vitamin D - please help

OK.  I don't want to sound like a broken record, but I really am worrying about this Vitamin D thing...     

My doc wants me to take Rx 50,000 iu Vit D 1x weekly.  But, because of what I read on this site, I didn't fill the rx the doc gave me, but instead I'm taking Vitalady's D3 50,000 iu Tender dry vitamin D. 

I am taking it daily (I've taken it daily for 20 days now) and the doc office seems alarmed that I'm taking it daily instead of weekly.  Should I back off to weekly instead of daily or is it OK to take it daily until I get re-checked?  I don't have an appointment set for re-check, but they mentioned 10 weeks which would be around Oct 25.
 

Here are my labs: 

I added the ranges in parenthesis behind my levels.  Also added TIBC numbers on here.

Vitamin D level is low - 21  (30-100)
PTH INTACT IRMA (PARATHYROID ANALIZER) HIGH 118 (10 - 63)

RDW- SD stands for Standard Deviation in RDW – 50.3 (normal is 38.7 to 49.6)
RDW-CV stands for Coefficient Variation of RDW – 15.3 (normal is 12.0 to 14.9)

B6 high – 201.4 (20.0 - 125.0)

B12 is 1142  (200 - 1000)

Calcium is 9.3 (8.5 - 10.5)

iron is 53 (35 - 180)

I can't find my ferritin level on here :-(  Is there another abbreviation or name it could be called?

TIBC 361 (280 - 380)

iron sat is 15% (15 - 50)

hemoglobin is 12.3 (11.4 - 15.5)

hemacrit is 38.6 (35.0 - 46.1)

RBC is 4.30 (3.94 - 5.13)

folate is 19.8 (1.5 - 24.0)

 

I'm sure your doc's office did seem alarmed that you are taking that much.  They frequently freak out about it.

Just a few days ago, someone posted that she had labs done and her D was 94, which is excellent.  The nurse remarked that it was the best D she'd ever seen and asked how much she was takting.  She said 50,000 IU daily and the nurse freaked out and said oh, you can't take that much! 

Ok, think about this for a minute.  Your D is really good but you should not take enough to keep it really good.  Does that make sense?

I think part of the issue is that many docs don't think we need our vitamin D level as high as some other people think we do.  Research shows we need it at least 80 but many docs still say it's OK if it's 30 or 40.

Here's what I can tell you.  And I have no study to point to.  As far as I can tell, no one has ever done a study yet about how much vitamin D3 an RNY patient should take and for how long to get their D level up to 80.

Lots and lots and lots of post ops here on OH take or have taken 50,000 IU daily and taken that dose for weeks or months.  I'm pretty sure none of us have died from vitamin D toxicity.  However, we have increased our levels to 80 or above.  Taking it once a week won't do that, or if it ever does, it would take you years.  Seriously, years.

I won't tell you not to follow your doc's advice.  I will, however, tell you that I'll bet you any amount of money you want (and I'm poor) that if you take it daily and get it tested again at the end of October, the level will be much better but it will not be anywhere near dangerously high.

I took 50,000 IU D3 daily for about six months to get my level from around 50 to a little over 100 (don't have the actual numbers in front of me right now).  Now I am taking it three or four times a week.

Ferritin would say ferritin.  They  may not have checked it.  Ask for it next time you get labs done.  Your iron is on the low side so you may want to start taking more iron now.

Your B12 is beautiful.

OK.  Thank you for your quick response!  I just wanted reassurance that taking it daily wasn't going to put me up into toxic levels before I get it checked again!  I was almost certain that I had heard others say on here that they took it daily for months...  But, when the nurse acted freaked (through email) I just wanted reassurance!

Thanks again.  I'm going to continue to take it daily and get it checked again the end of October and adjust it accordingly at that time.

Dot

And when you get the labs done again, they'll act happy and surprised about how much it went up and then if you tell them how much you've been taking they'll freak out again.

I was thinking about it the other day, about how much docs seem to freak out if you tell them you are taking large doses of vitamins.  I realize you can have problems sometimes if you take massive doses but it's not real easy to get to that level.  And yet, docs are perfectly comfortable prescribing lots and lots of prescription drugs that are known to have much more serious side effects.  Seems backwards to me.  While both vitamins and prescription drugs could cause problems if you take too much, seems to me like the drugs are a lot more dangerous.

