Vitamin D and the lack of it

[Baclstreetsbackohyeah]

After years of being ok, I again found myself in spiral of bad moods, sleeping all hours of day, feeling useless, brain fog, googling how to leave DH because he deserves better, suicidal thoughts, crying, anxiety and panic attacks. Honeatly, looking back to two weeks ago, it scares me. It sneaked up on me, yet hit me by surprise. Syarted with cold, low moods sneak, but all the "bad thoughts" came up suddenly.

Then I remembered in a moment of some clarity that I didn't take any vitamin D except the one in multivitamins, for some months.
It took 2 days of high dose for most of it to dissappear. Took week to me being back to gym, happy, bouncy, cleaned whole house, could write a novel type of motivation, with no inclination to suicide.

I spoke to a friend and talked about my previous deficiency. I went to a GP and he was amazing. He ordered full blood tests, I guess because I had no previous MH issue history an et voila. Accute vit D deficiency. So agreed to try sorting that before going further and trying anti depressants. Magic.
Friend had similar, but in her case she was told they should app her MH meds and she had to demand blood tests. She still takes medicine for her MH but she also had deficiency and said the supplements helped massively and she isn't having panic attacks anymore.

We ended uptalking about how sometimes, or maybe actually often, there is a lack of a holistic approach and checking not only mental, but also physical state, and vice versa.

It's actually quite fascinating what one deficiency can do.

Aibu to wonder if most people did have blood tests done as part of assessment when they presented with MH issues? From what I gather from people around me it's not always, or even often, done? Should it?

Pleae note, before anyone starts, I am not saying MH issues are just caused by that. I am not an idiot. I am wondering if some issues could be helped bit more by overal body and mind approach, not just one or the other, approach. I hope that makes sense

Low B12/Folate/Thyroid issues/low Ferritin -as well as vitamin D -can cause depression/anxiety/ fatigue/hair loss/bone or muscle pains/shortness of breath etc.
I do think many Drs are getting better at ‘let’s do some blood tests to rule out an underlying cause’ these days, compared to when I was first on AD around 25 years ago.

I think a lot of people will be suffering like you this year due to the extensive lack of sunshine this year, I’ve continued to take my vitamin d tablets but still feel flat, need some real sun to make a true difference I think.

Thank you for posting OP, that's really interesting

I think it’s got to a point where the “treatment” of MH is so entrenched and orthodox (and potentially needlessly harmful in some cases) that back tracking and treating the physical issues instead will open a can of worms for the health systems. Many people will wonder if they can seek compensation… so I think the penny won’t suddenly drop but there will be a managed gradual shift towards what you’re saying.

Yes, other deficiencies can have similar issues too. I don't have experiences with them. Juat the damned vit d.

That is a good point about possible compensations. Imagine if you were on anti depressants, still not helping much, for years and years and then found out it could have been at least partially helped by supplement for fiver from ASDA... I dread to think where would I be if my gp didn't do the tests first.

This bout scared me though. Last time I was lethargic, demotivated, sad, sleepy, moody, anxious. The suicidal thoughts are new and quite scary. Absolutely on top of not forgetting to buy when theae run out and no more thinking I can get enough from diet and multivitamins. And I actually do make sure I eat enough vit d food!

From what I googled studies have shown for years that vit D may be actually qiote helpful in suicide prevention because many in studies showed deficiency. I think blood acreen for any deficiency shpuld be done before or at the atart of any MH treatment

Actually, thinking about it, there is always lots of talk about kids being more anxious nowadays. I know there are many external factora, but anxiety is one of my main issues when the vit d goes down (I know I need to take extra whem I freeze in a lift tjinking it will fall, which normally never happena, etc.) . Now I wonder how many have some deficiency!

