Vitamin D deficient

During Winter, the sun's ray**** the surface of the earth (and your skin) at such an angle that production of Vitamin D by the skin from being outdoors during the daytime essentially stops.  Add to that the need to bundle up and leave little skin exposed, and if becomes effectively nil. I'd have to look up the exact figures, but outside of Winter, I've heard that just 1 or 2 short exposures to the sun per week can give you all the Vitamin D you need. I don't know much about tanning beds (is the wavelength of UV light they use conducive to Vitamin D production?--I have no idea.)  But I'd rather take a Vitamin D supplement than risk skin cancer and wrinkles! /Steve

I have started to take my supplments better! we'll see if I can keep it. I am going to try and tan at my gym for 5 mins 3 times a week and restest the doc said 5 mins 3 times a week would not be bad for me, she alo told me that she needs the low D in alot of post ops and explained how important it is to keep up with my vits,  :) THANKS! Estelle

Hey GF...Dr. Clarke is not like that!!  How much have you lost since surgery?  Dunny is right....we all lose at different pace.  Hey I joined Curves today...do they have one near you?  I'm hoping it will be fun...cuz I actually hate to exercise!!  Why not try it??  The way I see it, you have a very significant weight loss...be proud!    HUGS  Jeanine   See ya tonite at the support group meeting!  Wish we could all meet up there!

Pre-op here, but I am having trouble with D. A test about 4 mos. ago came in at 5. Have been supplementing since then with prescription vitamins. A test 2 weeks ago had my D2 back to 18, but my D3 is very very low. My shrink says that my body is not turning the D2 into D3. So now I need to take D3 as well. Oddly, it is cheaper than the D2 and is OTC.

This really is giving me pause about a surgery with a malabsorbtion component.

My shrink said that if I am not metabolizing the D well, a tanning bed really IS a solution. Check out this website I found when researching for myself. She said to slather on the lotion on my face and chest, but blaze away at the other areas. I asked if we could get BCBS to pay for it, and she just laughed!

I've read that in cloudy areas like Oregon, vitamin D deficiency is more the rule than the exception. We just don't spend the amount of time outside that our grandparents did. 

http://www.vitamindcouncil.com/

 

Thanks everyone *****plied ( thats why I love this place) I went to my docs spoke with the PA there she said it is often common for post ops to have a low D and she said its probable that I had low D prior to my surgery and we didn't test for it, I'm sure she is correct because I live in upstate NY and we get about 3 months a year that are really nice so i havent been an outside kinda person in years! Well thats all changing and by next winter I plan on learning to Ski!  Also I have never been a daily vit taker and Never been a dairy person, So all that said I probably did have a low vit D count prior to my surgery, She did say that I could tan 5 mins a day 3 times a week but not any more than that,  Its part of my GYM membership so I might as well give it a try.  She was not at all upset with me for not losing enough actually she complimented me on how well I was doing and doesn't want to see me for 3 more months,  I'm going to try and  stop beating my self up and leave that to my mother lol  Thanks Again Everyone!  Estelle

Well I was told my D was low before surgery.  The docs I have in Cleveland said that most obese people are low in D because the Fat absorbs it.  I was put on a script for D to start at 6 weeks post op for like 12 week. I was told to be low in D is the norm for obese people.
 

My vitamin D was at 24 preop (25 is the bottom end of the old "normal" range).  At 3 mos postop, it was down to 17 and at 6 mos postop I was at 11.  I was told that we postops do NOT absorb it from the sun anymore, but I don't know why or how true it is.  I do know that after 6 mos of taking 4000 to 5000 ius per day of just D, it was only up to 35.  I was told to increase that to 10000 ius per day.  Some folks get the 50,000 iu pills from Vitalady and take those every day for a month and then drop back to the 10,000 ones.  I'm still taking 10,000 per day as 5 of the 1000 iu pills both in the morning and evening.  Then I also get about 1400 from my multivitamin AND another 800 from my calcium and another 700 in an A/D vitamin I take.  Well, I actually take that twice a day, so more like 1400 a day from that one!  I probably take almost 14000 ius of Vitamin D per day.  I am hoping that when I have labs done at 18 mos that it is over 50.  My goal is somewhere between 75 and 100 as 100 is the desired reading. Lea

That is so weird because I am ghostly pale - I am super fair to begin with and I work at a computer all day so I am hardly ever outside except when I garden or walk, but my vitamin D level was fine before surgery and fine on my last blood work (not so for iron and B12 though).  If I'm outside for more than a walk to the car its in early morning or evening mostly.  Maybe its just that we are so far south, the sun is more intense. 

Hi all  I just found out last week that I was Vit amin D deficient. My dr has me doing 50,000 IU on Mon, Wed & fri. I have to do this for 6 weeks and then I have to get my blood work done again to check it. I take all my vitamins and my calcium every day I never miss them and I am still having a hard time with vitamin D. my levels wasnt really low but they wanted to take care of it now. I think my #s was like 23 and they should be like a 25. just wanted to let you know your not alone.