Vitamin D Levels Going Up and Down

by Lee
(barboursville, va)

My vit d was a 5 back in November. The dr. put me on 50,000 weekly dosage for 12 weeks. It jumped to a 50 at the end of Dec. and he started me on 2,000 d3 a day. At the end of the 12 weeks it is an 18. I have started feeling horrible again. The specialist he is sending me to is booked through April.

Do you have any recommendations?

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Your Doctor Made 2 Mistakes...
by: Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Queen!

Hi Lee,

So, don't think that you are not absorbing vitamin d or that your body is somehow weird. You are perfectly normal, you just have a doctor that is not extremely knowledgeable about vitamin d- although he's trying.

Here are the two mistakes your doctor made:

1) Putting you on a prescription. Read my page on Prescription Vitamin D is less potent and wears off more quickly. Had your doctor put you on Vitamin D3 at the start, then it's likely that your levels would have stayed higher for longer.

2) Putting you on 2000 IU's of vitamin D as a maintenance dose. Please read my page on Vitamin D Requirements and you'll see that your requirements are about double what your well meaning but not very knowlegeable doctor gave you.

So, what I would recommend is to read my Treatment of Vitamin D Deficiency page. And treat your vitamin d level of 18 exactly the same as if you were not treated before.

Follow the instructions on that page using Vitamin D3 Supplements and get your levels tested again in about 8 weeks. Then, once your level is good, follow the vitamin d requirements page for your maintenance dose.

Don't worry, you DON'T need a specialist (for the vitamin d anyway) and it's very likely that there is nothing wrong with your Vitamin D Absorption. There are no 'vitamin D specialists' anyway.

But if you really think that you are having problems absorbing, then getting my Vitamin D Absorption Pack is better than going to some 'specialist' since almost no doctor knows anything about vitamin d, and won't recommend the vitamin d cofactors you would need for proper absorption anyway.

Kerri Knox RN Immune Health Queen

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

more help please
by: me again, Lee

So, I could not find my last post. I started on 5,800 iu daily of d3 and stopped taking the 50,000iu weekly. A few days after I started having pain in the back of my neck with soreness down my back and a headache occassionally.

I bought some Magnesium Malate today which states 833 mg malic acid, 1,250 mg on outside of bottle. On supplement facts side it states 425mg per 3 tablets and 2.5 malic acid. I picked up my bloodwork from my dr. to see what my mag levels were, but it looks as though he did not even test them. I just do not know where to start. He does not seem like he is up on the requirements of vit d which leaves me on the internet trying to figure out why I am still hurting and tired after 3+ months. He wanted to just continue the 50,000 weekly and 2,ooo iu d3 daily and I just did not understand why when it does not seem to be helping.
Any thoughts here?:

You do not need mag levels..
by: Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Queen!

Hi Lee,

You DO NOT NEED TO KNOW your magnesium levels in order to take magnesium. Please read my page on Magnesium Levels which will tell you that it is worthless information.

Unless you have kidney failure then you can take the magnesium safely. Just start out with a couple of tablets per day and work your way up as I've outlined on the Magnesium Dosage page.

It really doesn't even MATTER what the dosage is. Take one pill with breakfast and one with dinner and start taking another with lunch the next day if you are still having symptoms and haven't reached bowel tolerance.

PLEASE, read those pages if you haven't already. I explain in GREAT detail the use of magnesium, so it should be very clear.

Kerri Knox RN Immune Health Queen

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

Thanks for your help
by: Lee Anne

Kerri,

Thanks for all of your help. It is frustrating when you feel so worn out all the time yet the doctors can not find "anything" wrong with you. I took your advice and started taking the Vitamin D3 Supplements daily.

While I was waiting for my D levels to come up, I went to the specialist appointment, which took 2 months to get. She said my symptoms were probably more than a vit D deficiency and ran $2,000 worth of blood tests. Everything came back in normal range. Very frustrating! I have 4 kids that I was trying to care for and a husband with a new business.

Anyways, the increase in daily Vit D kicked in. I have not felt this good in years! Instead of accomplishing a simple task in a day, I can mow, wash floors, bathrooms, play with my children, complete a paragraph of reading and remember it, and make plans without worrying how I will feel the next day.

Can you tell me if I should continue taking the 6,800 D3 daily or is it time to start cutting back?

Thanks for you help.

Yeah! Vitamin D3 is great...
by: Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Queen!

Hi Lee Ann,

Yeah!! That is great. I'm SOOO happy that you are finally feeling better. Instead of decreasing the amount of vitamin d that you are taking, please have your doctor draw a repeat vitamin d level so that you know where you are at AND so that you know at what level you feel better.

