The Dangers of Vitamin D Deficiency
January 9, 2008 by Sandy Robinson
Filed under Vitamin D Deficiency
I wrote an article online about the dangers of Vitamin D deficiency and thought it would be fitting for this site. Never try to diagnose yourself. Always see a physician with any questions on Vitamin D Deficiency or any other health issues.
I never realized until I was diagnosed with a serious Vitamin D deficiency what all problems this could cause. My doctor was very concerned because my levels were dangerously low and he immediately put me on a high dose Vitamin D supplement. Some other health problems my doctor told me Vitamin D deficiency could cause include heart disease, chronic pain, Fibromyalgia, hypertension, arthritis, depression, inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, PMS, Crohns Disease, cancer, MS and other autoimmune diseases.
The Vitamin D Council states that Vitamin D deficiency can also cause stroke, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, muscle wasting and birth defects.
The American Society of Anesthesiologists released a report in October of 2007 that stated approximately one in four patients who have chronic pain issues were also found to have low levels of Vitamin D. This was according to a new study that the American Society of Anesthesiologists conducted. Their study also found that those with lower levels of Vitamin D required higher doses of morphine over a longer period of time.
According to the Vitamin D Council, if you are someone who completely avoids the sun you will need to take approximately 4,000 units of Vitamin D per day. You would have to drink 40 glasses of milk a day or take 10 multivitamins a day to get the required amount of Vitamin D. Naturally neither one of these methods is recommended so what are we to do? Many people now fear the sun due to the increasing awareness and prevalence of the deadly skin cancer, Melanoma. The Vitamin D Council says that most people typically make about 20,000 units of Vitamin D after 20 minutes of sun exposure, which is about 100 times more than the daily amount of Vitamin D the FDA says we need. Tanning beds are another option to get the required amounts of Vitamin D also. Personally I will not use a tanning bed or spend excessive amounts of time out in the sun due to fear of skin cancer.
There is another option if you are not a sun worshiper. You can have your physician administer a 25-hydroxyvitamin test to determine if you have optimal levels of Vitamin D in your blood. The Vitamin D Council considers optimum levels to be approximately 50 nM/L. The 25-hydroxyvitamin test measures the amount of calcidiol (a prehormone found in the blood that is produced in the liver). This is considered the most reliable form of testing for Vitamin D deficiency. If this test shows that you are indeed Vitamin D deficient, there is also a supplemental vitamin D3 cholecalciferol you can take.
In order to get the proper amount of Vitamin D your body requires, you need to be able to find a healthy balance of sunlight, but still reduce your risk of skin cancer, particularly Melanoma. Wear sunscreen every time you are in the sun and keep your sun exposure to 20 minutes at a time.
Sources used for this article include:
ImmuneSupport.com – Vitamin D Inadequacy May Exacerbate Chronic Pain
Vitamin D Council – Vitamin D Research and Research Requirements Link
Other Fighting Fatigue articles on Vitamin D Deficiency:
Low Vitamin D Associated With Increased Risk of Death
Vitamin D Deficiency:� A Disease of Neglect
Low Vitamin D May Be Harmful to Bones of Those with IBD
Vitamin D & Vitamin D Deficiency Links
Vitamin D Deficiency Tied to Back Pain In Older Women
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I live in the midwest, so you know sun is scarce in the late fall and winter. I made an effort all summer and early fall to make sure I got outside and in concentrated sun, but now I can’t. Does anyone know how long it takes to deplete your vitamin D once you hit this time of year? Also, I’ve read conflicting information on whether you can get Vitamin D from a tanning bed. They’re not my choice of action, but will do it if I need to. For those wondering, I do take a supplement, but I also feel that for me natural sun works a whole lot better.
Hi,
I have had ME/CFS almost ten years now. My doctor has just told me I’m slightly Vit D deficient but not enough to worry about if I were well. He has told me to take a multivitamin supplement just in case it helps me through the seasonal flares I am expecting, now the winter is coming here in the UK.
I don’t think it’s my cure – but for me it makes a change to have a doctor who is believing me, and caring enough to call and suggest something he thinks might help.
A revelation!
ZARLA: I wonder what your vitamin d level actually was? most doctors don’t seem to keep up with the latest research which says your level should be closer to 80. a lot of them think if you get it up near 30 that’s enough. low vitamin d wreaks havoc on our immune systems and everything else. Besides your multiple vitamin you should probably be taking several thousand IU’s of vitamin d3 per day separately. it’s safe. just don’t take cod liver oil or something that has vitamin a in it too. you could probably use a little extra a but if you took enough of the cod liver oil to get enough vitamin d you would overdose on the vitamin a.
i hope you get through the winter ok.
