My husband has been home for the past two days because his company follows the Federal Govt. rule (no work because of snow).

Today, we drove into Washington DC (to my husbands office) for a couple of hours to take care of something and you would not believe how quiet it was. Kind of like Armageddon. Very strange.

Mere

No planes flying overhead...buzzing and sounding as if they'll crash into my roof. Thank you very much!. It's also soo quiet! Peacefully so. We get so used to such noises that we tune them out...until they aren't there.

Got about an inch so far outside the beltway.... more to come...SIGH or Take your pick... WEATHER HAPPENS! Not much I can say or do about it?

Except hibernate until.... Hugs to all and hope!'s - j

--looks like we are going to get blasted this time; a foot or more of snow. The mayor closed the schools today--actually, he closed them for today yesterday (the worry was the kids could get to school but not get home later, when the storm deepened).

Not much snow on the ground at 7AM--but it was up to 40 degrees here yesterday, and it's not that cold now--in fact, on the radar the rain/snow line is really close to NYC (Jersey shore is getting rain right now) but as the low pressure system moves it's supposed to drag in a lot of cold air and turn all to snow.

Really looking forward to digging the car out later--at least 11-year-old is home to help (if he can be persuaded).

--yes, I've seen more and more physcians prescribing that megadose of D to people, especially in the winter. Make sure it's Vitamin D3--the more absorable, usable form.

There's been a lot of research on Vitamin D coming out lately--NY Times just ran a big series on it. Mrs. D has posted a lot about it, and there's a guy named Ted Hutchinson who has compiled a database on it (at Braintalk mostly) that rivals what JCC has done with Gluten and Rose has done with B12. Some of the reseach has been equivocal--for instance, there's no consensus yet whether a huge once a week dose works better at raising levels better than large dialy doses (Vitamin D is fat soluble, and can be stored)--but it seems a majority of us have been "deficient" for a long time and the daily minimum requirements for dietary sources had been set way too low--of course, they were set when many more people were out in the sun more often.

My wife and I currently take 2000IU a day (the original daily requirement was set at 400UIU/day). She's waiting back on a Vitamin D serum test-she had a ton of lab work done with her annual physical (many of the tests I wrote down for her her primary care doc, who I'm not sure has much of a clue about what to check for in a melanoma/thyroid papillary carcinoma survivor with intermittent iron-deficiency, congenital large/low count platelets who is a serious ultramarathoner, but it's better this way than going to four specialists just to get blood drawn).

Let's clear something up "again"....

Seems I post this over and over here and "there".

The 50,000 IU doctors give on RX is D2. This is the inferior form of D. It is about 1/2 as potent as D3.

I use D3. I buy it over the counter for pennies a day at iherb.com

I tend to think that daily intake is better. This is the way we evolved with food/ sun exposure. Massive doses of vits, given in one bolus infrequently tends to get stored, or eliminated. For fat soluble things like D....the body would want to store it. Water soluble vits tend to be eliminated via the urine quickly.
Some more quickly than others. Some B6 is stored in the muscles as pyridoxal, and B12 is stored in the liver. Benfotiamine is stored in fat, whereas thiamine is not.
So giving the D2 in a bolus...seems foolish to me. But then the doctors are having problems with understanding the treatment of low D status. They have been told to test for it...so far in CMEs but they are not on the ball yet with other aspects of this new development.
So I would suggest you take daily D3 you purchase yourself. Choose a liquigel, not a dry formulation tablet. I use NOW brand. The basic dose ratio is to raise blood work 10ng you need 1000IU of D3. So 5000 IUs would hopefully give 50ng which is the lower end of the normal range.

I started with 1000IU daily 5 yrs ago, then raised to 2000IU, last year 4000IU and this year 5000IU. I tend to have chronic pain issues (obviously) and seasonal affective disorder which slows my mental functioning makes me sleep too much in winter. I have NOT had either problem this winter. I have used a light visor in the past for the SAD, but I have not needed it since raising to 5000IU.

I go outside alot when the weather is warmer, and then I do not take the D supplement at all. I start it up in late Sept.

I take 1000-2000 IU of D3 liquigels (Now - iHerb) but they are so small I have trouble not dropping them. and my Beagle rushes to gobble anything that is dropped. Can D3 hurt dogs? She has colitis and a delicate stomach.

2" of snow when I woke up. Rain, freezing rain, & snow last nite.
Its wet and heavy.
I'm so depressed about not being able to go in to work.
This weather has caused me a zero income lately.
I'll be lucky to make the rent this month.
Feb is always slow, but this is drastically so. I'm scheduled to go on vacation for 4 nites/ 5 days 2-27 thru 3-4 and the whole amount is pre-paid, but I'll surely be 'in-the-hole' when I get back. This is terrible, not to mention that I'm sitting here with a heat-wrap around my neck and have hardly slept last night being uncomfortable and with neck & back pains.
12"-18" of snow with blizzard winds predicted for today & tonite, by the time its over.
Dig out again? Not today ..... or even tomorrow !!
I don't have the energy, or the strength.

Yuck I heard about all the snow many of you are getting. I am sending warm and safe thoughts to you all.

I think the East is getting it much, much worse than we did.

We didn't even miss a beat. We got around 6", not too bad, near the lake, they got a lot more. Most schools did not even close. Other than slippery roads, things are fine today....and my horrible headache is gone....go figure. I guess it must be low barometric pressure. Today, sun is shining!

Batten down the hatches out East! YOU guys have a blizzard.

On that Vitamin D thing....I am outside hours on end in the spring, summer and fall, minimum 6 hours, often 10 hours, and I am not into sunblock. I wear sunblocking clothing, hats, etc...sunblock if out in midday.

Isn't that enough to carry me? My D levels get very high in summer.

Now with the autoimmune thing, I am reading a lot of conflicting data...I honestly don't know what to do, take supplements or not. I am really high risk for osteoporosis, and really fear this condition. Now to make matters worse, I am getting 'odd' things with my skin, pink to red rashes, similar to Lupus rashes, and goofy finger issues. I am afraid of fueling the fire here.

Vit. D research is done either by the Marshall people or the Vit. D council....neither of them, exactly neutral. What is your thought?

No, if you block the sun with clothing...you are not getting enough.

The only contraindication at this time is for people with Sarcoidiosis, and even that should be monitored by the doctor.
The Vit D sarcoid connection is mostly advertised by the Marshall Protocol people...and that is still controversial. The recommendations coming out of San Diego Medical School, do mention Sarcoid however.

There is also the thought now that taking statins to lower cholesterol will impact D manufacture in the skin. Also as we age this may fail to be optimum as well. That area is still fuzzy in the research.

You should get tested... to see what your levels are. Then you would know how much to take.