Vitamin D deficiency

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Neuro, ICU, travel RN, Psych.

First, let me clarify.. I am NOT asking for medical advice, lol. Just others experience.

I had my annual physical a couple weeks ago, including blood work. I hadn't had routine blood work done in a while. Anyways, doctors office notified me that my Vit. D is low, to the point I will need to take a prescription supplement, it's too low for OTC replacement. Not sure what the level was though.

I've had a few symptoms that I attributed to other things, but now looking back they fit with this. Including breaking my wrist in a car accident, that the docs were shocked that it broke, and where the fracture was, simply from jerking my steering wheel to avoid another car. Never broke a bone in my life. So now I'm thinking this could be part of the reason that it fractured so easily.

Anyways, just curious if anyone else has had to do prescription supplements. If so, could you feel/notice a difference after taking the meds for a while?

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Lots of news on this lately. It was the hot new thing there for awhile, but the IOM came out last week with a report that Vit. D deficiency is overestimated.

IOM Updates Guidance on Vitamin D, Calcium -- AAFP News Now -- American Academy of Family Physicians

I'd want to know what the level was and talk to my provider about the new guidance.

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Taking supplements when you are not low is different. I was low I think 10 was my level and its like 30-80 or something like that (don't quote me...lol) I was having joint pain which was why they checked it along with many other tests. I took the 50,000 Unit dose weekly for I think 8 weeks and it came up to normal. I now have to take 2000 units daily per my doc to keep it from falling again. She said that over the years she has found that once up to normal with the weekly dosing all of her patients ended up back down and couldn't maintain without a maintainence dose. Thus the continued 2000 units daily (OTC)

I found that my joint pain did get better actually. I think all the press is not for those who have been actually tested by their doc and are low. I think that is about people who just go ahead and take large does on their own--who may not even be low.

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I was having joint and large muscle pain to the point where I went to endo to explore the possibility of Fibromyalgia. My D level was down to 12 ( I think our cutoff for the low range is 30 in my office). I took 50,000 Unit dose twice weekly for 8 weeks and not only did my level come back up to normal, I felt marked improvement. I continued to take 2000 units daily, but my levels went back down after a major surgery. I am, again, feeling aches and pains and have started another supplemental dose regimen.

Though I think vitamin D is the hot new thing to test, I think testing also had its merits.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Neuro, ICU, travel RN, Psych.

Thanks. I am not surprised that I'm low, tbh. I'm still nursing my 21 month old daughter, and also moved from FL to NY a year ago. I'm going to call on Monday to find out how low it actually is. I've been having the muscle and occasional joint pain for a couple months. I've honestly just felt kinda weak. So hopefully taking the supplement will help me to feel better.

I was looking it up yesterday, and there are tons of things about it becoming almost an epidemic. I'll check out that link though. I'm curious, lol

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Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.
Thanks. I am not surprised that I'm low, tbh. I'm still nursing my 21 month old daughter...

Hey there....

The good news about breastfeeding is that, from what I understand, your bones will actually be strong again, once breastfeeding is done. I actually have heard before that bones are stronger post breastfeeding. I did a quick search for this info online and came across the following

"The good news is that, like bone lost during pregnancy, bone lost during breastfeeding is usually recovered within 6 months after breastfeeding ends." http://www.niams.nih.gov/Health_Info/Bone/Bone_Health/Pregnancy/default.asp

:)

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Neuro, ICU, travel RN, Psych.
Hey there....

The good news about breastfeeding is that, from what I understand, your bones will actually be strong again, once breastfeeding is done. I actually have heard before that bones are stronger post breastfeeding. I did a quick search for this info online and came across the following

"The good news is that, like bone lost during pregnancy, bone lost during breastfeeding is usually recovered within 6 months after breastfeeding ends." http://www.niams.nih.gov/Health_Info/Bone/Bone_Health/Pregnancy/default.asp

:)

Thanks for checking that out:) That is good to know!!

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large doses of D3 will work better than the D2 that you will get by script.

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I have light senitive so i stay in the dark and have taken 50,000 Units a week for over a year . Befor I started I was having very bad bone and joint pain I was also very sad and had trouble walking and I could sprain a bone by looking at it . It took about 3 months for me to fell good agen

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