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Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Vitamin D and why you need it!

I got the results of my blood work back, but first wanted to mention something else: vitamin D. I live in a Great Lakes climate, which means we get few piddling days of sunshine compared to some, and thus, not as much of the "sunshine vitamin," as it's called. My gastroenterologist ordered additional blood work for me and we discovered that, like many people in this area, my Vitamin D levels were in the crapper.

At first I thought, okay, so what does this mean? Then I studied up on the symptoms and was shocked: among them are many symptoms that mimic hypothyroidism and other conditions, namely joint pain, which I already suffer from as a result of having Crohn's. Other symptoms apparently include chronic fatigue, depression, stroke and osteoporosis, diabetes and heart disease. Other sources I checked said brain fog and even mental illness was associated with it. Holy crap!

Other symptoms seemed to affect only women, like more moodiness during menstruation.

My doctor prescribed a honking dose of 50,000U per week for three months, and then I would taper off to a regular vitamin-sized dose of 400U per day after that. Keeping my fingers crossed!

7 comments:

MentalMom said...

Make sure you take the good, bio-available D3!!

The Deranged Housewife said...

Do you have a specific brand you recommend?

Sara r. said...

Agreed- fermented cod liver oil from green pastures is a great source. Vitamins in food are always utilized by the body better than synthetic vitamins.

MentalMom said...

http://www.amazon.com/NOW-Foods-Vitamin-5000-120-Softgels/dp/B002EA99HE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1306381150&sr=8-1

These are what I take

TracyKM said...

Dr Oz recommends that most people, esp. up this area, take at least 1000IU/day and that the recommended RDA is too low for almost everyone.
I just found out I'm anemic and that's probably a cause of a lot of my issues. I can't remember if they did a vit. D test....brain fog! LOL.

The Deranged Housewife said...

I asked the pharmacist about a good supplement while taking the 50K units and he thought anything higher than 400UI a day would be too much. I'm confused about the differences between D2 and D3 - the megadose I'm on is D2 but the supplement I'm taking is D3. Does it matter??

NM said...

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