Andrea or any others knowledgable....vitamin question
I have always had a problem with Vitamin D. Only recently have I got it out of deficiency and in low normal. My questions is, I know calcium and D likes to be taken together but is there anything else that can help absorption. Heres my regimen now:
Prenatal (400 IUs of D) and one 2000 IU D3 pill
2 calcium petites (500 IU D and 400 mg calcium)
2 calcium petites again
Prenatal and 2000 IU D3
iron before bed
So do I need to take something else with the prenatal and D to help it absorb better? If so what? I get in 5000 IUs daily of D3 and it has bought up my levels from 24 to 32.2 in about 5 months but I know it still has a ways to go before it is at a great level.
Simone
Prenatal (400 IUs of D) and one 2000 IU D3 pill
2 calcium petites (500 IU D and 400 mg calcium)
2 calcium petites again
Prenatal and 2000 IU D3
iron before bed
So do I need to take something else with the prenatal and D to help it absorb better? If so what? I get in 5000 IUs daily of D3 and it has bought up my levels from 24 to 32.2 in about 5 months but I know it still has a ways to go before it is at a great level.
Simone
In a world full of cheerios be a fruit loop!
260lbs.......148lbs........165lbs
Start........Current.......Goal
Goal met 11/23
Sorry -- my parents are in town to celebrate Daniel's birthday so I've just now seen this.
It's a misnomer -- D does NOT have to be taken with calcium. It's packaged that way in stores simply because calcium and D need to be in the body at the same time (ie you need a high D level to absorb calcium correctly), but it's not like iron and vitamin C.
As for low normal, you need to realize that "low normal" as per the labs are not really low normal anymore. Look for this to change SOON as the research is now saying 50 to be the new normal. Keep reaching higher for a good number. We want a minimum of 50, with an ideal of 80-100. I know that we are more cautious during pregnancy -- I totally get that. But we still have to keep out of deficiency states or we lose bone mass to baby (thieves, little thieves! first our bones, then our money!) and now there is some evidence showing that low D in pregnancy is detrimental to baby as well.
So you're getting 5800 IU of D. Of which, you're still malabsorbing, let's say half. So you probably should up it. But that's just me. I'm not saying "balls to wall" it while preggers -- if you weren't, I'd say 50k a day to get those numbers up NOW. I'm thinking maybe a 5k D3 (and geez, 2 of those a day would kill some of your pills... which I'm about to take care of in a minute..) Just a thought. If you aren't deficient, then you can stay this way for now, but you want to get this up ASAP when baby is here, kay? Cause the status quo is not a good one.
As for iron, you want to add vite C WITH it. Iron likes C. It likes acid. 200mgs C for every 30mgs elemental iron. If it's a ferric salt, like ferrous sulfate (scream, hiss, boo! I hate that ****) then it would be something like "325mg ferrous sulfate equivalent to 65mg iron" and in that case it would be 65mg elemental iron so 400mg of C. A 500mg tablet would be close enough (not an exact science. Be sure to be 2 hours away from a calcium source over 300mg. If you take a sip of milk or have some yogurt that's fine. Don't take with your calcium citrate dose.
Speaking of. You need more calcium. You're only getting 800mg of calcium. RNY? You NEED 2000mg of calcium while baking a baby. That's 10 pills. You can do 3 at a time, 2 hours apart and 2 hours from an iron source you want to count. Don't count the calcium in your prenate if it has it in there cause it will be carbonate.
It's a misnomer -- D does NOT have to be taken with calcium. It's packaged that way in stores simply because calcium and D need to be in the body at the same time (ie you need a high D level to absorb calcium correctly), but it's not like iron and vitamin C.
As for low normal, you need to realize that "low normal" as per the labs are not really low normal anymore. Look for this to change SOON as the research is now saying 50 to be the new normal. Keep reaching higher for a good number. We want a minimum of 50, with an ideal of 80-100. I know that we are more cautious during pregnancy -- I totally get that. But we still have to keep out of deficiency states or we lose bone mass to baby (thieves, little thieves! first our bones, then our money!) and now there is some evidence showing that low D in pregnancy is detrimental to baby as well.
So you're getting 5800 IU of D. Of which, you're still malabsorbing, let's say half. So you probably should up it. But that's just me. I'm not saying "balls to wall" it while preggers -- if you weren't, I'd say 50k a day to get those numbers up NOW. I'm thinking maybe a 5k D3 (and geez, 2 of those a day would kill some of your pills... which I'm about to take care of in a minute..) Just a thought. If you aren't deficient, then you can stay this way for now, but you want to get this up ASAP when baby is here, kay? Cause the status quo is not a good one.
As for iron, you want to add vite C WITH it. Iron likes C. It likes acid. 200mgs C for every 30mgs elemental iron. If it's a ferric salt, like ferrous sulfate (scream, hiss, boo! I hate that ****) then it would be something like "325mg ferrous sulfate equivalent to 65mg iron" and in that case it would be 65mg elemental iron so 400mg of C. A 500mg tablet would be close enough (not an exact science. Be sure to be 2 hours away from a calcium source over 300mg. If you take a sip of milk or have some yogurt that's fine. Don't take with your calcium citrate dose.
Speaking of. You need more calcium. You're only getting 800mg of calcium. RNY? You NEED 2000mg of calcium while baking a baby. That's 10 pills. You can do 3 at a time, 2 hours apart and 2 hours from an iron source you want to count. Don't count the calcium in your prenate if it has it in there cause it will be carbonate.
Thanks Andrea. A lot to take in but great advice.
