Author: James

Health

Vitamin D Deficiency

When I had my yearly check up a few weeks ago, I was informed that my Vitamin D level is too low. My doctor, who is also my friend, mentioned not to worry and that 4 in 5 person in Seattle (or Washington?) were deficient because of the lack of Sun. The remedy is to take a supplement of 2000 IU of Vitamin D a day.

vitamind1

If you know me, you’d know that I have a level skepticism when it comes to medicine. I absolutely abhor taking any sort of medicine, be it subscription or over-the-counter supplement. The only medication, if you call it that, that I take regularly is Lactose, to prevent the transformation of my home into a gas chamber.

Hence, I decided to ask my doctor for my specific level of Vitamin D, which was 21 ng/ml, with 32 being the min for normal according to the hospital. I took the number and did some research, and the first web site  I encountered gave me this table:

25 (OH) D Level ng/ml
(used in USA)		 nMol/L
(international)
Deficient less than 8 less than 20
Insufficient 8-20 20-50
Optimal 20-60 50-150
High 60-90 150-225
Toxic greater than 90 greater than 225

The author of the web site accounted for the difference between these levels and the common used numbers my doctor gave me with this:

There is disagreement about whether the lower limit of the optimal vitamin D levels should be 20 or 30 ng/ml, but none of the experts in the field still think that levels lower than 20 ng/ml are desirable. This is really different from ten years ago, when levels above 15 ng/dl were considered sufficient.

In addition, the upper range of optimal as given by the hospitals seem to be unattainable by natural means, according to the same article:

…many laboratories currently have listed their normal range as 32-150 ng/ml, even though the only way to acheive a value above 60 is to take a drug!

Using the chart from this web site, I’m on the low end, but still within the optimal range.

This brings up the question, should I take vitamin D supplement? My answer to that is No. The reason is that I took this test at the tail end of winter, and I expect to get a dosage of sun once the blazing rays of summer showers upon the northwest. The other reason has more to do with the distrust of medicine. What do you really get in a vitamin? Apparently there are other risks associated with vitamins, such as lead, according to this article in MSNBC:

Two of three men’s multivitamins failed to pass testing. One contained too much folic acid, which may increase the risk of prostate cancer, while another was contaminated with lead.

Not sure if those vitamins are from China. The way I see it, God did not design us to take vitamins as soon as we’re born, and He knows what He’s doing.  I will try to go the natural route until my levels dips below 20, and then I’ll consider artificial remedies. In the mean time, I’ll just be sure I get a prescription of plenty of milk and Alki Beach!

Kids

Lia is One Year Old!

Babies grow so fast sometimes I don’t even remember what happened. Here’s a little flashback to when Lia was only one day old just to see how far she’s come in this past year…

Let’s review Lia’s progress at this twelve-month milestone against what’s listed in What To Expect The First Year:

By first year, Lia should be able to:

  • Walk holding on to furniture (cruise). Yup.
  • Use a few gestures to get needs met. She points to things.

Lia will probably be able to:

  • Play patty-cake (clap hands) or wave bye-bye (most by 13 mo). Both.
  • Drink from a cup independently. Yup.
  • Pick up a tiny object neatly with tips of thumb and forefinger (many not until 15 mo). One of her favorite hobbies is to scan the carpet for specs of dust, crawls to it, picks it up with two fingers, and says “dirty”.
  • Stand alone momentarily (many not until 13 mo). When we went shoe-shopping, she stood more than 20 seconds by herself.
  • Say “dada” or “mama” indiscriminately (most by 14 mo). Yup.
  • Say one word other than “mama” or “dada” (many not until 14 mo). She says “apple” all the time.

Lia may possibly be able to:

  • Play ball. (many not until 16 mo). Yes, although sometimes it goes backwards.
  • Stand alone well. (many not until 14 mo). Starting to.
  • Use immature jargoning. (many not until 15 mo). Yes.
  • Walk well. (3 of 4 not until 13 1/2, good crawlers tend to be slower to walk).  Not yet, only cruising.

Lia may even be able to:

  • Say three words other than “mama” or “dada” (half not until 13 mo, many not until 16 mo). She regular says “turtle”, “ball”, “dirt” (dirty), “duck” (ducky), “apple”, “up”, “eeyore”, “bear”, “bird”, “wow”, “baby”, “boobey” (blueberry, once), “book” , “doggie”, “pahn pahn” (means scared in chinese), “milk”, “mouth”, “oh-oh” (with a cough), “heel” (hello), “butt” (bunny), “computer” (only twice), and probably more we forgot.
  • Respond to one-step command without gestures (“give that to me”, most until 1st birthday, and many not until 16 mo). We can point to something and have her give it to us, but recently she decided it’s more fun to keep it.

So overall Lia is doing very well with her progress. She is so much fun now. We look forward to seeing what else she picks up, and hopefully she won’t starting walking too soon!

Happy birthday Lia!