I know that several of us have found that our vitamin D is low and I wondered how aggressively you had dealt with it. I have read reports of single intramuscular injections as high as 600,000 IU! Considering that the RDA was until recently just 400 iU, that's a heck of a jump but they report no side effects.

I'll post more later, but it seems that Vit D dramaticly ramps up GDNF in the brain - as much as 18X. It gets past the BBB but only about five percent of serum level. Thus my interest.

FYI: husband took 50, 000IU orally once a week X's 2 and developed kidney stones. coincidence? was reassurred there was no association, though I remember problems with calcium metabolism (and thus precipitation of same resulting in stones) associated with Vit D therapy. Perhaps if one stays well hydrated? again, may have been a coincidence, though husband had never had kidney stones before and has not suffered with them since. He now takes 2000 IU/day.


http://www.parkhurstexchange.com/nephrology/2010-01-09

"...Vitamin D intoxication by increasing calcium absorption is known to cause and increase risk of calcium based kidney stones. It's unclear, however, to what extent physiologic doses of vitamin D alone increases this risk, as it's often given along with calcium to preserve bone health..."

Rick
I cannot for the life of me find my Vitamin D bottle where I have been treated with high dosages for deficiency. I believe at last count I had been given therapeutic supplements 4 times and it was STILL low!

I know that I need to get on top of that, but this dystonia/dyskinesia or whatever it is takes precedence.

I pulled this off of rxlist.com

The recommended intake of vitamin D is 400 IU-800 IU daily. FOSAMAX PLUS D 70 mg/2800 IU and 70 mg/5600 IU are intended to provide seven days' worth of 400 and 800 IU daily vitamin D in a single, once-weekly dose, respectively.

This is, of course, on the flyer for Fosamax treatment, a drug used for osteoporesis (which many postmenopausal women have).

I may be dreaming, but I thought my supplements were 60,000 units WEEKLY. I had to take 1 pill for 6 days, then for retesting. I'm not sure why so long to recheck, unless maybe you get a false positive or something. The absorption must be incredibly slow.

While on this topic, I find it just plain asinine that in the U.S. pet food is regulated by t he FDA, but not supplements. No wonder we're all half dewad or have one foot in the grave (while Fido or kitty is thriving). Don't get me wrong, I love animals.
Peggy

Mine are Vitamin D3 2400 iu softgels, urged on me by a friend with MS. I am useless at taking things like this, being consistent with it. The label says they are 600% RDA, and the D3 comes as cholecalciferol. I have not noticed any difference from taking it, but put this down to my inconsistency, and also think these kinds of supplements are preventative, and therefore may not show results directly.

The mega mega like 600,000IU doses are still very controversial, but we had one poster here a while back who could not absorb things orally and did have some IV supplements done.

The D you get on RX is D2 and not really very active.

In short, the rule being offered by the experts is 1000 IU of D3 for every 10ng you want to raise from your test results.

more here:
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/

I tested very low and take 2000 IU of D3 daily.

If you were very low.... what was your number?

Add twenty to it, and you have an approximate level today.

Minimum recommended today is 50ng/ml. Optimum is 50-80 or 50-60 depending on which expert you read.

anything below 50 is sub optimum and not working for you well.

Thanks, Mrs. D. I have been wondering where to go with my D levels- I am in the "insufficiency" range, but I could tell that my doctor was cllueless when I asked how much I supplement. This really helps us take charge.

There is also a great web resource on Vitamin D and the grass roots campaign on getting people to get their levels up to where they need to be. They have an interesting chart on where your "D" levels should be at to ward off many forms of cancer and diabetes. The site is Grass Rootshttp://www.grassrootshealth.net/ They even have a program we can enroll in and get tested twice a year. From the website:

GrassrootsHealth has launched a worldwide public health campaign to solve the vitamin D deficiency epidemic in a year through a focus on testing and education with all individuals spreading the word.

Everyone is invited to join in this campaign! Join D*action and test two times per year during a 5 year program to demonstrate the public health impact of this nutrient.

-Laura

Quoting myself on 05-26-2010:
Mrs. D: my number was 17.

Gotta go, but will check back later.

Jaye

My Urologist found my vitamin D deficeincy through blood work

My number was 5

I was put on 2000 mg daily, and the number jumped up to 16

He changed it to 4,000 mgs daily, and my number is still 16

I was then put on 4000 mgs daily, plus 50,000 units per week

I am scheduled for blood work agian this week