Low vitamin D

[Yourinmyspot]

I’ve just had a few blood tests done by the hospital and it came back that my vitamin D is low at 23. I take 800iu (20 micrograms) of vitamin D3 daily as prescribed by my GP. I was put in them around three years ago when my level was 33 but it’s dropped since then. I try and eat foods containing vitamin D but have to be careful in the sun due to a couple of medications I’m on as I burn very quickly and can have reactions.

Is there anything else I can do to get my levels up?

You can take up to 100ug or 4000IU per day
Did you not get a higher dose prescribed?

Some beauty salons do vit d injection.

take a higher dosage, you can get higher at Holland and Barrett, I’ve got a high dose one I take once a week from iHerb

Vitamin D needs to be taken with Vitamin K as it helps with better absorption.

800 is very low considering the NHS recommends even healthy people should take 1,000 during the winter months. You can take up to 5,000 otc.

EDIT - to put this in perspective when I was very low i was prescribed 50,000 to be taken once a week for a couple of months. 800 is nothing.

You can get drops with K2 that are apparently better abdorbed

800 is too low. Get the 3/4000 ones.

I take 4000iu a day.

you need to get out in the sun. 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the afternoon. You won’t burn.

You need a much higher dose, I'm prone to low vitamin D and I take 4000iu every day (ish) October to April and every few days through summer.

Your doctor should prescribe you a large loading dose as you are deficient. It will be a lot more than any you buy in a shop, as a pp has said. The hospital would normally write to your GP with the results and your GP would ask you to book an appointment.

It's all about absorption rather than taking higher and higher doses. Google 'vitamin D cofactors'. You at least need to take vitamin K2 with it, but you might want to add some of the other supplements which help with absorption.

Well, she might. I do.

I'm very pale, always burnt easily and now I take a medication that makes me extra photo-reactive. OP said she takes a medication that does the same.

@Yourinmyspot , that is not an especially high low dose. Even the one from Aldi is 25 micrograms per tablet! I take 2 of these per day, but this is also possibly not enough for me.

I’m impressed if you burn in 20 minutes of U.K. sunshine at 9am! That’s scary!

If you’re obese and/or older, then you need to be on a much higher daily dose. Something like 4000iu. The UK’s recommended dosage is much lower than many other countries.

Talk to your doctor before you up it if they’ve found it to be very low- my mum had issues with her absorption and dealt with it by taking a high concentration and was really sick. They had to change all of her usual medications and told her to get off all vitamin d supplements

That's a really low dose when you were already known to be deficient. I take these through the UK winter - and a multivitamin all year. As others have said the vitamin K is important.

https://amzn.eu/d/3rAQ35k

Those are 5 x the dose you have been taking and 4000IU (100micrograms) is the max recommended to not risk excess. The tablets are tiny I was surprised how small a year pack is. Also have magnesium and they are huge.

It's £10 but that's for a full year's supply. Makes a noticeable difference to aches and pains.

Thanks for all the advice, the hospital are going to write to my GP but from experience this could take ages. I will buy some higher strength ones. I really have to be careful in the sun as I’m on two different types of medication that I can have (and have had), bad sun reactions.

I was on 800iu in a multivitamin and still got aches and pains. I figured out it was a vitamin D deficiency and started taking much higher doses. Be careful doing that though as I ended up getting heart palpitations and crazy anxiety. Turns out I had depleted my magnesium stores. So do read up on what you might need to take with it (as vitamins/minerals can deplete each other) K2 has been mentioned as well. My vitamin D levels were optimal when tested shortly afterwards tho so I guess the supplements worked in a short time frame.

As for other little things you can do-Engevita make vitamin D flakes you can sprinkle on your meals. Might not do much but can't hurt!

I take daily 10000 IU in winter cutting down to 5000 IU I summer. Only thing I know is wrong with me is an under active thyroid which I had to get diagnosed privately. Im outside working several hours a day all year round too. My level has slowly risen over the past 10 years on such large doses from 50 to 90. I take it with vit K2 and think magnesium's also good to take as well but I don't.

I think you could up your dosage significantly based on my own experience

@Firefly1987 could you explain a little more about the magnesium depletion please?

@LittleGreenDragons so vitamin D needs magnesium to work and if you are taking high doses of vitamin D you can quickly get low on magnesium if you're not taking that as well. Things like heart palpitations are a symptom so when I started getting those for the first time I was quickly able to realise it was the vitamin D causing a magnesium deficiency.

I'm rubbish at explaining the science behind this sort of stuff so I found some articles that explain how it all works-

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28471760/#:~:text=Mg%20is%20essential%20in%20the,aspect%20of%20vitamin%20D%20therapy.

https://www.goodrx.com/well-being/supplements-herbs/vitamin-d-and-magnesium

@Firefly1987 thank you for that. It seems I need to add magnesium to my daily stash considering I'm on high Vit D/K as I'm unable to tolerate sunlight.

Op what do you have when you take your vitamin D?

If taken with fat it significantly enhances absorption, so nuts, seeds, full fat yogurt etc would be ideal.

I'm a redhead, I'm lucky if I can put the bins out without burning
Also vitamin d deficient funnily
I take 4000IU daily

Have burned at 10am before and in full midday sun I last about 5 mins before I need to go in unless I have factor 50 on

Rheumatology consultant gave me 50,000 tablet a week.

You're welcome and yeah definitely look into it. There are quite a few types of magnesium and some absorb better than others and have less side effects. Magnesium glycinate seems to be one of the most popular-good absorption and well tolerated by most people.