I didn’t realise how bad I got before the doctors realised I had no b12. Took me a while to get myself back to normal. But I was stunned at myself how much better I felt and I got used to feeling awful.

i was told a while ago that I was low on vitamin d. Took them for a while but was getting super tired to the point of feeling exhausted. Stopped the vitamin d tablets and it has gone away. No idea why

It has been known for decades that everyone in the UK needs vitamin d supplements during the winter months. I don't know why there isn't more awareness.
I remember reading and hearing about this in the early 90s, when children were being diagnosed with rickets. This was attributed to the zealous promotion of sunscreen.

I met a GP on holiday who told me she tests every patient for Vit D deficiency. I asked our own GP about this and he said it would be far too expensive.

OP, what is the ‘high dose’ you found helpful?

I did 10000iu for few days. Similar when I had it prescribed the first time (i had it for weeks then). Then lowered to 5000 an it seems ok. Now I will lower to 1000 then see.
Last time after we got it back up I just took 1000 2x or 3x a week and it was fine as keeping levels.

I did not sleep the first night though😂 too wired!

This is one of the reasons I don't wear sunscreen at all except on hot sunny days when I might burn.
We are supposed to be wrinkly as we age. Sunlight absorbed through skin is so important to how we function.

Your GPS work to guidelines. Blame the guidelines

I was diagnosed as being deficit last winter. Normal is 50-150 and I was 29. I'd had random bone pains for quite a while and just thought it was normal!! Don't think it had any effect on my mental health tho.

really interesting do you recommend any brand of vitamin D?

DH suffered with ongoing muscle pain in his wrists / arms and struggled to get any kind of diagnosis despite a thorough health screening. At the beginning of the pandemic we were all advised to take vitamin D and voila muscle pain gone. It would make sense to rule out the simplest things first with a blood test.

Vitamin D is so, so vital for loads of different areas of our health. It is the one vitamin that I take religiously from October to March. Get Vitamin D3 (more bioavailable) and unless you are on warfarin, please take K2 with it. The two work synergistically, and K2 gets it to where it needs to go in the body. (If people supplement solely with D3 and don't have decent K2 levels, it can cause calcium deposits in areas where you really don't want it.)

I had a vitamin D deficiency. The GP I went to reckons the vast majority of Scottish people are deficient of vitamin D, especially in the winter. She recommends everyone takes a supplement.

Oh yeah the bone pain. Not joints , bone, inside. Had it the first time, not this time. I think because the previous one was carrying on for much longer.

@J7223j I just buy asda ones now. Saw no difference in how they work to more expensive ones. I think only difference is in the other ingredients which made no difference to me. They are 1000iu. I also bought holland and barret 4000iu ones just for this time.

I paid for some blood tests and was surprised to see my vit d levels were just in the normal level, I took a vit d supplement ( have now increased the dose) went abroad to the sun 4-5 times a year and ate oily fish 3 times a week. It just showed me how difficult it is to get enough vit d when living in the UK.

@Mythicalcreatures thanks

I'm a mental health nurse and certainly in the trust I work in, when a patient is admitted to our ward, we take bloods abd send them off, for many things but vitamin d is included in that test.

@SunUpSunDown yes, true. They did test my calcium before.
It was ok. My diet has loads of k2
Probably something to do with my love for sauerkraut and other fermented food and glass of kefir a day🙈 as well as broccoli and dark greens

My GP's approach seems to be run these tests, ignore the deficient results completely, tell me they're all fine and that it's normal to feel like shit. 🙄

I had the same symptoms, it got so bad to the point my bones were aching all the time, I was getting exhausted and short of breath when walking the dog, luckily my wife is an advanced practitioner at a GP surgery and she suggested vitamin D deficiency, I started taking vitamin D supplements and my symptoms have almost completely gone in under a week.

My SIL was told by her GP that pretty much everyone in the UK that does not take a supplement is Vit D deficient for at least 6 months of the year. You need to take more than 10,000iu a day to get close to overdosing.

I take 2-3 tablets (800-1200iu) a day in summer and 4-5 (1600-2000iu) in winter, it’s made a big difference to my sleep and my joints definitely feel better too.