ok that was a headache

[Zyklon]

Good progress

I still recommend gaming for just fun hehe. It is good for your eye muscles, brain hand coordination, relaxing (depends on game)

[jimmylegs]

haha i will have to wait until my social network once again includes one or more gamers

[jimmylegs]

well the results are in and most of my levels are garbage. only vit d3 is flagging a problem however. typical lab bs.

magnesium suboptimal - will really need to work on this esp while addressing d3 issues.

b12 all good. (pfft they're using 220 pmol/l as lower cutoff - no thanks)

ferritin normal, but a bit high for my liking

zinc would be deficient if tested at mac. local lab, no issue 7:\
will increase zinc for another month and retest (with no worries about impact on serum ferritin)

d3 is even worse than it was in early 2017, even after supplementing diligently for a month before recent tests. i know there's lag time for serum response, but i do wonder how low that level might have sunk by the time i started working on it this year! luckily the time is right to prescribe some sunshine. i've assigned myself an hour of outside work over noon hour today and friday.
i might also revisit my old friend the 10 day megadose (still have some hi test and an oral syringe kicking around), to get myself up over 100 in short order
and this time given that all my cofactors are apparently crap too, i will not expect a repeat of the old d3 skyrocketing up by +171 nmol/l when i'm only going for +50 nmol/l!! :S
time will tell.

[ElliotB]

how much D3 are you taking on a daily basis? What brand?

[jimmylegs]

carlsons, and mostly just a couple thousand a day for the last month.
i don't have a brand for the hi-test. it's 1,000,000 IU/gm.

[jimmylegs]

possibly interesting aside - i have had several episodes of ringing in my ears recently. it's my understanding that it's associated with low zinc. now that my zinc level has come back low (or deficient depending which lab you ask), i'll be upping the intake. will be interesting to see if the ringing persists.

[ElliotB]

2000 iu of D3 is not a very high dose. Have you ever taken higher daily dosages and if so for how long what was the result?

My D3 level has been fairly level for about a year but dropped a fair amount a few months ago unexpectedly (I had not changed my daily dosage) and I increased my intake a bit to compensate. I am having another series of blood work next month and hopefully that issue will be resolved.

I have had mild tinnitus for many, many years. I seem to be stuck with it. Hopefully whatever you are experiencing will disappear very soon. Good luck!

[jimmylegs]

as documented extensively here at TiMS, my highest d3 intakes to date are 50,000 iu/day for 10 d and again for 8 d, with 4000 iu/d in between and after for a couple of years. in combination these intakes almost killed me, with no hypercalcemia and no clinical red flags re other essential cofactors.

probably the lion's share of the 138 TiMS posts in which i've included the word 'pharmacist' have more detail on that xp:
https://bit.ly/2IuVsNk

re tinnitus. hopefully serum zinc is on the list for your blood work next month. sounds like a boost might be in order! i'm definitely boosting mine.

[ElliotB]

Have you considered seeinga Coimbra trained doctor if there is one in your area?

[jimmylegs]

absolutely not

[ElliotB]

Have you thought about trying medium dosage amounts like 5000 iu, 10,000 iu or even a bit higher for several months and then having blood work done to see the change in your D3 level as opposed to a mega dose? I have done this over the past few years and been able to adjust my D3 level pretty much to the level I want. I do only one change in my dosage between blood work tests. It obviously can take a while to adjust the level but I have found this method works for me.

[NHE]

2000 iu of D3 is not a very high dose

I became magnesium deficient after taking 2000 IU/day over a period of 2 or 3 years. My magnesium deficiency symptoms were painful charlie horse like cramps in my calf muscles and the soles of my feet. These would wake me up at night cringing in pain. The deficiency occurred even though I was taking magnesium citrate at the same time as my D3. The fix was to split things up and take magnesium at the start of my day and the D3 in the evening. After just 2-3 days the cramps were gone. What's funny is that a neurologist wanted to prescribe me baclofen and told me that D3 and magnesium had nothing to do with each other. That kind of "help" is useless.

[jimmylegs]

i'll figure out something i'm comfortable with, and it will involve a lot of time outside (and/or adequate indoor uvb), in addition to food sources, plus supplements as needed to achieve ~125 nmol/l, with plenty of the right cofactors and requiring optimal serum magnesium status (it's below mid 'normal' right now - not good enough!).

i hear ya nhe. it's weird how important timing is. cue broken record player: in my case i was advised to split up the daily mag supplement, and take half with the daily d3 and half away. worked like a charm but took months and years before i had tissue stores topped up to the point i could miss a day or two without feeling it.

in hindsight, 'i *can* miss a day' should not have resulted in 'i *will* miss many days' (not that my current mag status is anywhere near as bad as the d3 mind you). i would like to understand however, when my mag absorption plateaus and not make my body (or bank account) deal with any more than that.

LOL oh neuro. one day you'll catch up with the facts. in the meantime, subclinical = pure coincidence. sorry world, hope you like limbo land!

[jimmylegs]

just gave decent nutrition and supplements 3 days off, but got loads of natural UVB at least. back on healthy food and supplements today! speaking of which i will go put some zinc in on top of the spinach/onion/egg/cheddar on multigrain sprouted flour toast

[jimmylegs]

alrighty time for another spin thru the giant magnet. here's hoping my brain looks AMAZING compared to earlier this year ;)