I was just diagnosed with a vitamin D deficiency on Monday. My level was 14.5, pretty low. I walk an hour outside everyday but use sunscreen and I also take a caltrate with D and a one a day with 400IUs of D. Now he has me on 50000iu once a week for 8 weeks. He said if I can go south in the dead of winter, that would be the best thing…yah. Hubby would love to, maybe visit Mickey Mouse. My doc said we can build up a reserve but it won’t take you thru the whole winter so keep taking supplements. The best ones to take are D3 and take about 2000IU a day for optimum protection without overdosing. This has been a hassle getting diagnosed but I think it answers lots of questions of how I’ve been feeling the past year. Hope the supplements work.
I posted here last summer after being diagnosed with a vitamin d deficiency, my blood level was 12. I was prescribed the 50,000 IU,s for 8 weeks, but never took them because of my strange reaction to vitamin d3 that I bought OTC.
I made it until now by sunning myself for half an hour every week, and spending more time in the sun. I only sunned my arms and legs, for vanity reasons, plus the fact that I am 58 and do not need any more wrinkles than I have. I also concentrated on drinking milk and eating salmon more often. I doubt my bodies ability to absorb nutrients from my diet because I am always constipated due to the fact that I take methadone, a very constipating medication.
Now that winter is here and the sun rays necessary for vitamin d production are gone until next Spring, I am beginning to feel sick from the vitamin d deficiency. I can feel it coming on, and take a few hundred IU’s of vitamin d3 to ward off any worse symptoms, and just try to tolerate the side effects. I am so worried that I am going to get really sick from this deficiency. I made and appt. with my doctor and will see her in a few weeks to try to discuss with her the side effects I am experiencing from the D3 and why I am afraid to take the prescription. I have allergies, and ended up in the ER from a reaction to antibiotics. I never want to experience that again.
I doubt if I will be able to eat much turkey this Thanksgiving, as my stomach is so upset all the time. Now that I think of it, I have been getting sick around Thanksgiving for many years, I wonder if it is due to lack of vitamin d brought on by weather changes? Probably. I am going to the pharmacy and get some cod liver oil, just give it a try.
Happy Holidays.
I was told in April that I had a vitimin d deficiency it was 18 and I was prescribed 50,000 IU for 20 weeks. That brought my level to 42 but it is down to 25 again. I have been taking 1000 a day since then and now I have been prescribed 5000 IU a day. I have almost all of the symptoms listed and I also have nail problems. I think that may be another symptom but I can’t find anything on it. I get some sun almost daily.
I was just diagnosed with D defiencency. My level is a 16, so my doctor put me on 50000IU once a week for 3 months, then she will test me again. I have always been a sun person, but in the past year wear sunscreen, so maybe my body isn’t absorbing the same amount of vit. D that it is use to before sunscreen! I have the joint pains, back pain, tired feeling, some depression that comes and go’s, but I figure because I’m 61 and still work 3 to 4 days a week running my business, that it just compounds the problems.
Well, I hope the mega vit.D pills will pump me up for a long winter.
Thanks for letting me share.
Joanetta,
I froze when I read your post. Other than the birthday, our story is the same. Levels below 4, 38 years old, and my children are 2 and 11 years old. What did you end up taking? How are you feeling now? I started my vit d at 50,000 and my fingers are crossed that I will start feeling better soon.
I am 66 yrs old and have been diagnosed with vitamin d deficiency. My doctor has been treating me first with a prescription vit d 50,000 units daily and then to 4,000 units per day. I know the labs do NOT have the same levels as the Vit d council. My level was at 15 and then went to 30. I have recently doubled my vit d3 to 8,000units. i suffer from extreme fatique, lower back pain, osteopenia. My concern is finding a doctor in the salt lake city, utah area to treat me. Any help would be welcomed.
I have just been diagnosed with a vitamin D deficiency. I had no idea what was going on. I was rushed to the hospital a week before Christmas with what I though was indigestion, so the ER doctor, since my lab work cam back normal but was told to follow up with my PCP. I was hesitant, but I had been having other symptoms like tiredness, weakness, and moodiness, you know the normal stuff that life throws at you. I went to my PCP thinking its just stress, all she’ll do is order a stress test and that was the plan. Instead when I got home from work a day after my visit to my PCP there was a message on the answering machine stating that I need to call my doctor about my lab work. I did and was told that my Vitamin D levels where dangerously low and that they where calling in me a prescription for Vitamin D and I needed to start taking it immediately and if I had anymore of those symptoms to get to the nearest hospital. I don’t know what my levels where but when I got to the pharmacy counter the cashier had the prescription in her hand and asked if I need water.
I have lived with the deficiency for over 15 years, most of the time not knowing it. I still cannot get the level anywhere near normal.
