It was a year and a half ago, more or less, when I started supplementing with Vitamin D. After considerable research, and the test that revealed my level was 37, I settled on 10k a day and passed the least-ill winter of recent times.

So when my test last fall pegged my level at 96, I was all Mission Accomplished and dropped my daily intake back to 5k. (I also started taking chelated magnesium somewhat earlier.)

But every time I drop back to 5k this past winter & spring... I get sick. Real sick! And when I take more D3; I get better again.

This was the fourth round, and I can't stand it any more. I guess I'll get tested again soon, to see what happens to my levels, but I have to see what happens when I stick to 10k a day.

Dr. Hollick, a vitamin D guru, maintains his D levels around 120 ng/mL. I've been as high as 300 and prefer a level around 200. I would never drop my level of supplementation fall going in to winter. I don't drop my D supplementation until late spring when I can get more sun reliably enough to generate vitamin D on my skin.

My doctor has done untrasounds of my soft tissue and organs and I have no ill effects from maintining my vitamin D levels that consistently high.

My usual advice is 5,000 IU/day summer to fall and 10,000 IU/day late fall thru spring. But that's for a healthy person. A person with deficiency and especially with evident deficiency symptoms needs more. I believe that first you have to "fill the hole".

High vitamin D supplementation and injections in my knees has reversed my arthritis and eliminated the bone spurs I had in my knee joints.

I've always believed that vitamin D deficiency and deficiency symptoms take time and a lot of vitamin D to reverse. It's taken about 5-6 years for my osteopena to reverse and for the osteoarthritis in my knees to improve from severe/needing knee replacements to moderate. Also during that time I have had some cartilage grow back in my knees...that's not supposed to be able to happen.

I don't encourage anyone to use the amounts/IUs of vitamin D that I've used by mouth and injection but I do consider 10k IU/day relatively small and maybe inadequate to address long standing deficiency.

I stick to 10K all year round.

The first time I dropped to 5K (in summer, and we have pretty sunny summers here, but I probably don't get enough actually onto my skin ), my joint pain definitely increased, so I have found it easier to just plain stick with the 10K.

The other thing is that if I am trying to avoid an infection, I increase to 20K. Usually - always, until recently! - when my DH "brings home" a cold, I catch it within a few days. I then always get a chest infection which then messes up my asthma so I need steroids, bla bla bla. But twice in recent months I have actually avoided catching his cold. Now it may be coincidence or some sort of placebo effect, but I believe it's far more likely that it has been the increased level of Vit D.

Or, to put in another way, what Zule said.

My husband has osteoarthritis and also degenerative spine issues. Right now he is recovering from spinal fusion surgery. We both have been taking 5,000 units D3 per day, all year long. It seems to be enough for me. My health has been good and I don't suffer aches and pains the way I have in the past. But, with my husband's issues, I'm now thinking that perhaps he needs to jump up to at least the 10,000.

Zuleikka: I am very intrigued by your claims of cartilage regrowth. This is something I am actively pursuing by consuming lots of collagen and gelatin. I will have to also try the Vitamin D. Did you have any testing done that proves your cartilage has regrown such as x rays or mri? I don't doubt you, I'm just excited to read that someone is making it happen.

I 've had xrays taken for every three or fewer year spans for the past 12 or so years. You can see the progression of arthritis with the widening spaces where the cartilage disappeared. For a period of a few years I was walking bone on bone and had bone spurs in my right knee. That's when I was told I needed knee replacement surgery. My last two xrays you could see that the gap in my knee had actually lessened. The last xray is where it showed only moderate arthritis...the diagnosis...and the knee joint appears almost normal.

That's wonderful! I'm so happy you are getting such good results.

I appreciate your reassurance very much. I'm also taking chelated magnesium, which helps with the D; so I'll stick with the 10k and see what my next blood level might be.

My husband, who has CFIDS, has worked his way up to 20k a day. I'm sure we both have a considerable "hole to fill" from living near the Canadian border; and he's on long term antibiotic therapy which makes his skin sun sensitive.

Thanks Zuleikka I am so encouraged by your success. They say it can't be done, but you have proved otherwise, and I intend to keep trying.

I don't mean to threadjack but when is the best time of day to take Vitamin D?

In the morning with fat or a meal containing fat. Vitamin D taken in the afternoon or evening can interfere with sleep.

I'm glad I saw this before I had my scrambled eggs. Thanks.

This is news to me, as I sometimes take it with my evening meal. If Vitamin D is a "zippy one" (some supplements are calming, some are excitatory) it's helpful to take in the morning. Thanks!

I take around 20,000 iu a day, sometimes up to 30,000. I tend to feel good when supplementing fairly heavily on that. But then, I weigh enough for 3 people, and have been profoundly deficient through my adult life. I believe the weight might be part of what absorbs it all. I've never added injections for joints to it, I suppose that would add a bunch of extra to your body overall, right. I do notice a significant difference in my "fundamental sense of well-being" that underlies the rest of my psychology, when taking it versus not.

PJ

Me, too! The only comparable supplement to affect me that way was Rhodiola rosea, or Arctic Root, which I am also very pleased with.

The more I research stress issues, the more I discover how they affect our health, and thus, our weight.

I've read that if you are very thin, you can absorb up to 20,000 IU of Vit D from a few hours of sun exposure in a bathing suit, but if you are heavy you almost reap no benefits from the sun because your fat cells store the Vit D and your body doesn't get to use it.

I also read that when you begin the supplements your blood levels increase rapidly but as you increase the supplements or your levels get higher, that rapid increase levels off. It seems to be that experts think you really can't overdose on Vit D.

I try to take 10,000 per day, but sometimes I forget. But thanks for saying we should take it in the morning. I take it late with my evening meal and I do have problems sleeping. I will change that and see if it helps.