – a lot of pain and maybe disrupted sleep, and there is a higher demand for cortisol for
01:03 – your adrenals. And also it’s the precursor of progesterone, it helps balance your estrogen.
01:12 – Most of us are familiar with vitamin D with helping to absorb calcium, and reduce osteoporosis.
01:19 – But for the immune system we want to not only fight infection but also balance other immune markers.
01:34 – We get vitamin D from the sun but because we are so conscious of using sunscreens,
01:42 – we’re actually blocking the vast majority of production of vitamin D made by the skin.
01:49 – SPF15 sunscreen blocks production by 87%. So our really only natural source is through
01:57 – the diet and mushrooms are the only food that has vitamin D in it. So they add it to foods
02:09 – at the grocery store but one study showed that up to 70% of the foods taken off the
02:15 – grocery store shelf claiming to have vitamin D added to it really don’t have that amount
02:20 – on the label. So supplementing becomes the main way in which we need to depend on additional
02:28 – vitamin D to help our bladders.
02:35 – There are lab tests to measure your vitamin D.
02:37 – The United States labs use the reference range of 30 to 100 as normal, however, there’s a problem
02:45 – with that because there are seasonal and geographic variations. The further away from the equator
02:52 – you are, the less sun you get fewer months of the year. And certainly in summer time
02:58 – you’re able to make more vitamin D than you are in the winter time when the angle of the
03:02 – sun is so low. The one thing that I’ve recently discovered is that when they did this normal
03:10 – reference range they did not exclude people who have a vitamin D receptor mutation. And
03:17 – I think this is a huge problem for those with chronic urinary tract infections. I’ve had
03:24 – over 125 patients do genetic testing for this and so far 100% of them have come back with
03:31 – this particular mutation. So with the vitamin D receptor mutation, even if you’re out in
03:39 – the sun, even if you’re getting plenty in your diet, unless you’re supplementing your
03:46 – body will never have sufficient amounts of vitamin D to help fight infection.
03:57 – So what do we do about this? Well, we need to supplement. There are two forms of vitamin D. The prescription
04:05 – form is vitamin D2. The one that’s available over the counter is vitamin D3. And actually
04:14 – the vitamin D3 form is more bioavailable and therefore a better choice. How do we take
04:22 – it? Most people use oral supplementation and that works well for them. However, for some
04:28 – people they don’t absorb it well because of GI issues or other problems, and it turns
04:36 – out that Patch MD, sells a vitamin D transdermal patch which is very well tolerated with almost
04:44 – everyone. I have a few patients who need to use the vitamin D injections once a week in
04:52 – order to get their levels up, and that’s another alternative.
05:02 – So, how much do you take? Well, there’s a difference between a restorative dose when your levels are already low and
05:09 – a maintenance dose – what you need to keep taking on a consistent basis to keep it in
05:14 – a healthy range. The restorative level is 10,000 a day for two to three months and the
05:21 – goal is to get your value over 50 if you’re using a reference range of 30 to 100. And
05:27 – the maintenance level to keep it in that range is generally 5,000 units a day for most people.
05:35 – I do have a few people who require more than that, based on their genetics and their vitamin D receptor mutation involved.
05:48 – So conclusions. We know that low vitamin D levels do significantly
05:54 – contribute to chronic urinary tract infections and keeping your levels between 50 and 80
06:02 – is optimum for fighting and reducing the occurrences of urinary tract infections. And a high percentage
06:09 – of those with chronic urinary tract infections will need to supplement vitamin D the rest
06:14 – of their lives in order to stay healthy.