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Old Sat, Jul-20-13, 19:47
cindy_cfid cindy_cfid is offline
Senior Member
Posts: 371
 
Plan: Atkins
Stats: 280/188/150 Female 66"
BF:Day37=2"loss belly
Progress: 71%
Default vitD level 200ng/ml I feel good but when at 100ng/ml I feel bad (still over range)

Thanks to suggestions by vitD advocate, Ted Hutchinson, I started high level of vit D 3 years ago.

I had no doubt my vitD levels were low, I rarely left the house & never saw the sun but I had been taking 1000-2000iu of vitD sporadically.

I did LOTS of research & found that about 600,000iu was the loading dose for someone severely deficient & I felt comfortable taking a daily dose of 40,000iu but since I only had bottles of 1000iu on hand, I was taking handfuls a day & only averaged about 35 a day.

It was amazing, at the 17th day, the chronic pain I had been in for over 10 years was GONE. Doing the math, that would have been exactly the point when daily needs + a 600,000iu deficiency would have been filled & this made sense to me.

Since I never left the house, I never had a blood test done. I cut my levels down to 8000iu a day for 36 days & the pain returned. So I did 40,000iu for 10 more days & then cut my daily dosage down to 12,000iu.

I did this for a couple of years & the pain was gone but all my other symptoms persisted - fatigue, muscle weakness, etc. I read about Dr. Joe Prendergast's remarkable results with his patients at 50,000iu per day & started 40,000iu for a year or two - there was a slight improvement.

Dec 2012 - tested 1,25(OH)D vitD levels = 49 (range 32-72) (discovered wrong test in March) I had read that levels need to be above 50 for body to use optimally/properly

I figured that if 40,000iu only got my levels to 49, then I need to greatly increase, so I did a 100,000iu loading dose & started 60,000iu daily. I almost started feeling normal - I still had muscle weakness & fatigue but it wasn't nearly as severe & I had NO pain, no achiness, no morning stiffness (before at 40,000iu daily I would still have some pain in the mornings usually not unbearable as long as I slept on an air mattress)

Mar 2013, retested with *correct* test - tested at 202 ng/mL (normal range 30-100)
per doctor's insistence STOPPED supplementation 3/14/2013 - 25(OH)D also called 25 hydroxy is the better marker of overall D status.

Within 2 weeks, my Hashimoto's thyroid flared up & by the 3rd week I was in pain again. The pain escalated another week & I started 5000iu per day. The pain escalated even worse another week & I increased to 25000iu per day. The pain escalated to unbearable levels another week & I increased to 45000iu per day for 4 days. Pain level finally dropped to bearable levels & I dropped supplementation to 10,000iu per day for a week.

I had a doctor's appt scheduled for May 17 so stopped all supplementation for 17 days til after testing (even though I was in very bad pain).

My test in May was 103ng/ml (normal range 30-100)

I didn't get the results for a couple of months & had restarted at 25,000iu after the blood work. In July, Dr. asked to drop to 20K & retest in 6 weeks

My levels would have been effected by my supplementation in April but I didn't do *that* much but my level dropped from 202 to 103ng/ml above "normal" but I felt bad & in pain.

Right now, I feel achy but not in unbearable pain. I want to stabilize my input & will stay at 20K per day for the next few months til the next test.

My doctor is all about the lab test - screw the symptoms. I'm all about the symptoms, screw the doctor.

From what I've read, as long as blood calcium levels are in normal range (as mine are) there is no vitD toxicity. I've told my doctor this to no avail but also told him I will do what I think is best.

We compromised on 20,000iu a day & I know that won't bring me to optimal levels but it is at bearable levels.

I did research & one study did high level supplementation (50,000iu day) on MS patients & none became toxic (normal blood calcium levels) but their vitD levels were 150-214ng/ml but they felt better.

My question is doesn't it make sense that if I feel better at 200ng that that is "normal" for *me* - even if lab normal range 30-100?

Thanks to anyone who reads all this.

Last edited by cindy_cfid : Sat, Jul-20-13 at 21:08.
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