How can my vitamin D level improve SO fast?

I had posted a while ago and you kindly answered back, so i am giving it a go again.I am 28 years old female from France but I live in England.

In February 2010 I was diagnosed with Vitamin D deficiency (all my other results of what they have done came back normal, I don't have them all in mind as they were so many tests), I had complained about being tired all the time, being ill all the time... SO they checked my levels and they at the first test down to 20nmol/L so they doubled checked and a week later they were down at 19nmol/L.

The doctor prescribed me an injection of ergocalciferol 300,000, and I had the injection beginning of march 2010.

As I was told to check the levels every three months after the first injection, and do the injection until the level was back to normal, I went in to do another blood test last week so beginning of June 2010. My level came back completely normal at a level of 87nmol/L.

This left me a bit shocked, happy but shocked at how fast my level had gone back up to normal because I haven't been on a holiday in the sun!! I have tried from time to time and of course when the weather is good to walk in the sun an hour or two putting it all together during the day but I have done that about maybe 4 or 5 times since march as the weather hasn't been constantly good and sometimes was feeling very tired. And I haven't changed my diet or taken any other medicine.

So it does leave me with lots of questions in mind, how could it have gone back up so fast? is there any chance it will drop as low as it was? and i still feel extremely tired sometimes leaving me with no energy at all. If I force myself to go out to the park or elsewhere i can do it a day or 2 but then after that the next days i feel completely drained, not able to get up and do things, feeling like sleeping all day... So if my levels are up now why do i still feel like this? I haven't been ill since April which is great! but the tiredness is constantly there.

Thanks a lot to help me see clearer.
Sincerly
Caroline

Comments for How can my vitamin D level improve SO fast?

Click here to add your own comments

Read the Vitamin D Therapy Page
by: Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Queen!

Hi Caroline,

So, unfortunately your level of 87 nmol/L is NOT within normal limits. While it might SAY that on your lab sheet, that is not what researchers recommend is normal.

Researchers recommend that levels be between 50 to 80 ng/ml which would be:

158 to 250 nmol/L

Please notice the UNITS used. Your lab is reporting in nmol/l which is different than ng/ml- but essentially the same as reporting something in miles per hour vs. kilometers per hour. We can both be talking about the same speed but use different numbers.

So, actually you are still quite low which may be one of the reasons that you still feel poorly. The other reason may be that you went ahead and got a Vitamin D Injection.

Vitamin D injections are vitamin d2, and there are plenty of practitioners who notice that their patients don't get better when they use vitamin d2. And researchers for decades have recommended Vitamin D3 over vitamin d2. But because doctors have a prescription pad and/or have the ability to use injections, they use them when they shouldn't.

So, Caroline, please go to my Vitamin D Therapy page and follow the instructions for how to use Vitamin D3 supplements to get your levels up to 'optimal' levels.

And I would also recommend that you read my page on Magnesium and Vitamin D page to see why I don't recommend taking vitamin D without also taking magnesium. And you may be feeling poorly if you have a 'subclinical' magnesium deficiency as well.

So, try:

Getting on Vitamin D3
Getting your levels up
Taking magnesium every day

and see if that makes a difference in how you are feeling. Let me know if you have any questions.

Kerri Knox RN Immune Health Queen

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune System Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Immune System

THANKS
by: Anonymous

HI Kerri,

Thanks so much for your answer! yes their lab normal says greater than 50nmol/L is sufficient rather then the other lab was stating between 70 to 150 is replete. So very different from lab to lab.
I will go and see the page you suggested.

Thanks you very much for your time in answering our messages.

Caroline

Normal Vitamin D Levels...
by: Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Queen!

Hi Carolyn,

I'm not 100% sure that you understood the point that I was trying to make about vitamin d levels. It's not even the difference in numbers from lab to lab, but the fact that researchers completely reject the numbers that all the labs use and have created their own 'Optimal' range.

Take a look at my page on Normal Vitamin D Levels to see what I mean. And you may also be interested in taking a look at the vitamin D Vitamin D Disease Incidence Prevention Chart to see where these numbers come from and why they were chosen.

Hope that this is helpful...

Kerri Knox RN Immune Health Queen

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune System Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Immune System

PS: Don't forget to get your FREE Ebook when you Sign Up For My Newsletter. Thanks for visiting Easy Immune Health.

How long will it take to get my vitamin D up?
by: Carolyn

I read the previous comment. Went to a very informative web site because my test said my level was like 25. Got vitamin d3 2000, and magnesium, and vitamin A, as well. I take the d3 twice a day, so I am getting a total of 4000 daily. It's only been about a week. But I do believe that I am feeling less fatigued. I have been having sore joints and weak muscles. I strained my back, have a sore shoulder( but probably work related), and hurt my knee, all within the last few months.
So, does anyone know how long it will take to get my levels up?

Answer
by: Caroline

Thank you very much for your input here!
I have sorted my levels in vitamin D when i went back to France as my doctor there knows me since i am a baby, so he gave me everything i need after another set of tests, also magnesium and iron! And i had plenty of sun once back in my town in France.

We have been looking a lot at why i was feeling so exhausted, had a lot of test done and they found out i had a moderate breathing condition and also endometriosis which was causing a lot of pain all the time...

so for now i'm still feeling tired but less than before and been able to start a full time job again in London (so i make sure i get my vitamin D and everything i need!), even tough at weekend i'm exhausted.

I hope it willget better with time!
Thanks a lot for your message.
Caroline

Vit D normal range nhs UK
by: Anonymous

In the uk normal range is 50 - 150nmol/L I. I am reading this off my nhs results sheet. Have to be very careful which units one is referring to!! A reading of 80 nmol/L would be excellent.

Level of 5
by: David

So I am truly low a whopping 5 and have been taking 50000iu once weekly and 5000iu daily along with 6mg of boron for 3 weeks. I also have been laying in the sun, for a few days a week in Denver. How long at this pace will it take to get to 50? I have already felt some improvement I symptoms, I just don't want to overshoot.

I went from a 9 to 33 in a month
by: Anonymous

I went to doctor because of brain fog and bad reactions to any medication he put me on for anxiety..only blood work that came back was my vitamin d was a 9...so he put me on d3 50000 is weekly which made me feel better for first two days..then irritable for a day then tired..3rd week I was just nauseated and had horrible acid reflux and kept going to doctor complaining of sickness..checked my vitamin d level a month to the day later and I’m at 33..but still feel yucky and told me to just supplement with d3 5000 a day and to see a endocrinologist..(when I did stop 50000 iu weekly 4 days prior I felt fine and took 2000iu -4000iu daily and felt great after taking it but by night I felt irritable or headache) is this normal? To increase my levels to "normal" in a month..ps day 4 or no high dose my bones hurt like back getting out of bed..please help..I just want to feel normal again..i occasionally take natural calm magnesium citrate when I get too constipated from high vitamin d3 supplements..

Please see my page
by: Kerri Knox

Please see my page on Vitamin D Therapy. It might take MONTHS to feel better taking vitamin D, even after levels normalize.

Click here to add your own comments

Return to Vitamin D Blood Levels.

Enjoy this page? Please pay it forward. Here's how...

Would you prefer to share this page with others by linking to it?

Click on the HTML link code below.
Copy and paste it, adding a note of your own, into your blog, a Web page, forums, a blog comment, your Facebook account, or anywhere that someone would find this page valuable.

Search this Site

Custom Search

Free Vitamin D Fact Sheet by Getting
My Newsletter