Doctor's Best brand vitamin D3 softgels contain extra virgin olive oil instead of soybean oil
"Both the 2,000 IU and 5,000 IU versions of Doctor's Best brand vitamin D3 softgels contain extra virgin olive oil instead of soybean oil. Both the 2,000 IU softgels and the 5,000 IU softgels have the exact same dimensions and size. Studies show that people who use extra virgin olive oil at home enjoy a longer life expectancy and a much lower risk of heart attacks, strokes, cancer, infections, pneumonia, influenza, bone fractures, gum disease, and dementia compared to people who use any other vegetable oil at home. Extra virgin olive oil contains substantial quantities of hydroxytyrosol, tyrosol, oleocanthal, squalene, and also very tiny amounts of oleuropein, lignans, coenzyme Q10, and p-coumaric acid. Oleuropein is water-soluble but not fat-soluble so only a very tiny amount of it gets into the olive oil from the olive fruit.
IMPORTANT: Remember that the first symptom of hypervitaminosis D is hypercalciuria, which is fine particles of calcium sand coming out in your urine. You would know that the sand feels like microscopic rocks rather than dead skin. If you stop eating/swallowing vitamin D immediately after this happens, there will be no permanent harm and the calcium sand will stop coming out in your urine within 2 days. However, if you continue to eat/swallow your normal dosage of vitamin D after this happens, you will eventually develop irreversible damage to your arteries, kidneys, lungs, heart, and possibly other organs. Although the vast majority of people would need to eat/swallow at least 40,000 IU of vitamin D3 per day to experience hypercalciuria, I briefly developed hypercalciuria with a daily dose of only 15,000 IU per day: 4,000 IU from vitamin D3 softgels and 9,000 IU to 13,000 IU daily from eating shiitake mushrooms(D2) and pink salmon with the skin(D3). Both foods are extremely good sources of vitamin D. Until recently, I had been swallowing only 2,000 IU of vitamin D3 daily for several years and had never experienced any problems whatsoever. However, my scariest moment happened about one week after I discontinued my daily 4,000 IU of vitamin D3 softgels. The calcium sand in my urine, which for me is always colored orange, returned for just one more day because I ate lots of shiitake mushrooms on that day. I have never had kidney stones in my whole life and, as far as I can tell, I still haven't developed any kidney stones.
UPDATE: I can swallow 5,125 IU of vitamin D3 daily (5,000 IU from 1 softgel and 125 IU from a 600mg calcium carbonate tablet) plus eat lots of various fish(D3) [for 21 days] and still not develop calcium sand in my urine.
UPDATE: I can swallow 10,125 IU of vitamin D3 daily plus eat lots of various fish(D3) [for 21 days] and still not develop calcium sand in my urine.
UPDATE: I can swallow 15,125 IU of vitamin D3 daily plus eat lots of various fish(D3) [for 21 days] and still not develop calcium sand in my urine.
UPDATE: I can swallow 20,125 IU of vitamin D3 daily plus eat lots of various fish(D3) [for 7 days] and still not develop calcium sand in my urine.
UPDATE: I can swallow 25,125 IU of vitamin D3 daily plus eat lots of various fish(D3) [for 3 days] and still not develop calcium sand in my urine.
UPDATE: I can swallow 50,125 IU of vitamin D3 daily plus eat lots of various fish(D3) [for 1 day] and still not develop calcium sand in my urine.
The only way I can trigger the orange-colored calcium sand to form in my urine is to eat lots of dried shiitake mushrooms(D2) from China. The orange-colored calcium sand will always appear in my urine about 3 to 5 hours after I eat about a half pound (dry weight) of shiitake mushrooms on any day, even if I had stopped eating fish(D3) and stopped swallowing vitamin D3 softgels for many weeks. This proves to me that the mushroom farmers in China and the U.S. love to expose their mushrooms to plenty of natural sunlight and/or expose their mushrooms to ultraviolet fluorescent lighting just before shipping them to market. This increases the vitamin D2 in mushrooms by 100 times or more, thereby saving many human lives by preventing cancer, heart disease, and hip fractures but endangering mushroom lovers with hypervitaminosis D.
BREAKING NEWS: I'm not continuing this experiment any further. I will be swallowing only 125 IU of vitamin D3 for three months, then resume at a dosage of only 5,000 IU per week plus 125 IU per day the rest of my life. Why so low? The reason is that according to a 2010 scientific study by Karl Michaëlsson and others, swallowing 5,000 IU per day of vitamin D3 will approximately double the risk of death from cancer in most people compared to people who swallow only 1,000 IU or 2,000 IU per day. Swallowing 10,000 IU per day of vitamin D3 will approximately triple the risk of death from cancer in most people compared to people who swallow only 1,000 IU or 2,000 IU per day. Swallowing 15,000 IU per day of vitamin D3 will approximately quadruple the risk of death from cancer in most people compared to people who swallow only 1,000 IU or 2,000 IU per day. However, swallowing only 1,000 IU or 2,000 IU per day of vitamin D3 will lower the risk of death from cancer in most people by approximately 50% compared to people who don't swallow any vitamin D2 or D3.
My final advice:
Swallow 2,000 IU of vitamin D3 per day if you don't eat much fish or mushrooms.
Swallow only 1,000 IU of vitamin D3 per day if you eat plenty of fish and/or plenty of mushrooms and/or damage your skin and eyes with plenty of sunshine.
It's perfectly OK to swallow vitamin D2 instead of vitamin D3 if you prefer. Both are equally well absorbed.
If you are willing to regularly measure your blood hydroxyvitamin D levels, then aim for the optimal range of "serum 25(OH)D," which is exactly 24 to 34 ng/mL. That's the exact same thing as 60 to 85 nmol/L. The higher or lower (farther) you go above or below (away from) that optimal range, the higher your risk of cancer death, cardiovascular death, bone fractures, and impaired immune function.
In my opinion, mushroom farmers should completely stop irradiating their mushrooms with ultraviolet light. They could be causing just as many cancer deaths, heart attack deaths, and hip fracture deaths among mushroom lovers as they are preventing among occasional mushroom eaters. Also, the U.S. government should measure the amount of vitamin D in mushroom products.
MEDICAL INFO: Orange-colored calcium sand in human urine can be caused by (1)eating too much animal protein, (2)eating too much salt, (3)swallowing 1,800mg or more of supplemental calcium per day, and/or (4)swallowing several hundred thousand IUs of vitamin D2 or vitamin D3 in just one day. However, people who eat lots of mushrooms can develop orange-colored calcium sand in their urine after eating much less than 50,000 IU of vitamin D. The reason is that mushrooms contain not only lots of vitamin D2 but also lots of vitamin D1 and lots of vitamin D4. Vitamin D4 has health benefits that all other forms of vitamin D lack. For example, vitamin D4 is prescribed by some medical doctors to increase the amount of calcium circulating in human blood."
