My Vitamin D

Christie asked about my Vitamin D. In a recent post I mentioned that I was able to bring my Vitamin D levels up from the low 30's up to 104 in a month. 

Ideally for RNY'ers (and anyone, really) we want our D levels to be up over 80 to realize the most health benefits. Studies have shown that Vitamin D levels below 50 ng/ML indicates that the body is using the Vitamin D as fast as we are able to put it into our bodies. Once we hit that magic number of 50 on our labs, we know the body is finally able to store some Vitamin D for a "rainy day." However, it is also shown that levels over 80 that you see reduced risks of certain cancers (breast, prostate, colon) and a reduced risk of MS. Do a search for Vitamin D Council for more interesting research.

So my D levels have been in the low 30's for over two years now. No matter what I did my numbers just wouldn't come up. So I knew I needed to take some aggressive action to get the number into a healthy range. I let my doctor know what I was planning and had labs scheduled for 4 weeks after I started this new routine. 

DO NOT DO THIS without your doctor's full knowledge, oversight and guidance. I started taking 50,000IU dry Vitamin D3 once per day for 30 days. Now I've backed down on that dose to 3x per week for the next 30 days and will go to 1x per week after that. I'll be retested again at that point. 

When you get a Rx of Vitamin D in the 50,000IU dose, it is Vitamin D2 suspended in a gel capsule filled with oil. After RNY we malabsorb fats, so we need a dry formulation that is water soluble. My pharmacy couldn't get it for me and my PCP didn't have any drug name for the water soluble D3. I bought it from Amazon instead. 

So if you are having issues with chronic Vitamin D deficiency and traditional methods are not working. Talk to your doctor about getting aggressive with your supplementation. But remember that Vitamin D can cause toxicity to the body when taken in doses above what the body needs or can utilize. That is why it is so important that your doctor oversee this type of regimen. 

~Pam