How much Vitamin D should you take?

Science Daily reports:

Treating Vitamin D Deficiency

In the absence of clinical guidelines, the authors outline specific recommendations for restoring and maintaining optimal vitamin D levels in CV patients. These patients should initially be treated with 50,000 IU of vitamin D2 or D3 once weekly for 8 to 12 weeks. Maintenance therapy should be continued using one of the following strategies:

* 50,000 IU vitamin D2 or D3every 2 weeks;
* 1,000 to 2,000 IU vitamin D3 daily;
* Sunlight exposure for 10 minutes for Caucasian patients (longer for people with increased skin pigmentation) between the hours of 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Vitamin D supplements appear to be safe. In rare cases, vitamin D toxicity (causing high calcium levels and kidney stones) is possible, but only when taking in excess of 20,000 units a day.