Vitamin D deficency may be causing your problems

[panicface]

I went through years of anxiety and depression:
- sleeping 10 to 14hrs a day
- joint and muscle aches
- anxiety
- palpitations
- brain fog
- depression (severe)
- little paranoia
- overall just feeling bad, like i had chronic fatigue syndrome
- migraines with aura

took b2 and magnesium daily to keep things in check.

then had a doctor tell me to get my Vitamin D checked. Sure enough I was extremely deficient (15).

there's also another condition called 'hyperparathyroidism' (just a small tumor on your parathyroid gland - can be removed in 15 min)

so you should get your calcium checked when you check Vitamin D. if your calcium is over 10.1 probably you have this. (google it)

both of these issues (low D and high Calcium) can lead to just about all of the problems you see on this board.

i just now got my results of very low D and fairly high Calcium. right now doing daily sun exposure and supplementing D - will test blood monthly. but have high hopes that this has been my problem for the last decade.

[Zeldagirl]

Please please update your progress with this. During a really bad episode a few months back i insisted on blood work because I was falling apart and I had a strong feeling I had something physical causing or amplifying it. I thought it was my thyroid because I have had nodules on my thyroid for years and never had it checked. Basic thyroid test came back normal but I kept pressing for more tests. Sure enough I found out I have Hashimotos which is an autoimmune disease of the thyroid and its trying to kill my thyroid but so far it's still working. Also a bad vitamin d deficiency (16). I can't take vitamin d so have been doing it with the sun but have managed to bring it up to 24 this summer. I feel so much better than I did im not sure if raising my d that little bit did it or not but I'm certain this is all connected no matter what the doctors say. Please let us know how this goes

[MyNameIsTerry]

I know a have most of those symptoms along with various others. I have also found that the more my sleep schedule slipped, so that I was receiving less sunlight, the worse the fatigue seemed to get. The first 2 times I noticed this were followed by improvement in the sunnier months but now my sleep schedule means I will rarely get any sunlight so my vitamin D don't be great anymore.

I have also found myself having more problems with joints and aches over the last 18 months which could be connected to this since the lack of vitamin D will affect calcium. The funny thing is too that calcuim is used for excitory neurotransmitters so too much could be a problem too and this may tie in with a lack of magnesium balance as well as lack of vitamin K2 to push to calcium to where it is needed.

I also take a decent dose of transdermal magnesium for the joint issues which is going to be hampered by a lack of vitamin D.

I have bought some D3 5000IU to add to the high strength Omega 3 oil which has 400IU in it.

[SADnomore]

Hello, all!

I would like to chime in here on the need for vitamin K2. I am finding numerous scientific studies which confirm the roles of K2 in bone health and the prevention of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries caused by calcium deposits). Still there is no RDA for Vitamin K2, nor routine blood testing. My own doctor dismisses the findings of the Japanese women's study in which bone fractures in osteoporotic women were prevented by K2 in doses of 45 mg per day. I have in past had results for osteopenia in bone scans, yet he refuses to test my levels.

There has never been an issue with harm from overdose with K2 reported, and yet I cannot find a supplement containing any useful amount in Canada. I feel I will be forced to order 5 mg K2 online (made in US) pay the duties, and hope I receive it, since rumour has it that anything over 1.5 mg is not allowed in the country (and I am unable to find even that distributed here, online or otherwise).

My main caution to anyone at present taking higher doses of Vitamin D is to bear in mind that without vitamin K, the calcium it supports may very well end up in our arteries and joints instead of our bones and teeth! This is not conjecture or bad science. It's the truth. Vitamin K2 is what shunts calcium around, it is not self-directed at all.

Consequently, I have once more moderated my daily supplementation of both until I am able to take a decent K2 supplement to go along with them. (Yes, there are food sources, but unless one is eating natto (the fermented soybeans) at least 3 times per week, it simply is not going to be adequate.) I have exhaustively researched food sources, and was shocked to learn that, contrary to popular nutritional citing, vegetable sources once digested are woefully small, even in spinach etc., and cheeses such as Brie and gouda outside of Switzerland are heat-treated (pasteurized) in such a way as to nullify their natural vitamin K.

Also, I had hoped that my omega supplement would contain vitamin A (also plays a role), it doesn't, so I am seeking a good beta carotene supplement for my body to use for this. I dare not take Vitamin A and risk toxicity with it, because ... you guessed it, this is only prevented by an adequate level of Vitamin K!