In the opinion of anyone medical, it is already toxic, based on the dose. Not on the result. OK, go back, read that again. Yeah, based on something they read in a text book written in the 1980's.

Now, most do not know that only D2, in oil can ever be toxic. Ever. You'd have to take a bottle a day to get there, but since we don't absorb it, you'd go broke before you'd ever get your D 25 hydroxy levels high enough to be satisfactory.

D3, water soluble, cannot BE toxic. It doesn't store in the liver in the same way that D2 in oil would (in someone who might absorb it). It is poorly absorbed by everyone.

So, what Kelly said about medical just being happy "WNL", in the range anywhere, and our desire to get all the benefits available, is true.

So we have 2 issues which is the level we want vs just sorta normalish. And the dosage. They are taught that all vitamins are a hair away from toxicity, even tho they are often faced with deficiencies in our population. It's pretty hard for us to be toxic in anything.

Toxic. It means poison, like dying. It does not mean a high level. Even if your level had reached 190, some studies show it would have to be more like 790 to have any danger factor at all.

I suggest even 2 per day for 2 weeks, then 1 per day for 2 weeks, then dropping back to 3 per week and test 90 days after you go to 3 per week. Then it pushes you out of the hole, and we start leveling it off, based strictly on my theories, not on any studies I can produce. So, when you test, you've been a month on high dose, but 90 days on maintenance and that's the level we want to see. If it's 80-120, then keep doing that and test again in 90 days. See if it goes up, down, or hangs in the same neighborhood to try to determine what your dose for life will be.

But the little guy is wiggly. I got my D to 91. PER-FEC-TION. It was 91 in April, 91 in Oct. Impossible to hit the same target twice. So, I tell me, my dose is THUS. And the next April, it's 120. ? This is winter, so even tho I don't believe in the sun myth, how could it jump in the dead of winter?

OK, so freak thing, I continue and next fall, it's 141. HUH? So, I figure freak thing and I'm still within the safety zone without freaking out the docs. I continue. Next April it's jumped to 161. It jumps the most in winter. Go figure. And I thought I had it down pat. So, I cut back, and can't test til Oct. So, even if you get it figured, you may take years of fine tuning to get it to stay put in a, say, 30 point span.

If you have already taken it daily for 20 days, you have given yourself a big jump that you need.  I would cut it back to 2-3 times per week to get to where you need and maintain a normal level.  Continuing at a dose of daily for 10 weeks can really skyrocket a level, I have seen people up in the 300's after that time period. I started at 36 and after taking it 2 times per week for 2 months it went up to 97.  After a few months at that level, I dropped a bit so I increased to 3 times per week and went back to a perfect level around 100 and stayed there for over 2 years.  All of a sudden about 2 months ago with no changes I skyrocketed to greater than 150 - they couldnt' even measure it.  According to my Endo and the kidney foundation, high vitamin D levels can cause kidney stones and about 2 weeks after getting that level, I was diagnosed with severe kidney stones requiring emergency surgery.

 I have been taking 50,000 I.U.'s from Vitalady since May when my Vitamin D3 level was at 30.  I just had my blood taken on Tuesday and won't have the results for a while, but I am very anxious to know especially since my surgeon's P.A. freaked out when I told her what I was taking and told me to take no more than 5,000 I.U.'s a day.    We shall see..........

Your results will be good.  In the matter of vitamin D, it seems like we either have to just let them freak about it or not bother to tell them how much we take.  I'm sure part of the issue is them not always being up to date on the latest info about vitamins, which I understand because new info about things comes out all the time and there is no way one person could keep up with all of it.  They usually focus on medical stuff, not vitamin stuff.

But I also don't think this issue has been researched very well.  We here on OH know what works and what doesn't and how much people  typically need because we get our labs done and watch them closely and all talk about it.  We know it from our collective experience but we don't have a scientific study we can show our docs that "proves" it.

Let me know what it is next time you get it checked.

 Ok, so I had my labs drawn last week and my Vitamin D level is 252.8 and my Vitamin B12 is at 1012.    I had those levels checked for my surgeon, but it was my PCM that saw me today and she about fell off her chair!  She said she's never seen a Vitamin D level so high!    So I guess I will start taking my 50,000 I.U's maybe 3 or 4 times a week. Anyone have any thoughts on that? I just bought a new bottle so I at least want to fini**** off.