Low Vitamin D

GeoGuy · Posted: Wed Jun 25, 2008 7:23 pm Post subject: Low Vitamin D

Hi Gang,

I don't normally haunt this board but I was recently diagnosed with low Vitamin D levels. My Primary Care Doc had me start on 2000 IU of Vit D . After 8 weeks, my blood work last week showed my D levels had increased, but were stilll below normal. She wants me to take 3000 IU and go back for a check in 8 weeks. What have you guys done to up your vitiamn D levels?

Thanks,

Jack.
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RRMS since 01/07.

gwa · Family Elder Joined: Dec 02, 2005 Posts: 778

Now is a good time to go out in the sun 3 or 4 times a week for 15 minutes a pop. Supposedly spending time in the sun will provide more Vit D than taking a few thousand units of supplements.

gwa

jimmylegs · Family Elder Joined: Mar 12, 2006 Posts: 1869

half an hour unprotected white young skin in summer sun can supposedly generate 10000 IU. i'd go 15 minutes if it was during peak hours midsummer. haze, cloud cover, pigment, age, and clothing impair cutaneous d3 production. of course the time of year and latitude are also relevant.

when i wanted to whack my level up 50 nmol/L fast, i got a liquid, a drop in the morning and a drop at night. total, 50000 IU per day for 10 days. it worked my followup test had levels of 149. i kept on taking a daily maintenance dose of d3 but i was not taking enough calcium, magnesium, zinc, and potassium with it and i got myself out of balance. if you can, consider intensifying your consumption of mineral-intense foods to go with your sunshine. you still might need some supplements. from the number of ppl on here that they help, our routine daily food intakes generally just don't cut it. good luck getting it straightened out fast!

curious: what number is defined as "low" by your lab?

daverestonvirginia · Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 10:16 am Post subject:

I have gone up to 6,000 iu's a day in the winter months.

GeoGuy · Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2008 8:06 pm Post subject:

Thanks for your input, I really appreciate it. I get more than 15 minutes of sun a day while I wait outside for the bus every weekday, so I don't think just exposure to the sun will be enough. During summers here in North Carolina it can be tough to balance sun exposure and staying out of the heat and humidity.

I'm not sure what level is considered low. I should have asked for specifics and will when I go back mid-August for more testing. I'll let you know.

Jack
_________________
RRMS since 01/07.

jimmylegs · Family Elder Joined: Mar 12, 2006 Posts: 1869

hi GG, cutaneous production will be less if you are covered with clothing, darker skinned, and/or deeply tanned. if you can find a way to get some lighter parts exposed without getting in trouble, that might help some.

do find out what low is though, it would be good to know. i had been supplementing for some time when i got my first test and it was only 72. the docs would have said that was fine but by that time i had a stack of literature that supported a different view. 72 might be okay for preventing osteoporosis, but for immune health, gotta be higher. the intended boost of 50 nmol/L from that high octane liquid i took ended up being more like 75 since i got up to 149 but i've never been that high since and i was back down in the 70s at my last test. i'm not getting enough sun either so i should probably try to make a point of it.

by the way my units are in metric but there is a conversion site called SI Units for Clinical Data and vitamin D3 is at the bottom.

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/scales/clinical_data.html
Vitamin D
25-Hydroxyvitamin D ng/mL 2.496 nmol/L

which i take to mean you divide my numbers by 2.496 to get values in ng/mL.

jimmylegs · Family Elder Joined: Mar 12, 2006 Posts: 1869

oh i just re-read about the heat and humidity, that must make it tougher for sure.

the literature advises that the body uses 4000IU per day. one would hope some of that comes from food. maybe with your 2000IU plus food, you were only getting enough for a small boost. so 3000IU will surely make it climb faster.

if you find out what your numbers are, there is a paper out there which lets you calculate how much you need to take for your body weight in order to reach your desired level of vitamin D in a specified time.

i had used it to figure out it would take months and months for me to make it from 72 to where i wanted to be, which i why i started asking questions and found out from the hospital about the 50,000IU x 10d idea.

it was the pharmacist that looked up the specific product i ended up with. first he handed me a bottle of 50,000IU pills, but they turned out to be D2, so then he went to his product tome and found the intense liquid D3, which is what i used. i have a prescription for it right now but i thought hey, it's summer - turns out i'm spending so much time writing on the computer i should probably just take it.

but do take care when you up your D3 intake, to balance with calcium and magnesium. i think the best bet diet recommends 1200mg calcium and 600-1200mg magnesium. i certainly didn't take enough and i think that's why my throat got so bad, and why the magnesium fixed it so quickly.

personally, when i tried to up my minerals to match my 4000 d3, it made my back hurt. kidneys didn't like it, is what i thought. next time, i might try the cal-mag mix the other way around, with 1 cal to 2 mag. will report on how this strategy works out, in regimens under Mega D Smile

cheers

hope that helps!