The D...will do. As soon as I finish off this bottle of 2000 IU pills, which will should be within the next month, I will look for a higher dosage. Do you recommend the 5000IU or straightline to the 50,000IU? If the 50,000 where can I find it and how often would I need to take it?
I never thought to up my calcium (duhhh Simone). My OB had said I was getting enough because I take 800mg in pills already and I eat A LOT of cheese and she said adding too much would constipate me. So would I still need to take 600 3x a day if I am consuming a minimum of 3 dairy servings a day (and thats just the cheese)?
The D...will do. As soon as I finish off this bottle of 2000 IU pills, which will should be within the next month, I will look for a higher dosage. Do you recommend the 5000IU or straightline to the 50,000IU? If the 50,000 where can I find it and how often would I need to take it?
I never thought to up my calcium (duhhh Simone). My OB had said I was getting enough because I take 800mg in pills already and I eat A LOT of cheese and she said adding too much would constipate me. So would I still need to take 600 3x a day if I am consuming a minimum of 3 dairy servings a day (and thats just the cheese)?
In a world full of cheerios be a fruit loop!
260lbs.......148lbs........165lbs
Start........Current.......Goal
Goal met 11/23
We can't account for food. Remember -- we malabsorb. Your OB is used to normies that get most of their nutrition from food.
Now, with that said -- magnesium will help things keep moving. Specifically magnesium oxide. It's easily found in stores, cheap, and will help keep things going. Also, safe. It's not very bioavailable -- which is why it helps with BM's. If you want a good magnesium supplement for bioavailability, you'll want mag citrate (in capsules, not the terribly yicky liquid bowel prep form -- I'm mean, but only to those who truly deserve it!). If you happen to absorb some of the magnesium -- even better. Will help headaches, muscle cramps, and calcium absorption.
I hesitate to say "balls to the wall" 50k while pregnant while you are not in the "Oh ****" range with your D. Are you in a great D range? No, by any stretch of the imagination, no. But, I'm also a hellova lot more cautious than many other vitamin people on OH -- especially when it comes to preggies cause, well, I love babies. So would I go straight 50k? Probably not at this juncture. If it were me, with your numbers? I'd probably say 10-15k. You're getting moderately decent results on about 5k -- if you double it, you'll still be doing alright -- tripling it would be super and still be well within Andrea's comfort zone. Keep in mind that many of the D experts are now saying that they want the Tolerable Upper Limit for normie non-malabsorbing adults to be raised to 10k a day -- the safe limit for non-deficient adults to safely take a day regularly without ill-effects. Also, the body will produce about this amount in absolute perfect conditions in 30 minutes (after 30 minutes, the amount decreases sharply -- and when I say perfect, I'm talking someone who is buck nekkid at the equator who has little-to-no melanin.. everyone else takes longer and gets less). Remember -- you have extra "stress", an alien stealing your vitamins, and a shortened gut that will pee out some of what you take in. So kinda go from there. The 5k version of the dry D3 at vitalady, btw, is the D3-5. When I went to 50k, I did 10 spread through the day and my number shot through the roof -- I don't know if I have weird D absorption (I have weird mega B absorption.. seriously, it is really strange -- I'd go over it if it wouldn't bore), or if it is the fact that I spread it out over the course of the day rather than one large bolus. But you could always do that and use up the bottle after your pregnancy if still needed until you buy the D3-50.
And wow, what a paragraph. I should learn better grammar (my headache isn't very good. Waiting on pain meds to kick in. I should be better soon. Or at least easier to understand. One can hope, at least.)
Now, with that said -- magnesium will help things keep moving. Specifically magnesium oxide. It's easily found in stores, cheap, and will help keep things going. Also, safe. It's not very bioavailable -- which is why it helps with BM's. If you want a good magnesium supplement for bioavailability, you'll want mag citrate (in capsules, not the terribly yicky liquid bowel prep form -- I'm mean, but only to those who truly deserve it!). If you happen to absorb some of the magnesium -- even better. Will help headaches, muscle cramps, and calcium absorption.
I hesitate to say "balls to the wall" 50k while pregnant while you are not in the "Oh ****" range with your D. Are you in a great D range? No, by any stretch of the imagination, no. But, I'm also a hellova lot more cautious than many other vitamin people on OH -- especially when it comes to preggies cause, well, I love babies. So would I go straight 50k? Probably not at this juncture. If it were me, with your numbers? I'd probably say 10-15k. You're getting moderately decent results on about 5k -- if you double it, you'll still be doing alright -- tripling it would be super and still be well within Andrea's comfort zone. Keep in mind that many of the D experts are now saying that they want the Tolerable Upper Limit for normie non-malabsorbing adults to be raised to 10k a day -- the safe limit for non-deficient adults to safely take a day regularly without ill-effects. Also, the body will produce about this amount in absolute perfect conditions in 30 minutes (after 30 minutes, the amount decreases sharply -- and when I say perfect, I'm talking someone who is buck nekkid at the equator who has little-to-no melanin.. everyone else takes longer and gets less). Remember -- you have extra "stress", an alien stealing your vitamins, and a shortened gut that will pee out some of what you take in. So kinda go from there. The 5k version of the dry D3 at vitalady, btw, is the D3-5. When I went to 50k, I did 10 spread through the day and my number shot through the roof -- I don't know if I have weird D absorption (I have weird mega B absorption.. seriously, it is really strange -- I'd go over it if it wouldn't bore), or if it is the fact that I spread it out over the course of the day rather than one large bolus. But you could always do that and use up the bottle after your pregnancy if still needed until you buy the D3-50.
And wow, what a paragraph. I should learn better grammar (my headache isn't very good. Waiting on pain meds to kick in. I should be better soon. Or at least easier to understand. One can hope, at least.)
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