Vitamin D: 50,000 IU per week for 74 ng, German AI simulator and chatbot, $12/year

The Dr. von Helden Vitamin D formula for better health! (April 2026)

24 minute interview in German with captions in English, etc

Here's a summary of the interview with Dr. Raimund von Helden on his Vitamin D Simulator:

(00:00–02:46) Core premise: Dr. von Helden argues that your vitamin D level matters more than your bank account, since a chronically poor level leaves you vulnerable when serious illness strikes. He built the Vitamin-D-Simulator at vitamindsimulator.de based on 20+ years of measuring blood levels in practice, available for a €10 prepaid fee covering 365 days of access.
(03:13–05:13) Case 1 — The "classic" weekly 20,000 IU prescription falls short: For a 95 kg person taking one 20,000 IU capsule per week, the simulator shows the level plateaus around 25–30 ng/mL only after many months. This matches what he sees in practice: patients on this standard regimen rarely exceed 30 ng/mL — which he considers the bare minimum "human right" baseline rather than an optimal target.
(05:13–06:44) Autopilot feature to reach 70 ng/mL: Using the simulator's autopilot, he demonstrates that reaching a protective level of 70 ng/mL for the same 95 kg person requires an initial loading phase (9 capsules over 4 weeks) followed by roughly 3 capsules per week — practically dosed as one on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
(07:44–09:38) Case 2 — Unit confusion is common: A reported level of "75" is often nmol/L (multiply by 2.5), not ng/mL — so 75 nmol/L is really 30 ng/mL. Another frequent error: drops labeled 5,000 IU each being mistaken for 1,000 IU, leading people to unknowingly take 5× their intended dose.
(10:34–11:48) Case 3 — Compliance reality check: The host takes ~10,000 IU daily at 95 kg and measured 56 ng/mL, while perfect compliance would yield ~74 ng/mL. Plugging in a weekly dose of 55,000 IU (instead of 70,000) reproduces the measured value — meaning the simulator can reverse-engineer how often someone forgets their dose.
(12:42–16:41) Case 4 — Sun alone isn't enough: For a 70 kg person eating only fish and eggs (no supplements), levels sit near 6 ng/mL. Adding 3 midday sun baths per week from March onward lifts levels to around 40 ng/mL, but a 2-week October sun vacation fades within ~2 months. His recommendation: a hybrid approach — one 20,000 IU capsule weekly plus sun exposure — for reliable year-round coverage, especially critical in German latitudes where winter sun can't produce vitamin D.
(17:01–18:44) Safety margin and high-dose context: At 100 kg with 20,000 IU daily, the simulator projects ~118 ng/mL. Dr. von Helden states that up to 200 ng/mL he has "never seen a case" where this regimen produced elevated calcium — the threshold of toxicity. He argues such protective levels are particularly valuable for seriously ill patients already burdened with cortisone, cytostatics, and other taxing medications.
(18:44–20:11) Coming back down from high levels: Demonstrating 40,000 IU/day yielding ~185 ng/mL, the autopilot calculates exactly how long to pause before resuming at a lower dose — useful if someone has inadvertently climbed too high and wants to return to ~100 ng/mL.
(20:28–22:45) Validation: The simulator has been validated against 174 real patients in his practice, with parallel blood measurements plotted against simulator predictions. Results cluster tightly along the diagonal line of agreement, with outliers mostly attributable to patients who couldn't accurately report their own intake or sun exposure rather than simulator error.
(22:45–24:17) Practical value: Families (including children, without needing blood draws) can model their entire vitamin D history and future. A built-in "Dr. von Helden AI" chat trained on his 8,000+ articles, plus a "position in the swarm" feature comparing your level against other users ranging from 20–160 ng/mL, round out the tool.

Comments by Founder of Vitamin D Life

The simulator probably difficult to use if you do not understand German
Vitamin D Life hopes to have a better simulator plus and AI Chatbot later in 2026 in all languages
Our simulator will include cofactors, genes, different forms of Vitamin D,
and adjustments for current health problems
I have been in communication with him since about 2012
I made Does Less Sun mean More Disease video in 2014 - He did the German voice over.
He wrote Healthy in Seven Days - Loading dose of Vitamin D – book 2014 - details in Vitamin D Life
translated into English $10

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