For the life of me I don't know why the medical establishment is so willfully reluctant to support the roles of these crucial elements and vitamins which we DO NOT get from our diets and northern climes!

Vitamins A, D, C, K, (particularly K2 (K2-MK4 for osteoporosis treatment), magnesium and calcium are all of needs, synergistic, and critical to our physical and mental health. Taking one or two without the others is to put ourselves at risk of harm through imbalance. But good luck finding a doctor who will acknowledge and support this, they really only study pharmaceuticals!

Rant over ...

[MyNameIsTerry]

I agree, Marie. My GP is a pretty typical "pill pusher" and in 9 years nothing has ever been discussed about diet other than "are you getting 3 meals a day?". My works occupational heath nurse surprised me by wanting to discuss diet in regard to more serotonin but then fell flat on his face when he started citing "serotonin foods" , since we both know those are rare and it's tryptophan foods but then there is the whole issue with how they are even used.

I just don't understand why doctors refer people for expensive therapies and dish out endless meds yet they don't consider the basics of nutritional requirement and how a deficiency could have developed. In poorer countries they don't even give out meds until they have looked at these issues so it seems we could be learning from their methods.

I know what you mean on the synergy issue too. My magnesium is bound to be not used as well as it could with my lack of sunlight. I get plenty of calcium as I eat dairy and have yogurt daily but I probably lack in k2 (although maybe my Quark helps here? I will have to check on whether it is heat treated now after you mentioned this) but I certainly will be lacking in D3.

Have you noticed that there are now tanning beds with D3 lamps? I've seen them as a recommended form of D3 treatment on the Mercola articles but it did make we wonder how safe they were. (surely they must be somehow or no doctor would ever recommend them?)

[SADnomore]

I had one doctor, one time, tell me to go to a tanning salon a couple of times a week when I lived in Prince Rupert, BC - he even said, "but I'll bet I am the only doctor who will ever advise you to do so!" He did say not to TAN, but just to lay inside the bed for 3 to 5 minutes, with eye protection. ... I think that maybe until I have the Vitamin K supplement I will try this again. The kind of vitamin D our own bodies make in short sessions is probably safer than the multiple drops I have been ingesting up to now ...

Also *** PLEASE NOTE: Do not take Vitamin K if you are on anticoagulants. (Eg. Warfarin)***

Sorry, forgot to mention that.

[MyNameIsTerry]

There's a difference between the lamps too, those with UVA don't help you produce vitamin D as far as I know but UVB does but I think there is also a wavelength range in there too. It seems that it's something to do a couple of times a week too which is interesting when you consider the SAD lamps are an everyday thing.

Sounds like that doctor might have been clued up?

Also, there are greater benefits to natural production on vitamin D anyway so it makes sense to get it that way if it's possible.

[pulisa]

So is taking Vitamin D3 on its own useless without the K2 as well?

Should we all just b*gger off to the Tropics?!

[MyNameIsTerry]

We need K2 to show the calcium where to go properly or it ends up as calcified deposits in places we don't want. (Marie, doesn't the Serrapeptase break that down or does that stuff just work on dead protein cells? I can't remember). But when you take D3 above a certain level, it can end up causing more harm than it does good so you have to increase your K2 to make sure it is kept in check.

Marie knows much more about this. I only know what I have learnt from Marie recently and some Googling to see what some of the online medics say about it. One clinic was advising K2 at 100mcg for every 5,000-10,000IU that you take.

The tropics would be nice though!

[SADnomore]

Lol! Yes, yes, we should definitely all bugger off to the tropics, ha ha! Keep on buying those lottery tickets, and whoever wins first will invite the others down for a month! (It may be a year or two to accommodate us all, be patient! )

Until then ... Terry's found recommended dose of 1,000 mcg (1 mg) Vitamin K2 for every 5,000-10,000 units of Vitamin D sounds reasonable. I know I will feel much more comfortable this way!

And yes, it's true! Serrapeptase works to remove deposits in our arteries that have found their way there, whatever the reason. Even in the case that, and for as long as, arthritic and other inflammatory pain is not being relieved, inflammation elsewhere in the body is being reduced. I will feel even better about that factor once I have K2 on board as well. Call me crazy, but serrapeptase is safe, the way it works makes sense, and if it helps to cut down on chemical pain relievers, then to me it is worth a try. So far it has kept me off them for weeks, and I am hopeful that once some of the other inflammation in my body is resolved, then it will be a real boon once winter comes and I can look forward to taking fewer pills than usual. My liver will thank me.
Marie xx