The Dangers of Hormone D Supplements

Supplemental D3 is a fat soluble hormone — and it is dangerous.

Written by Patrick Boyle

Hormone D is the MOST powerful HORMONE in the human body. (It’s not a harmless vitamin.)

High doses of isolated “D” will have serious consequences to your physiology. Here are some of the repercussions of hormone D supplementation. These are the 7 issues more frequently discussed, although the damage this hormone does is far more complex and widespread.

Increases Calciumby lowering Magnesium
Depletes MagnesiumD requires Mg to process
Crashes Potassiumflushes potassium from your body
Increases H₂O₂folks, this is very bad
Lowers ATPcellular life — your life — requires Mg
Depletes Vitamin A (Retinol)competes with D for processing
Lowers Ceruloplasmingives iron-induced stress free reign in the entire body

Let’s take this step by step. Keep in mind, ALL of these processes are multi-faceted and in turn affect many other processes, with iron <> copper dysregulation as the root cause.

1. Increases Calcium

Isolated hormone D needs magnesium to process. Most, if not all, people are magnesium deficient today. Calcium in your blood (hypercalcemia) can cause nausea and vomiting, weakness, and frequent urination. Symptoms might progress to bone pain and kidney problems, such as the formation of calcium stones. Calcium is needed when muscles CONTRACT; magnesium is its antagonist, and allows the muscles to RELAX. This can also explain why ‘Charlie horses’, muscle cramps and spasms occur. This occurs due to imbalance of minerals — in this case, electrolytes.

2. Depletes Magnesium

As mentioned above, hormone D requires magnesium to process. D3, despite what is being advertised, is NOT the final form of D utilised by our bodies. Several steps from D3 to usable D are required — complex, and requiring magnesium. Low magnesium levels can be linked, in one way or another, to every metabolic dysfunction. NO LIFE on planet Earth exists without Mg, including yours.

Mg is the antagonist to calcium. Had a kidney stone? Calcium, where it doesn’t belong, can turn your organs into stone like it does to your kidneys. Magnesium gets calcium out of the tissues and boron gets the calcium into the teeth and bones.

Boron is a co-factor of magnesium retention, along with B6 and bicarbonate.

Ultimately, it’s the iron overload of the liver and kidneys which lowers magnesium in the first place, making conversions of D less likely to happen. This in turn leads to ‘low D’ test scores and recommendations to take more.

3. Crashes Potassium

Isolated hormone D pushes potassium from the body.

“Potassium is a very important mineral for the proper function of all cells, tissues, and organs in the human body. It is also an electrolyte, a substance that conducts electricity in the body, along with sodium, chloride, calcium, and magnesium. Potassium is crucial to heart function and plays a key role in skeletal and smooth muscle contraction, making it important for normal digestive and muscular function.”

— University of Maryland Medical Center

Symptoms of low potassium are usually mild, and at times vague. There may be more than one symptom involving the gastrointestinal tract, kidneys, muscles, heart, and nerves:

Weakness, tiredness, and cramping in arm or leg muscles — sometimes severe enough to cause inability to move arms or legs due to weakness (much like a paralysis)
Tingling or numbness
Nausea or vomiting
Abdominal cramping, bloating
Constipation
Palpitations (feeling your heart beat irregularly)
Passing large amounts of urine or feeling very thirsty most of the time
Fainting due to low blood pressure
Abnormal psychological behaviour — depression, psychosis, delirium, confusion, or hallucinations

The RDA for potassium is 4,700 mg per day (4.7 grams) and most Americans get under 1,000 mg. High blood pressure is also a symptom of low potassium.

4. Increases H₂O₂

H₂O₂ is broken down via a copper dependent enzyme called catalase. If you cannot make ceruloplasmin — due to D pushing retinol out of your cells, organs and plasma — copper will not be available in its usable form to make this enzyme. H₂O₂ when combined with uncontrolled iron (iron not controlled via copper attached to ceruloplasmin) creates a hydroxyl radical. The uncontrolled action of hydroxyl radicals, the most damaging free radical by far, can have devastating effects within the body.

“It is commonly believed that the in vivo damage of biomolecules is initiated by reactive oxygen species (ROS) in a process known as oxidative stress. However, oxidation reaction in biological systems may also occur via a nonradical pathway, for example, by hydrogen peroxide.”

Uncontrolled H₂O₂ results in grey hair and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, for example. This is a copper <> iron issue at the root.

5. Lowers ATP

Adenosine triphosphate is energy and LIFE. It is the molecular currency of life, and is found in all forms of life. This is where magnesium shines the brightest — whenever you hear the acronym ATP, think Mg-ATP, as magnesium makes that happen. Magnesium, when depleted by isolated hormone D, directly affects your energy levels. Low levels of ATP are directly connected with many conditions today including fibromyalgia, mitochondrial dysfunction and chronic fatigue syndrome. These are also the same symptoms of low magnesium.

Fun fact: our body turns over its own weight, per day, in ATP.

6. Depletes Vitamin A (Retinol)

Beta carotene is NOT vitamin A — it’s a retinol precursor, meaning the body has to convert beta carotene into what it really wants: retinol. When body processes are sluggish, relying on a conversion most likely isn’t the best route. This is why getting retinol from food sources is important, as that gives the body the end product without the need for conversion.

Retinol is needed, along with copper, to create ceruloplasmin. When copper isn’t bound to ceruloplasmin, it’s toxic — as is iron. Hormone D and retinol compete for processing in the body. With an influx of hormone D, retinol doesn’t stand a chance and is depleted not only from the liver but everywhere, including plasma levels.

Symptoms of retinol deficiency

Frequent and persistent skin infections
Acne, dry and scaly skin
Throat infections or mouth ulcers
Dandruff and dry hair
Sore eyelids and, in extreme cases, poor vision in the dark (night blindness — think retinol for retinas)

You will notice many of these symptoms are related to collagen and elastin. Collagen is made in part due to copper and silica, and that copper MUST be bound to ceruloplasmin to be functional for collagen and elastin to be made.

7. Lowers Ceruloplasmin

Without retinol, ceruloplasmin cannot be made. Your copper <> ceruloplasmin is under attack by food additives, fake vitamin C (ascorbic acid), corn syrup — regular and high fructose — taking hormone D in isolation, iron and zinc, molybdenum and ALA supplements.

Regardless of whether your symptom reliever comes from a patented petrochemical drug or from nature, going after symptoms alone is not the answer. Finding the ‘root cause’ of your symptoms, and addressing that, is truly where real and substantial healing begins.

Iron transports oxygen in the body; bioavailable copper activates that oxygen for use.

Ceruloplasmin, and the ferroxidase FUNCTION of ceruloplasmin, is where real healing begins. Copper, when bound to ceruloplasmin, is anti-cancer, anti-oxidant, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and controls every single aspect of iron metabolism. If your Cu (copper) is low or not bioavailable, then Fe (iron) isn’t functional and oxidative stress is the result.

Also note: hormone D produced by the body is a water soluble hormone. D supplements are fat soluble and remain in the body for longer periods than the body intended.

One last time — repetition is key to learning

Supplementing vitamin/hormone D:

Increases Calcium
Depletes Magnesium
Crashes Potassium
Increases H₂O₂
Lowers ATP
Depletes Vitamin A
Lowers Ceruloplasmin

I hope this article was helpful. Feel free to share as long as this article remains unaltered.

Patrick Boyle — Wellness Consultant, Root Cause Protocol Consultant, Moderator of the Magnesium Advocacy Group