I am so relieved to find this site. For months I suffered with fatigue, bone pain, depression, muscle pain, joint pain……you name it. I live in the NE and work in the garden a lot, so I wondered if I had Lyme disease. Went to my doctor, told him everything that was going on. He said he’d check my blood for Lyme disease, turned around and said, “And I want to check your Vitamin D level”. My D level came back at 13; lowest he’d ever seen in his practice. I’m on my 50,000 units of D once a week and am patiently waiting to feel better. The pain is so severe at times I feel like I can’t walk. My legs feel like they are 90 years old, but I’m only 52. I am very lucky to have a doctor that thought to check my vitamin d level. I feel for all of you who were misdiagnosed for months, and sometimes, years. I just wish there was a quicker way to feel better! Good luck to all of us.
I also just found out I have low Vit D levels every post is a description of me Thank God going back to a PCP I had a few years ago was the best thing I ever did after a year of thinking I was 100 years old and I am 42 I am after 2 50,000mg caps I am 99 percent better. it was amazing no more muscle and joint pain. Good luck to everyone here and may 2010 be Great for eveyone
I had blood work done and found out I am B12 and D deficiency…. I have felt like crap for the past two years and noticed that my blood pressure had been spiking up and that was not normal to me. I have always had a problem going to the bathroom when it comes to BM I have to take fiber pills every night or I will not have a BM if I skip one dose.. And joint amd muscle pain OMG… I can hardly get out of bed some mornings and I too am 38…. Depression.. yea that too.. I thought that I was just falling apart and my husband said theirs always something wrong with you which made me feel like MAYBE IT WAS JUST MENTAL….So I hushed up about all my achs and pains and went to the DR. she did blood work and now we are trying to fix it all.. I pray that I will feel better because I feel like theirs got to be more to life than the way I have been feeling all the time. I want to feel 38 not 100…. so anyone with results from their vitamins and shots for B12 I would really like to hear how you are feeling…. I WISH YOU ALL WELL AND THAT EVERYONE HERE GETS TO FEELING GREAT!!!!!!!!!! THANKS….
I recently had my vitamin d checked and it was 3.16!! I had no idea. I was put on only 1000 iu’s a day. I actually am taking more than that now. Once I read up on a vitamin D deficiency I realized that the muscle pain and cramps i had had for years were caused by lack of vit d. I had almost every symptom of a vitamin d deficiency! I recommend getting Vit D checked !
I was diagnosed with a Vit D deficiency in Dec 2009. My level was 6. I am so happy I have found such a wonderful docotr who listened to my sympotoms and ruled out the very bad and knew right away it was low vitamin D. I have been on 50,000 IU’s twice weekly for a month now.
My question is, when should I start feel completely better????
I was diagnosed with vit d def in Oct 2008. After 3 months of increasing my daily intake of vit d (with no increase in my level), I was put on 50,000 iu of vit d, 1 time per week, for 10 months – vit d came up to 10. My PCP has referred me on to an endocrinologist (couldn’t get an appt until Feb. 2010). So, now I am only taking 2000 iu daily as before. I HURT! And now I am having abdominal issues. I am only 46 and sometimes feel like I’m 100!! I have a lot of autoimmune disease/history in my immediate family. I just hope they get me figured out! My sincere wish is the same for all of you as well!
Hi I am 38yrs old and suffer from fibromyalgia past 18yrs I have arthiritis on my back i live in constant pain. severe muscle spasm along with headaches my body burns at times everytime I and up in the hospital they always tell me nothing they can do its the fidro muscle spasms. I change my doctor few weeks ago and today she called me and stated that my vitamin D level is very low 9 she put me vitamin D 50000iu once a week for five month and I hope it will help me I have complaint for years how badly my bones pain along with the back spasm makes it very hard for me to function a normal life. I am so grateful to find this site and wish everyone to get well. Thank you all so much sometimes I feel alone.
Hello everyone. It seems a lot of people post their stories of how they are diagnosed with a low D level and what their doctor prescribes. Some people talk about short-term results. What we don’t read about very often is long-term results. I know I could benefit from hearing both positive and negative stories. I need inspiration!
Hi, I live in Illinois and have severe Vit D deff. mine was 8…my endo. put me on high dose vit d…50,000IU for 6 weeks (1 a wk.) I have also been dx’d with Osteo, I”ve several TIA’s (mini strokes beginning at 17), IBS, fatigue, muscle weakness, fibro, the list can go on!! I am now 33yrs old…I also have Chiari Malformation and had brain surgery in Aug 2008….so, I’ve had a run with this…just wondering if all of it except the Chiari was caused by the Vit D issue.?…and what’s the chances of my children having issues with Vit D?
I too was diagnosed with low Vitamin D levels. Mine was 19. I my doctor asked me to take 1000IU daily. After 3 months I went back for a recheck and it was still low. He then asked me to take 5000 I.U.’s. My body aches most of the time, I also have inflammation in my joints. My arms hurt quite a bit as well and I am always low on energy. I noticed some of the posters stated they were on 50,000 I.U.’s weekly. I wonder if that’s more beneficial than taking smaller daily amounts? Any comments are appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Are “grow bulbs” like the kind used for plant growth beneficial in replacing VitD?