You should also consider taking a look at the Vitamin D Dosage page and see the children's dosage section and start your kids on vitamin d as well. It would be unlikely that their levels are any higher than yours, right?

So, get your level checked and you can decrease your dosage if you are within the 'optimal' levels on the Vitamin D Levels page. Let me know what your level is and if you need any help with a maintenance dosage.

Kerri Knox RN Immune Health Queen

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

still feeling deficient at times
by: Lee Anne

Kerri,

I have been writing to you for awhile now. I did go to a Rheumatologist who did a complete blood work up and found nothing. I found out that when I was there 2 months ago, my Vitamin D level was up to 78 ng/ml. Yippe! It had been a 5 at one point.

I have been taking 5,800 IU's of Vitamin D3 for at least 4 months now and have been getting more sun. I still have times where my legs are aching and I have fatigue. It happens for a few days and then I feel fantastic again.

Sometimes I notice that I forgot to take my vitamins. Could this be from forgetting just a day here and there?

I also notice that the week before my cycle I am feeling like I used to when my vitamin d was very low.

Menstrual Cycle Problems may be B6 Deficiency
by: Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Queen!

Hi Lee,

I'm so glad that you are feeling better. I don't know why you feel bad if you miss your vitamins, but it sure sounds like you REALLY REALLY need them!!

There are still a lot of reasons why you could be having symptoms, but premenstrual symptoms is often a sign of vitamin b6 deficiency. Getting on a high dose Vitamin B Complex making sure that you are taking at least 100 mg of b6 per day just might help the premenstrual issues.

Vitamin B6 is also required to absorb magnesium, so it can be beneficial in a lot of ways. Are you taking a high quality multivitamin as well?

Kerri Knox RN Immune Health Queen

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

confused
by: Anonymous

So, here we go again. New fall season. I was a 5 last November when I first wrote to you. Took the dr prescription of D2 that raised it up in 6 weeks to a 50 but I felt terrible. I then started D3(but not enough) and went back down to an 18 a month or so later. It took many months of guess work, about 6,800 daily, to get me to a 78. I felt fabulous all summer. The best I had felt in years!! Thank you!!

Now:
I started taking about 7,ooo D3 about 4 days a week in mid september this fall when I started feeling a bit low. I decided to go get it checked at the end of October when I got very fatigued. I was down to a 6.6. Last March I was a 78.

I did not know you could fluctuate so much. Anyways. I immediately started taking 9,000 a day of D3. My dr. sent me to a Endocrinologist dr to check things out since I was so low again. It was only 10 days after my initial blood test of a 6.6 and it came back 57 from the endo dr. I am still tired in the afternoons, and a bit achy, but mostly so confused about the results.

I thought it would take months to increase my numbers like last year. What do you think? It is just so odd to me that my numbers are fluctuating that fast and I am unsure what I need to take. The endo dr. suggested 4-6,000 to maintain this level.

Thanks a bunch. Side note: she checked my kidney,liver and thyroid-all normal.

The lab was wrong..
by: Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Queen!

Don't be confused. The lab just made an error. The 6.6 was wrong and should be ignored- just pretend it never existed.

It seems like maybe you just need a level of around 65-75 to feel right. Are you taking any magnesium?? Take a look at my Magnesium and Vitamin D to see why I always recommend taking them together. Some of your issues might also be related to magnesium deficiency as well- and it's possible that you are not absorbing the vitamin d as well as you could if you were magnesium sufficient...

Additionally, I would recommend getting my Vitamin D Absorption Pack that provides all of the vitamin d cofactors needed for proper absorption of Vitamin D and the prevention of many of the side effects that can occur.

Kerri Knox RN Immune Health Queen

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

Levels vary by 18 in 3 Days???
by: Diane

I had my Vit D checked at the lab on Tues. due to a small elevation in calcium. Value was 87.3. My onc retested in his office, sending it late that day to the same lab and my vale was 105 but my calcium had dropped well within normal. I had not taken supplements for 4 days. What would cause a rise and such fluctuation in 4 days?

Get retested
by: Kerri Knox, RN

Physicians only get a retest of labs in three days if they thought that there was a problem with the first results such that there was a lab error or an error when they took the blood.

The variation was probably due to lab error, you being dehydrated, or errors in collection. Your doctor suspected a problem with the first collection, so just ask him why he suspected a problem and which set of lab results are the inaccurate ones. Then get another test, if you are not satisfied, and simply 'throw out' the 'outlier'. Meaning of the three tests, two are likely to be close in numbers with the third one being far out of range.

Simply ignore the one that is far out of range as there was some error that is making them inaccurate. It happens, and not infrequently. That's why doctors don't treat lab numbers, but treat the patient instead. Lab numbers might not show the whole picture.

Kerri Knox RN Immune Health Queen

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