My Vitamin D3 Story So Far

I finally requested a copy of the lab work that I had done in January from my doctor. My vitamin D level was at 18.2 and according to labcorp the normal range is 30.0-100.0. Interestingly they also included the following note in the lab results:

Vitamin D deficiency has been defined by the Institute of Medicine and an Endocrine Society Practice Guideline as a level of serum 25-oh vitamin D less than 20 ng/ml (1,2). The endocrine society went on to further define vitamin D insufficiency as a level between 21 and 29 ng/ml (2).
-IOM (Institute of Medicine). 2011 Dietary Reference Intakes for Calcium an D. Washington DC: The National Academies Press.
-Holick MF, Binkley NC, Bischoff-Ferrari HA, Et Al.
Evaluation, Treatment, and Prevention of Vitamin D Deficiency: An Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guideline. JCEM. 2011 Jul; 9 6 (7) : 1911-30.

Just thought I would pass along. I now preach the powers of vitamin D to anyone who will listen. The long long list of almost debilitating symptoms I was having last year are totally gone and most of them were gone within a week or two of beginning vitamin D supplements.

 

How much vitamin D3 are you taking each day, in IUs?

You need to aim for a minium of 50 ng/ml. Fifty is Nifty. Anything else below that will not give you the full benefits of vitamin D. It might help stop osteoporosis and some calcium related things, but vitamin D, in adequate amount (at 50 ng/ml or higher) turns on up to 2000 healthful genes. No one should aim for a "normal range." It's just an average of what the general population has, and the general population is deficient. Aim for a therapeutically useful range, which is between 50 and 100 ng/ml. To get to that level, you will need a minimum of 5000 IU per day.

Keep us posted on your progress.

--John of Ohio

 

Thanks John

I am currently taking 5000 IU per day. I go back in April to have blood drawn again. I'll be curious to see what my levels are at after taking the 5000 IU per day for a few months, hopefully it will have bumped me up into the therapeutic range.

 

That's great news!!!

I was thinking that it might be helpful to others if you listed which symptoms resolved after starting D3--and which (if any) did not. Or did they all?

 

Sure......actually all the symptoms I was having last year cleared up after taking the vitamin D and they have since stayed away. Over the course of 2011 I begin having a lot of joint and bone pain especially in my hips, my shoulders, my arms, my wrists and my fingers. As the year progressed the pain in my joints was getting worse and worse, it was keeping me up/waking me up at night and was making everyday tasks difficult. I also felt very very weak and very tired. Not just normal tired but debilitating tired. I remember going down to visit my brother to see his new baby and I couldn't even hold the baby b/c I was so weak and in so much pain I was afraid I would drop him. I was nauseous all the time and my periods (sorry guys lol) which have always been very regular had become very irregular and sporadic. Throw in some major brain fog, lack of concentration and depression and I was a mess. I remember having conversations with my mom towards the end of last year just in tears because I could not imagine living feeling the way I was feeling over those 12 months. It was really awful.

I would say that within two weeks of beginning the vitamin D supplements all the joint pain cleared up and within a month everything improved. Fast forward about three months and I am feeling pretty great these days. I've had a couple of menieres (vertigo) episodes in February/March but they weren't too bad and my ear seems to have "cleared" for the time being.

 

I must be the only person on this forum who has taken 5,000IUs every day for the last 2.5 years and 1) Doesn't have the number up to fifty is nifty (not even close to be honest) and 2) Nothing miraculous has happened in the aches, pains, energy, etc. departments.

 

Intrepid, might you have some kind of intestinal malabsorption thing going on? Silent celiac, perhaps?

Before I was diagnosed with celiac, my endocrinologist couldn't figure out why she had to keep upping my Synthroid dosage every 2 months. My dosage was triple that of my mother's, and my TSH was still through the roof.

Turned out, I wasn't absorbing the Synthroid at all (or much of anything else).

But my intestinal symptoms were so mild, I wasn't even aware of them til they went away.

 

I took it for about 3 months and it did nothing for me. And I live in South Florida and any time I'm not working I'm pretty much outside with the kids. And I rarely wear sunscreen.

 

Wino I'm a born and raised Florida girl. I've gotta stay out of the beautiful Florida sunshine these days though because of basal cell carcinomas. Recently had four cut out and I'm only 33! Guess its the Irish in me

 

Similar issue for Australians of European/Anglo background. And a segment on this very topic on tonight's 7.30 Report - http://www.abc.net.au/7.30/

 

Don't think the ABC can be accessed outside Australia INS.

LK

 

Well, I accessed it and I'm in the US.

 

Excellent! My tax dollars at work. Someone at the ABC has ripped up the budget and fired up the generator - beaming all the way to the US of A

 

Generators for the World Wide Web? What will they think of next!?

 

I see you 'stick like shit on a blanket' and raise you a 'listening to him is like being flogged with a warm lettuce'.

 

The energy we save by not using dryers and instead hanging our clothes out on the Hills Hoists (while getting our daily dose of Vitamin D) we funnel into cranking up the intertubes. It's like Back to the Future down under!

 

What? No dingo powered motors?

 

You'd have to catch the buggers first...

 

At least you lot down under can get your clothes dry when hung out. When I venture outside of the igloo to hang mine , they still freeze hard. We have a two week window to make VitaminD, hardly worth the effort.

 

Okay, an update for the few who might be interested. Just got the results back from the new doctor. My Vitamin D level is 23 and she said normal is anywhere from 30 to 100, so she wants me to resume the supplements and get retested in three months. We'll see if I show any improvement in symptoms.