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This is a preprint and has not been peer reviewed by a journal. The study out of the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia looked at high dose Vitamin D. The theory is that obesity happens when the body stores surplus calories as fat instead of muscle. It evaluated how Vitamin D affects this. It was a study in mice. The exact amounts and trends need to be studied further, but its results were compelling. “High dose dietary Vitamin D allocates surplus calories to muscle and growth instead of fat via modulation of myostatin and leptin signaling.”
We focus a lot on muscle mass at Biohackr Health.
- Muscle mass has been shown to correlate to dementia (less muscle = higher risk dementia).
- It helps with heart, diabetes, blood pressure and other disease processes.
- You lose muscle as you age (menopause in women, men over the age of 50).
- For those who are doing major weight loss (ie 10% or more of your body weight), loss of muscle mass is common.
LEPTIN: Fat secretes leptin, a hormone that controls energy balance in the brain. More leptin / being more sensitive to leptin is good. Changes in fat mass correlate with changes in serum leptin. Elevated leptin–>brain decreases appetite and increases energy expenditure. But when people are obese, sensitivity to leptin is impaired.
MYOSTATIN: Muscle makes the hormone myostatin. More myostatin is bad for muscle growth. It acts as a negative regulator, meaning myostatin inhibits muscle development. When myostatin levels are high, muscle growth is suppressed.
HOW DOES VITAMIN D COME INTO PLAY? The thought is that Vitamin D improves strength via growth of muscle. What these researchers found is that high dose vitamin D
- Decreases myostatin
- Increases leptin production and sensitivity (Studies have shown Vitamin D helps storage of lipids in white fat, which is the fat which makes leptin)
- High dose vitamin D increases allocation of excess calories to muscle instead of fat.
Study:
This was a study in mice. They looked at the effect of increasing Vitamin D from the normal range to higher and then assessed muscle function.
Findings?
- Normal Vitamin D increased strength over low dose vitamin D without altering lean mass
- High dose Vitamin D significantly improved strength beyond normal Vitamin D. It also increased lean mass without affecting weight.
They conclude, “High dose Vitamin D effectively redistributed calories from fat to muscle.” Replenishing Vitamin D from low to normal decreases myostatin and increases leptin production and sensitivity to leptin.
How can Biohackr Health help?
TEST. High dose Vitamin D is not without a limit. You need to test your D level to see where you are at. “Megadosing” can cause health issues. You need to stay within normal limits. But we see many people are Vitamin D deficient. Vitamin D has been widely shown to have many health benefits- immune, mood, bone health, muscle health and more.
SUPPLEMENT. We carry a 5000 IU Vitamin D supplement in our clinic. It is NSF certified. We also have IV and IM supplements of Vitamin D. Shop
RETEST. Vitamin D is fat soluble, which means it gets stored in your body (you don’t “pee the excess out”). Again, you need to stay within normal levels.
CREATINE. Build muscle mass using the very safe, high quality German micronized creatine we carry at Biohackr Health. Creatine blogs
BE ACTIVE. You can’t build muscle without using it. Aerobic exercise is important, but particularly as you age, you must do weight and resistance training.