Then I guess it's just about selling sunscreen.

Good Lord.

It's very hard to do the RIGHT thing, when it's confusing what THAT RIGHT THING IS!!!!!

Thanks for the information. Hope the dust is finally settling at your neck of the woods.

Mrs D carefully. She is chock full of facts and doesn't mince words!
She is also cautious about suggesting dosages and isn't one to simply say 'More is Better' or the like.
I have to warn you tho? Reading about VitD's and all the different types and how best they might be asorbed/assimilated and all can truly fog the brain in the learning process. BUT, if you get the basics and do the best you can, you are likely see a change. That might not happen overnight tho? You have to keep in mind that you have developed a deficiency over some period of time, likely an extended one. Soo it's going to take another period of time to see results. The monitoring of results will be up to your docs and their blood tests.
I would not dare to think that singly a VitD deficiency could cause neuropathy? But, in this world, who knows? Sure would be nice to think that is the case in YOUR case! SUPER Good thoughts for now. - j

Me too Melody! I'm an Aussie....the land of sunshine and beaches. Never in my life have I ever lived further than 15 minutes drive from the ocean, and even then, I was usually closer to a river.

From early childhood to my early thirties I lived at the beach. Swam all year 'round (well almost), and was never without a tan. Now I'm suffering from those days.


Why wait that long? I just had most of my nose removed, and a new one built, because of skin cancer! Don't wait until you're disfigured. I'm so very grateful that I had such a wonderful plastic surgeon to rebuild my face, but it could have been worse!

We need exposure to sunshine for our bodies to get the necessary amounts of Vit D, but stay out of it during the hottest part of the day, and follow the rest of the rules to prevent skin cancers. Remember, we need less than 30 minutes of sunshine a day to get our quota of Vit D.

The point of my post is to let you know that I have low Vit D levels too! Even though my history defies the fact, my levels were rock bottom. I now have osteoporosis, and have broken 6 bones in 5 years! Whether that's because of my low Vit D or because of long term steroid therapy, who knows? All I know is the level was so low my doctor was stunned, and I now take a daily supplement.

I'm sorry to have gotten off topic a bit there Mark, but Mrsd has some excellent suggestions and info for you. Please take heed of what she has to say.

I wish you well, and hope things right themselves for you soon.

Havent read that before - but I too Koala grew up at the beach here after moving from the cold north, and am very fair skinned... we burned at the begining of each summer, adding baby oil to the mix which of course made the burn worse - then eventually turned very brown by end of each summer.... of my siblings - even though we had relatively the same sun exposure - I had my first skin cancer in my 20's, 6 total to date, the last one 5 years ago and I too had to have the side of my nose reconstructed... my siblings on the other hand have had no cancer... I think theres a genetic component to it as it seems with many other diseases... the docs always tell me its the sun exposure I had as a teen that caused the cancers now but who knows...

Honesty, I still dont use sun screen as a separate entity - as it seems to take the cancers years to develop - but do use facial and body moisturizer with a SPF of 15 as my skin cancer docs have directed me too - most moisturizers have it in them now... I wonder Mrs D if it is contributing to any future cancers?

Just to put a dash of humor into this thread, I had once noticed some "thing" on my breast. And another on the back of my arm.

So off to the local dermatologist (who also happens to be a leading skin cancer guy). He was the one who diagnosed my granuloma anulare on my hand.

He loves when you look up stuff on the internet.

So he checked my breast and (I forget what he called it) some type of keratosis I think he said. He said leave it alone, it's nothing. Then he checked the back of my arm. Said: "same thing" I've had the thing on my arm for YEARS!!!

He checked a little cyst on the side of my nose that had been (burned off) by another dermo guy but I hated that guy so I went to THIS guy.

He knew about the other guy and said "yeah, I know, he has no bedside manner, I get all of his patients".

so he checked my upper back and various stuff on me, and prounced me perfectly fine.

The he asked me "do you want to get naked so I can check your body".

Having never been asked that by anyone in the world I believe I said "I beg your pardon". He laughed and understood immediately. He explained that he does full body checks but you have to get naked.

There I was, in my late 50's and I wasn't about to get naked for any strange man. I got out of there in a hurry. I have seen my body, there aren't any other "things" any other place, and he checked the things i needed to be checked.

Then I told my girlfriend and she said 'Oh my husband Joe gets naked all the time at the dermatologist". I was absolutely amazed.

I never knew that people do this.

I may do it again some day if I notice anything. But I never go in the sun in the middle of the day or when the sun is highest. Just when it's pleasant. I love the feeling on my face, but not so much that I sit in the backyard like my landlord whose daughter puts on a bikini and bakes all day long.

All day long, all during the summer, they get as dark as if they lived in the carribean. They are in their early 50's, have great bodies, and the fact that they live in the sun, has not made one iota of wrinkling in their skin.

I asked them once "do you think it's smart that you bake in the sun", and she laughed and said "look at me, do I have any wrinkles or dry skin?" I had to admit that she was beautiful.

I think, in their cases, it has to be genetics playing a part. The father is 82, smokes 5 packs a day and is healthy as as horse, and their grandmother lived to 105. So sometimes genetics has to have some bearing on this, right??

--I do get completely naked in front of my dermatologist once a year (and the dermatologist is female).

It's been going on so long now that there's no embarassment left--except when I point out what girth I've added since the previous visit.

And--she also photographs me. The idea is to have a record of any little blemishes or possibly suspicious areas and see if they change from visit to visit. (So far I've been very fortunate in that regard. She has frozen off a few warts for me, though.)

Get your test results and post here.


This quote from a website sort of sums up the experiences
people may have at their doctor's...
from http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache...lnk&cd=3&gl=us

I don't know if the paresthesias are from low D itself, or from low calcium that results from poor absorption of
calcium from the diet, when D is low. Aberrations in calcium and magnesium levels cause paresthesias.

When I went to the derm I had to get a suspicious mole removed. Anyhow there were boxes to check what areas you wanted to be looked at. In my eyes I would rather a doc see me naked and get it early then let something go. It is less embarassing to me then a gyno but that is my opinion. If everything looks fine I guess but I went in for one mole that I thought looked weird and that one was fine but one that looked fine to my eye he took off. My friends bake in the tanning beds. I always tell them in 10 years your going to look like a leather bag. It looks good now but in years it may not.

THEY TAKE PHOTOS!!! Oh my god!!!! lol

I did have something when I was 17 or 18, it was the oddest thing. I would get it between my breasts, and on my belly. It had to do with the hot weather and when I sweated. I'll never forget what the doctor called it . Tinea Versicolor (how can I forget a name like that).

He would prescribe SELSUN shampoo and told me "go in the Shower, pour this all over your body from your head to your toes. (Then I believe I had to put some on the big patch between my breasts.). I looked it up once. It's a kind of fungus I believe. I had this on my upper belly and between my breasts for my teen years. Then about age 20, it all vanished.

Oh, I remember now, I would get some patches on the back of my neck.

But it's been 40 years now and never came back. I wonder why??

Thanks again for all the reply's I will ask the doctor for the vitamin D figures and post them here. I may ask if im being prescribed a high enough dose as I am not seeing my usual doctor. I may also ask for another blood test to check all my vitamin levels. They should be ok as the supplements I take for neuropathy contain most of the vitamins except for vitamin D!!!