Good news!

[kaberett]

I have a significant vitD deficiency! (I'm at ~23 units, versus bottom of the normal range at 80 units). Ergo we're going to Make Supplementation Happen, and this will hopefully result in less fatigue and better-managed depression. 25 tablets a week for the next ten weeks, then retest and hopefully drop down to a more sensible prophylactic dose...

Comments

[naath]

Wow, that's a lot of pills to take! But hopefully will make things somewhat better.

[davidgillon]

Wow! That's quite a deficiency, and quite a number of tablets! Here's hoping it makes a real difference.

[rydra_wong]

Yaaaay! \o/

[rmc28]

Yay, something obvious is wrong!

Good wishes for it being easily fixed.

[vass]

Oh, good. Best wishes for good absorption and it solving the problem.

[sidheag]

Excellent! That's in nmol/l, I guess? Can I ask how and how much (D3, or?) you're supplementing now, just out of interest? My GP told me to supplement with D3 1000iu/day following a reading of 35 iirc, but wouldn't suggest a follow up test because apparently the lab was too busy for that, sigh, and then I dropped it till I got ill in a way that reminded me, so now I am guessing. I'm currently guessing at "let's take 2000iu for a bit and then go back to 1000iu since I had good health on that for a year" but I would find it reassuring if someone else's qualified doctor is recommending much more, even if that doesn't sound that rational written out!

[silveradept]

Yay that it's something that can be diagnosed. Good health to you.

[sfred]

Glad to hear there is s Thing that can be Done. I hope you start to feel better soon.

[worlds_of_smoke]

Ooooh, fun! What dose are you taking? I had something like 50000 IU of Vit D once a week back when I first got diagnosed. Now I'm on uh... I think 2-3k IU. I take one pill once a day and it keeps things mostly stable.

[swaldman]

HUZZAH!

How closely is VitD actually related to sunlight exposure? Wondering whether I should look into this given our 5 hrs of daylight in winter...

[liv]

Woo, best possible blood test result! You have a deficiency that's easily defined and measured, and entirely treatable, and there are almost no known side-effects to VitD supplementation (there's a fad for taking "mega-doses" of something like 10^5 times the RDA and so far it hasn't hurt anyone). OK, it's yet more pills, but that's about the only downside. Here's hoping that vitamins plus kissing make you feel lots better soonest.

[redbird]

Yay for identifiable and treatable causes!

I'm guessing it's also a good sign that you're at levels where it's about 4 regular tablets a day for a few weeks, rather than needing special prescription high-dose tablets. Or that might be another US-UK difference.

[liv]

It's very, very closely related to sunlight exposure. (It's just about possible to get enough in your diet without sunlight, but only if you eat an indigenous Arctic style diet of almost entirely meat.) However, north of London, and you're a long way north of London, sunlight doesn't give you the right wavelengths from about October to March. SAD lamp and / or chemical supplementation might be good if you're in any way feeling depressed or tired or demotivated during the winter months.

[redbird]

The only person I'm aware of who was injured by mega-doses got a batch that, due to manufacturing error, had 1000 times the dose/tablet that the labels said, so he was taking not just mega- but gigadoses.

A lot of people in the Seattle area are supplementing with vitamin D, on the theory that between the low-angled winter sunlight and the huge number of cloudy days, it's a good idea. You and kaberett and I think most of their commenters are further north than that, and it's not clear how relevant our cloudy season is. I've seen claimed that even when the sun comes out, at 47° N in January it's too low to be useful for vitamin D; if that's true rather than just sounding plausible, it would apply to winter in Britain as well.

[sidheag]

All true, but do be aware that using a SAD lamp, though it may be helpful, does nothing for your vitamin D levels - they don't give out UV, and a good thing too.

[swaldman]

Don't worry, I'm fully aware of what SAD lamps are, and are not..... ;-)

(that's another rant for another day, from a former lighting consultant)

[liv]

Thank you, I forgot that there are two different kinds of day-bright lamps. My mother uses one specifically to bring up her VitD levels which were depleted as a side-effect of a drug she's taking, and I forgot that it's a different thing from a SAD lamp, thank you for correcting.

[swaldman]

Thanks, that's helpful. Do you know whether it's available without prescription? I've noticed that Tesco has multivitamins and VitB, no D.

[rysmiel]

Yay potential straightforward fix, and I really hope it works. *hug*

[sidheag]

:-)

[sidheag]

Ah, and I in turn didn't know that the former kind existed, so thanks for mentioning it!

[sidheag]

Yes, 400iu and 1000iu D3 are available over the counter. I have ValuPak brand, costing one pound for 60 1000iu tablets. Both our local pharmacies in Edinburgh have them. Or one can pay Amazon three times the price.

[kaberett]

I'm at 800iux25 per week for ten weeks for a total of 200000 units over the course of the intensive supplementation! So I'm more-or-less alternating 4xtabs per day with 3xtabs per day.

[kaberett]

This is prescription doses (25 800iu tabs a week for ten weeks), but -- yes.

[kaberett]

wot sidheag said! (Part of the reason I'm getting it prescribed is that it means they're functionally free for me.)