[AnnieB3]

This is going to be one part helpful, two parts venting and three parts of what the bleep, help me!

I have been having an odd constellation of symptoms lately, from increased muscle weakness to an increase in paresthesias of my lower legs to odd fatigue and spikes in my blood pressure (usually normal). It's true, I don't get out much but I was very taken aback by the test results I received this week. I have a Vitamin D deficiency. The rest of my metabolic panel was normal, though it was not done fasting. It is not low normal but below normal.

I have known about the prevalence of people with Vit. D deficiencies since 2000, when I did some design/writing consulting work at the Center where Dr. Greg Plotnikoff worked, who I knew as Greg. Sometimes Dr. Greg. Greg did a study way back then which clearly showed a preponderance of people with deficiencies of D. I have taken extra Vit. D3 ever since then. In fact, I have been taken at least 2000 IU's daily in supplements in the past several months and get more in the food I eat. Here is an excerpt from this article.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/538290

Stronger words came from the US researchers who found widespread vitamin-D deficiency among patients presenting with pain in an article published in the December 2003 issue of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings [ 3 ], reported at the time by rheumawire . The authors, led by Dr Greg Plotnikoff (University of Minnesota, Minneapolis), found that 93% of all patients presenting with persistent nonspecific musculoskeletal pain were deficient in vitamin D, many severely so, and they concluded that all patients presenting with such symptoms should be screened for hypovitaminosis D.

So I'm particularly weirded out by having a deficiency. I have celiac disease but have been on a strict gluten-free diet since 2004. There may be cross-contamination but I eat mainly a whole foods diet and I've been rechecked for it and the antibodies were negative. So unless I have some liver or kidney problem, which I guess is possible, I have no idea why I should have a deficiency.

This made me think about you guys with MG who like being in the sun, like Desert Flower. Maybe it's the Vit. D you get that makes your muscles feel stronger, since a deficiency can cause muscle weakness. Interesting. Might be worth the simple blood test for it. It makes me wonder if I have other vitamin deficiencies as well.

Last April, I stopped having dairy due to an insane increase in mucous in all mucous membranes, such as coughing and feeling like my lungs were full of fluid after eating like a bite of parmesan cheese. I get enough calcium, though. I think I've had an inflammatory problem with dairy for quite a while. Like years. So maybe my GI tract is healing from years of an inflammatory process. Who knows. Everything else about my GI tract is completely normal, like no cancer, etc.



I'd like any input on this you have to offer. Obviously, I'm upping my supplements of D per my doctor, and changing the kind I'm taking. But what the heck else can I do? Sit in front of a window in the sun all day? I'm the kind of patient who thinks finding out why someone has a health problem is more important than simply "fixing" it. Why? Because adding Vitamin D might help but what if the underlying problem is not being addressed? The deficiency will continue.

This is how I feel about doctoring. I'm so sick of it. I could sit still and have something go wrong. What's next . . . bubonic plague?

Thanks for anything you have to add. I have massive amounts of doctoring fatigue and don't even want to see doctors anymore, let alone talk about them or even think about them.

Annie


More articles with good info.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vit...28762-overview

http://www.foodconsumer.org/newsite/...210100720.html

http://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp

http://www.fpnotebook.com/Pharm/Vitamins/VtmnD.htm