to ask your experience with Vitamin D treatment?

[RomeoBunny]

I have felt like shit for about 12 years, even worse after DS was born a year ago, but weirdly good actually when I was pregnant. Was severely anaemic after due to blood loss (and surgery complications a few months later) and also was eventually suffering overall body pain to the extent I was crying every night and morning (I'm waiting for a rhumatology appointment to come through as I had raised inflammation markers and my gp suspected some form of '-algia' or possibly arthritis, but this may not be needed any more).

I went back to see my GP 3 weeks ago as I started getting the sensation of water being poured over the back of my legs and random spots along my arms and was terrified of a blot clot - or several. And suddenly I recognised a lot of the pain I'd had that week shooting across my back like lightning, as neuropathy pain, the same I had when I had a bad case of shingles when I was a teenager. As soon as I mentioned this she rapidly checked my notes.

Turns out they never checked my Vitamin D levels... ever. And my bloods taken that day showed they were through the floor.

I'm now on a loading dose of 40,000 weekly for 8 weeks and then for several months after. I have been feeling a lot better since a few days ago but have also noticed my appetite is just meh. Like I have gone from feeling like my throat is cut, constantly wanting to graze and craving everything to just now feeling that 'food is fuel'. Which I assume is the normal way to feel?? I felt like this when I was pregnant because my hormones regulated I guess (had been haywire since I was a teenager before then and took us over a decade to get pregnant) but never apart from that since I was a kid.

Has anyone else found their Vitamin D treatment stabilised their appetite? Or made you lose yours? I'm not complaining, just worried it's a negative side effect or toxicity or something

I haven't felt this 'normal', and not tired or in some degree of pain, well, ever I don't think so it's freaking me out and I don't want it to be a bad thing. I have enough bad things going on in my life right now and can do without accidentally making my life worse

Shamelessly posting for traffic, because let's be honest, this is the busiest topic page

Andylion, my dad had terrible psoriasis and the only thing that helped was sunshine. My guess the vitamin d from it. This was way back, he died in the 1980s when everyone sunbathed. He died of skin cancer from the sun worship. If he'd known to take a vitamin supplement I'm sure it would have helped him.

I take the drops in oil off amazon. 2500iu per drop. oil aids absorption

Patty, I use Lambert's vitamins. They're pretty good quality. You can get them on Amazon.

What is the recommended dose?

I have a level of 52 which is quite high have been taking Vitamin D for years. I feel less tired and have more energy.

I take Doctor's Best 5000iu D3 softgels.
Has made a massive difference to me, I'm hypothyroid as well. You can get them from Amazon. The standard ones from Boots etc don't do a thing if you are really deficient.

So you’ve had your gall bladder removed! Gall stones can form due to raised homocysteine levels in malabsorption

When the gall bladder is removed you no longer have a reservoir for B12 storage, reduced B12 leads to peripheral neuropathy which you have symptoms of!

There is a condition callled non iGg gluten sensitivity, the effects are like coeliac disease

Personally I would insist on urgent checks on all your b group levels, B12, 6 and folate as this sounds like your problem

My levels are shit if I don't supplement. I have regular 3 monthly blood tests anyway because of something else and my levels are normal now, because I take 10,000 iu a day.
10,000 a day keeps me at normal, not high.
40,000 a week seems quite low tbh.
I also take a sublingual B12 (Solgar is a good brand).

If you want to know I take the 10,000 iu Healthy Origins gel caps. I buy those and the Solar sublingual B12 (5000) on iherb, I've found that's the cheapest place.

I also take dr's best 5000. Take 4 a day. There's a support group on Facebook that has links on where to buy the good stuff as well as cofactors. Same for B12

I don’t absorb oil based vitamins all that well so have a daily dose of 20,000 IU of vitamin D and when it crashes I get in injections instead of orally. I feel wretched when it’s low, so tired and chronic aches and pains. In addition to the D also have 50,000 IU of Vitamin A daily. Wish I could get an injection for the A but none licensed in Ireland 😫

Go online and visit Healthspan, they are an excellent company and very good prices.

Does anyone know what your levels should be? I always feel like shit, I asked for my vit D to be checked, they came back at 46 but GP wasn't overly concerned about that, so assumed that's normal?!

Just seconding the direction to get your b vitamin levels checked.

Any b containing supplement will negate the results so don’t take anything with added b group vitamins for a few weeks before.

Two week cruise... 125 is optimal. NHS guidelines are much lower though

Where I am the range is 25-100. So 46 would be low normal. I was on 23 when I started supplementing and I hover around 53 even with 5000iu a day.

You can usually find the ranges for blood tests online at the lab's website.

My vitamin D level was 11 so I was given injections. I felt a bit better but not massively

I later found out my B12 was also very low and I now have 12 weekly injections for that which has helped more

I didn't find my appetite was affected though

B levels are all fine. Gallbladder was due to having no appetite during pregnancy/relaxin fucking it up and the crash liquid diet I did in the year prior to getting pregnant.

My red blood cells were too small rather than too big 👍

Microcytic anaemia is more likely to be caused by iron deficiency.

It can also be a sign of one of the Thalassaemias but that’s rare in white ethnic British populations (not unheard of but rare)

If you have any Mediterranean roots then I assume you’ve been checked for heterogeneity?

I am as white white irish/english rose/Skandi white as they come. Milk bottle mousey and spectacular blue eyes.

Idontdowindoes I dont know your bf% or weight obviously but the bigger you are the less your body is able to use the vit D. It gets stuck in fat cells, or rather gobbled up by them.

:) well if there’s no one of Mediterranean ancestry anywhere around then it’s unlikely (although not impossible.) genetics is a funny old thing.

However haemachromatosis is VERY common in Ireland so I wouldn’t take iron long term without getting levels checked.

There are a few other bits and bobs that can cause microcytic anaemia - sideroblastic anaemia for example, but if they’ve been able to see you have small red cells it’s likely they’ve done a full count on a blood smear so they’d have seen this if it was present.

Good luck with the Vitamin D - hopefully it’ll make you feel miles better.

@RomeoBunny weight is not an issue for me. My doctor has been over this, Vitamin D is prescribed by my endocrinologist as it is comorbid with auto-immune hypothyroidism.

I find it hard to know how much I'm meant to be taking. My level was 29 and I managed to get it up to 74 by taking around 5000iu a day for a few months and now take 3000iu. I also take magnesium and Vit K. Is this about the right amount or should I be taking a bit more?
Sorry for the hijack!