<p>I too was recently diagnosed with a severely low vitamin D level for some reason and my Glucose level was high (possible diabetes), more tests coming. My cancer is back again after a 3 1/2 year vacation from same, now in my left lung and non-operable. Choices are limited. I just started the Vitamin D 50,000 IU dose for a 4 week trial. Glad to here of little to no side effects. Got plenty of those already. I’m a newbie, this is my first post.
Thank-you all for the comments I also have hyponetremia, a severe sodium deficiency likely due to chemotherapy and take 4, 1 gram tabs a day which requires that I take Lasix and blood pressure meds. I take perc 10’s x4 for pain and will start calcium as many recommended. thanks folks…</p>
<p>My vitamin D level was down to 7 so they put me on the same prescription but only for four weeks. They re-tested and I was up to 20 so they put me on it for another 4 weeks. It was high enough then to quit for a while.</p>
<p>I have Crohn’s Disease so absorption of vitamins is an issue for me in general.</p>
<p>If you do not get much sunlight on your skin, note that the dietary sources high in vitamin D are mainly fish and fortified foods (e.g. vitamin D fortified milk and soy milk).</p>
<p>If you have dark skin, you will get less vitamin D from a given amount of sunlight on your skin than if you have light skin.</p>
<p>I have a similar problem- my Vit D levels are nil, even while taking a multi-vitamin with a high dose of D included. It’s become routine for me to go on and off the mega dose caps several times each year.
Despite this, I’d never risk spending time outside without sunscreen! A vitamin deficiency is preferable to skin cancer…</p>
<p>My Vitamin D level was 15 when I was tested in October. I have very fair skin and burn easily, so I don’t spend a lot of time in the sun … not that Michigan has a lot of sun most of the year. 
My doctor told me to take 5000-6000 units of Vitamin D daily. I was able to buy it at a health food store. My only problem is that I am not very good about remembering to take meds, and I have to take thyroid every day. I can’t take my calcium and Vitamin D at the same time I take my thyroid, so I end up forgetting the calcium and Vitamin D several times a week. I am getting better, though, because I do realize how important it is.</p>
<p>I had osteoporosis, despite having no risk factors except for low D.
Well, I do spend most of my time at the 47 latitude, but Im premenopausal, I spend a great deal of time outside year round, I don’t smoke & rarely drink, I also don’t always wear sunscreen- but I spend my time outside fully clothed
However since I have begun taking D-3 regularly, my DEXA scan numbers have actually improved to osteopenia, over the last 3 years.
:)</p>
<p>I have been taking Vitamin D for the last few years because mine was low and although I only take 1,000 a day now there is a great improvement in my skin and my stomach doesn’t get bloated like it use to. I read it is suppose to improve uterine fibroids so hopefully it is helping mine. I was on the really high dose a few years ago.</p>
<p>Emerald, how did they discover your osteoporosis at a premenopausal age? I didn’t think they test for it until after menopause. I am still pre, but not far off. I zumba 4x week and do a weight class, usually 2x week, so I’m hoping that keeps me safe for a while. I don’t drink milk, no fish, no broccoli, and I always forget my viactiv calcium.</p>
<p>I just wondered how you suspected it enough to get a scan?</p>
<p>My D level was in normal limits, 39.</p>
<p>Years ago nobody worried about vit D levels and of course grandmas got fractures from falls. I moved to Florida and physicians here check it- low but coming up. I took 6 months worth of OTC 5000 units each day but only for 6 months last year. Now I’m taking it again. Researched it. I’m a physician and fair skinned, over 12 years post stage two cut and cure melanoma so I don’t try to get much sun. I found out my insurance company is paying for the $232 lab test for vit D levels- that’s a lot of money but I imagine the assay could be complex. My online research showed we excrete excess vit D so unlike some other vitamins we don’t have to worry about overdose toxicity. Need both calcium and vit D to do the trick. Part of me wonders about it as my bigger bones put me at less risk. But it is a cheap therapy.</p>
<p>I was being treated for arthritis & fibromyalgia by a rheumatologist, and I mentioned to her that I could feel my vertebrae grinding against each other, so we did a baseline DeXA scan about 6 or so years ago.
I believe I have too much estrogen, which can cause the bone density problems.
I have to remember to send the youngest to a specialist, because she has also been diagnosed with at least osteopenia ( we both excrete a great deal of calcium), despite being very active and only 23.(I’m 56, I was diagnosed when I was 50,my body looks ok on the outside, but on the inside, I was starting to fall apart. I had a knee replacement last spring, so I am starting to rebuild what I lost)</p>
<p>Before I had to stop because of my knee, I was doing environmental restoration along the rivers and streams of western washington. So outside year round at least 3 days a week.
With mostly hand tools.
Before my surgery, I began doing water aerobics, which I highly recommend.
A year ago, I could not walk around the block, even with a cane. But I started the classes &in the water I could jump & run!
The cool thing about water exercise for rehab, is that for less support & more impact, you just move into shallow water & for more support, go deeper.
However, because you don’t necessarily realize you are sweating, it doesn’t feel like work, which is a bad thing when you overdo it.:o</p>
<p>I had a DEXA scan at 38 because I’d been on extremely high doses of prednisone for an extended period of time. I’m having one again in a couple weeks because I’ve been on a lower dose of prednisone since July but am now solidly in menopause.</p>
<p>We live where it’s sunny. H has a vitamin D deficiency as well, as measured by blood tests. H has to take a high dose pill once a month (after having taken high dose pills more often for a while). It is by Rx and covered by his insurance. Only found out about it because of the blood tests the MD runs.</p>
<p>We were told by our MD that bodies absorb calcium citrate more easily, so that’s what we take instead of calcium carbonate. We also try to get calcium from food.</p>
<p>My doctor advises extra Vit D. even for those (like me) in the normal range. She says there’s just so much upside and no down that it makes sense to be at the high end of normal these days!</p>
<p>My vitamin D level was 9 and I had a 12-week course of the 50,000 IU caps as well. I took the first dose on a Friday evening and didn’t notice any effect the next day, but Sunday morning I woke up feeling…great. Better than I had felt in I don’t know how long. </p>
<p>Supplementing vitamin D has made a huge difference in my energy and mood over the last few years (after the weekly megadoses, I now take 2,000 IU per day). I would never have believed it if I hadn’t experienced it. I realized that I’d been draggy and cranky and anxious for years and it had become such a constant for me that it seemed like that’s just the way life was. My coworkers and my family definitely noticed the difference.</p>
<p>I started out at 4000 units a day (plus 600 in a multivitamin). After several months of that, I tested Vit D and came out with a level of 34. So I bumped it up to 6000 units a day. I’m aiming for a level in the 50 to 60 range. </p>
<p>The big Vitamin D doc says that, as a rough rule of thumb, 10,000 units a day will bump the reading by 10 points.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter when you take Vitamin D. Taking 5,000 units a day is exactly the same as 35,000 units once a week.</p>
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<p>Basically, living in New England, it is impossible to make sufficient Vitamin D from sunshine. Too far north. Not strong enough sun.</p>
<p>My gynecologist had never recommended supplements before, but a couple of years ago, she said I should start taking vitamin D. So I did! It is also supposed to be helpful for people with schizophrenia, so my son is taking it. We just bought him a sun lamp, too, to see it that will.</p>