[Blackfeather]

I am new here and am glad I fond this forum. I was diagnosed with PD about 3 years ago. My illness seemed to progress very rapidly, beginning with tremors in my right hand, then all hell seemed break loose. I had difficulty with balance, was drooling during the day and when I slept, as my pillow would be wet when I awoke. Maybe the worst symptom was the horrible and extremely painful muscle contractions in my right arm. Needless to say my progression seemed swift and I seemed unable to slow it down. I was getting very scared. I began taking supplements but nothing I tried was helping. Then I began taking vitamin D3, not even really expecting anything. Within just a few hours it kicked in and I began experiencing a definite improvement in my symptoms. My balance improved, drooling ceased and has not returned and my right arm no longer cramps up. These improvements and reversal of symptoms has lasted about 9 months now. I think I have stopped the progression of my Parkinson's... Has anyone else had this kind of success from vitamin D3? I am taking 10,000 -3,000 iu a day. Some folks are taking higher amounts. Do a google search on "Vitamin D and neurology" and you may come to understand the importance of this critical vitamin for neural health. Hope this helps.

[badboy99]

Have you tested your levels? I need 5000IU to keep my level up.

Originally Posted by Blackfeather

I am new here and am glad I fond this forum. I was diagnosed with PD about 3 years ago. My illness seemed to progress very rapidly, beginning with tremors in my right hand, then all hell seemed break loose. I had difficulty with balance, was drooling during the day and when I slept, as my pillow would be wet when I awoke. Maybe the worst symptom was the horrible and extremely painful muscle contractions in my right arm. Needless to say my progression seemed swift and I seemed unable to slow it down. I was getting very scared. I began taking supplements but nothing I tried was helping. Then I began taking vitamin D3, not even really expecting anything. Within just a few hours it kicked in and I began experiencing a definite improvement in my symptoms. My balance improved, drooling ceased and has not returned and my right arm no longer cramps up. These improvements and reversal of symptoms has lasted about 9 months now. I think I have stopped the progression of my Parkinson's... Has anyone else had this kind of success from vitamin D3? I am taking 10,000 -3,000 iu a day. Some folks are taking higher amounts. Do a google search on "Vitamin D and neurology" and you may come to understand the importance of this critical vitamin for neural health. Hope this helps.

[Aunt Bean]

Thanks for posting....I don't think many PD'rs realize the imporance of D3. It is very valuable to us and most people will test low. Please get checked out with blood work and don't overlook this important vitamen supplement. Welcome to the forum Blackfeather!

[Brainstorm]

I gave my mother who had PD vitamin D3 at 2-5,000iu. How I wish that I had known how dangerous it would be. My mother died as a result of hypercalcemia from high levels of D3 ingestion. She was elderly, it was not treated seriously enough, and therefore not treated in time to save her life, never mind the sheer incompetency of the doctors. Even when routine bloodwork and my request for a D3 level showed extremely high levels of D3, the doctor failed to inform me the danger. She had all the symptoms of hypercalcemia which made her Parkinson's so much worse, but the doctors never told me that she was so weak and not with it, due to the high levels of calcium in her body from the excess D3. By the time I insisted on her being hospitalized for treatment after researching it myself, and the botched treatment she received in hospital,it was too late. For 6 months she suffered needlessly due to her Primary care doctor of 17 years not taking it seriously enough and NEVER telling me how dangerous D3 can be in high levels even though he had known I was giving it to her, and to top it all, he NEVER did a D3 blood test on her until I requested it.

Please make sure you check you Vitamin D3 levels by a routine blood test every month or so if you are regularly taking anything over 1000 iu of D3 (cholecalciferol), depending your age, weight, etc.

There are two types of Vitamin D3, one that is oil soluble and one that is water soluble. The oil soluble (cholecalciferol) is good in small doses, but dangerous in high doses because it takes the body a lot longer to clear out and so stays in the system a lot longer, and so caution must be exercised.

Also Vitamin D3 is not a vitamin in its true sense but a pre-hormone!

Remember also that many packaged foods, dairy products have added oil soluble D3 (cholecalciferol), and everytime you are in the Sun, your body is also making Vitamin D.

[Blackfeather]

Originally Posted by Brainstorm

I gave my mother who had PD vitamin D3 at 2-5,000iu. How I wish that I had known how dangerous it would be. My mother died as a result of hypercalcemia from high levels of D3 ingestion. She was elderly, it was not treated seriously enough, and therefore not treated in time to save her life, never mind the sheer incompetency of the doctors. Even when routine bloodwork and my request for a D3 level showed extremely high levels of D3, the doctor failed to inform me the danger. She had all the symptoms of hypercalcemia which made her Parkinson's so much worse, but the doctors never told me that she was so weak and not with it, due to the high levels of calcium in her body from the excess D3. By the time I insisted on her being hospitalized for treatment after researching it myself, and the botched treatment she received in hospital,it was too late. For 6 months she suffered needlessly due to her Primary care doctor of 17 years not taking it seriously enough and NEVER telling me how dangerous D3 can be in high levels even though he had known I was giving it to her, and to top it all, he NEVER did a D3 blood test on her until I requested it.

Please make sure you check you Vitamin D3 levels by a routine blood test every month or so if you are regularly taking anything over 1000 iu of D3 (cholecalciferol), depending your age, weight, etc.

There are two types of Vitamin D3, one that is oil soluble and one that is water soluble. The oil soluble (cholecalciferol) is good in small doses, but dangerous in high doses because it takes the body a lot longer to clear out and so stays in the system a lot longer, and so caution must be exercised.

Also Vitamin D3 is not a vitamin in its true sense but a pre-hormone!

Remember also that many packaged foods, dairy products have added oil soluble D3 (cholecalciferol), and everytime you are in the Sun, your body is also making Vitamin D.

Very sorry to here about your mother. Could you please tell me what your mom's blood serum level of vitamin d was when it was checked. You said it was "extremely high" and am wondering what it measured in ng/ml. Seems as though the high range of where ones vitamin d should be keeps being raised by the experts. I think it is probably easier to determine what are low levels of Vitamin D are as opposed to what is too high. My D level was in the mid 20's of nano grams per milli litere. That was obviously a deficient level of D for me or else my pd symptoms would not have improved so dramatically when I began taking it. Dr David Perlmutter suggests maintainig a D level of around 80 ng/ml. IF I am not mistaken, Dr Mercola reccomends somewhere as much as 120 ng/ml, though I would have to verify this. In order to get vitamin d from the sun, you really have to work at it. You would need to be exposed to the sun, shirtless at least, for 20-30 minutes a day from 11:00am--2:00pm. There is a good website with loads of info concerning vitamind D and how it relates to PD. There are at least 43 articles on the subject.

http://vitamindwiki.com/VitaminDWiki

[Brainstorm]

My mother's Vitamin D level was over 200 ng/ml.