>>I know it sounds downright crazy, but it's possible that someone who's studied medicine and practiced it for years, actually knows better than random anonymous forum users.

As the link in the OP actually denotes, no, that's not always the case.

Bodybuilders and performance trainers - as well as Soviet Union sports scientists - have known for decades that Vitamin D supplementation is vital. This has been rejected by a significant number of general practitioners and other medical experts who are and were anti-supplement simply out of rote thinking.

Yes, people should be tested for their levels. But this simply isn't feasible for poor people, and telling them to get serum tests for Vitamin D before taking a lower-bound amount of the cheap supplement from the grocery store is ridiculous.

I don’t think that the drug regimes of the Soviet Olympic Teams should be held up as a good example to follow - a lot of damage was done to a lot of people. On a related note, the Russian team just got banned for trying that crap again.

http://www.rollingstone.com/sports/news/russia-banned-from-2...

That was mostly political decision, many American/Norwegian/... are legally taking performance enhancing drugs.

This is what's known as an ad hominem argument

That literally has nothing to do with whether or not Vitamin D is useful.

The difference is that when medics suggest a certain amount of vitamin D as optimal, they do it because they have done the research. When bodybuilders do it, it's just an article of faith for them and not something you should follow.

It is always possible to arrive at a correct conclusion through entirely incorrect reasoning.

Or, as the saying goes, a broken clock is right twice a day.

No, this line of thinking leads people to blindly trust the peer-reviewed process, which is fraught with plenty of political landmines and corruption.

Homeopathy is crap. But bodybuilding/powerlifting/athletic training often finds the answers well ahead of peer-reviewed science.

That's why doctors recommend that people get adequate sunlight every day. Of course paler people need to find a safe balance.

For most of the U.S. population, sunlight isn't enough: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15869454

Unfortunately very few doctors keep learning and try to be up to date with the current research (I don't blame them, they are extremely overworked). Especially their diet advices are so laughable.

I had a friend 10 years ago, diagnosed with lupus (living in the NYC/Tri-state area). Her doctor told her, "Don't take supplements. Just eat a balance diet and you will be alright. Supplements interfere with your body's chemical balance." So patients have to read up on and talk with others to avoid quacks like that one.

Dermatologists still prescribe antibiotics for acne. For some specializations, it's all about the maintaining the status quo.

Truth be told, doctors still don't know much about IBS and/or Crohn's. Or even conditions like rosacea and/or dermatitis. Mark my words, better gut flora/microbiome will be the cure for these conditions in the near future and doctors will contest this up until the evidence is too loud to ignore.

"The best way to get vitamins is to eat better." -Every physician ever.

Unless you have your own organic garden this is a pipe dream.

A fruit or vegetable that have traveled thousand of miles before being delivered to you has almost no vitamins left in it and probably didn't have much to start with considering soil depletion.

I believe (emphasis on believe) that supplementation is necessary even if you "eat right".

Turns out, not true: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24006751

This study is only about vitamin C and doesn't mention transportation. This is a bit light imo.