Patch MD - 3 months post OP tests

I'd just like to say Ditto.

Thank God someone told me to track trends in a spreadsheet! Best tool I have in being my own best advocate for my health.

Given how awful the chewable vitamin choices are, I can totally understand why we wls folks want these to work. I remain skeptical that it's possible for vitamins and minerals to cross the skin barrier, but I would love to be scientifically proven wrong! Best of luck to you!

Most of my three month labs are in. I was low pre-surgery in Vit D, was on 50,000iu once a week because level was in the high teens. Now it is 98, so I was told to take daily dose of 800iu. But, my Celebrate chewable multi has 3000iu. What should I do?

Nurse said everything was good. Thyroid, B vits, and copper not back yet.

You want your Vitamin D between 60 and 80. 98 is high, but not toxic. If it were me, I would take one 50,000iu ever other week for a few months and get retested.

Any patch, not just the vitamins, depends on skin permeability to a large degree. It's very difficult to get the skin to absorb certain things, since it's job is to keep everything possible outside the body. I forget where, but I posted some studies which show there's a high degree of variability between individuals when it comes to patches, whether they are vitamins, nicotine, hormones, or other drugs. The same with compound ointments/meds, too, not just vitamins. Those work a bit better and I am unsure why, actually.

Rambly tangential science for those who are interested: injections or IV prep (like TPN) probably deliver vitamins in the most direct manner with the least interference. Nasal or sublingual absorption is second in terms of delivery. Digestion is third most effective. Skin, typically, is the least effective of all delivery systems for drugs and what have you. (Drugs are a bit different, as inhaled preps are always #1 in getting to the brain the fastest, even over IV stuff.)

You posted that on my thread from a few weeks ago, which was about the patches not working for me and reminding people to track their labs.

Do you know if the patches have a carrier, like DMSO? I was assuming they must have something to 'grab' the vitamins and pull them through the skin.

Im not sure, I'll check the package and see it it says anything

Do you mean dimethyl sulfoxide? That I dunno. Even with DMSO, I have read that there are issues with that compound in and of itself. Now that I passed my dumb licensure exam, I should invest some time into researching it and poke a few chemical engineers I know to ask them.

I meant like DMSO. I know it isn't really a good chemical for human applications. We use it with horses frequently. I just remember reading the insert and it discussing studies about painting mice tails with DMSO and (IIRC) a narcotic and the mice got high..

I was wondering if there was a carrier chemical that would pull the vitamins through the dermis. Really there has to be doesn't there?