Monday: No New Lesions! No! New! Lesions!
Later That Same Week: The neurologist’s office called and said the results of the vitamin D test he ran were low. Low normal is 30; I am 13.
When I was first diagnosed, that doctor said they speculated MS had something to do with how vitamin D is metabolized. It made sense, because people at the equator don’t get MS and they have plenty of sun, and sunshine helps you make your own D. (Sunshine makes me throw up. I always puked on float trips and camping trips. Sunshine is not “healthy” for me. Exercise makes me barf too. I see a trend.)
Anyway, at the time, that doctor said that taking extra D would not help. Perhaps they thought it was a correlation and not a cause. That was years ago. It seems that now they think that big doses of D will be beneficial.
I start off at 50,000 units once a week. It’s prescription, otherwise I’d be slamming back half a bottle at a time.
I just can’t wrap my head around it. I know there was a time a few years back when everyone had the D test and everyone was low. There was a time in the 70s when vitamin C was supposed to cure cancer.
I am skeptical, but they know what they’re talking about. Big Honking Doses of D seem to be recommended for people with autoimmune diseases. Okay then. I’m doing this for the 80 year old me, the one that’ll have brittle bones because calcium crept out because I didn’t get my vitamins.
Perhaps I’d feel better about it if they charged me 4K a month.
9 responses to “Vitamin D”
Last year (well, 2011 so I guess not last year) I was diagnosed with super low Vitamin D. I too had to take 50,000 units a week for like 6 or 8 weeks. Now I’m supposed to take 2,000 units a day and I try to get out in the sun a looooot more. So. Yeah. Take your D. (My pill was a huge green capsule…at least it was pretty!)
Yay for no new lesions. I take Vitamin D because my pharmacist sister orders me to and I’m a sheep. Baaaaaaa….
Autumn -mine is green too. And it makes me dizzy.
Allison -it’s hard to take it when you don’t feel the advantage of having it or the disadvantage of not having it
I too have a very low Vitamin D count, and no one seems to know why or have a plan to do anything about it. I love science. Dr. Google told me that excessive antacid usage could be a factor and I’m on so much prescription antacid I don’t understand how I can still be making stomach acid, so I figured that was it. But then I was very derisively told that the gut doesn’t digest D so no…that couldn’t possibly be it. I hate doctors.
I know being outdoors and getting some sun almost every day are good things.
Cheese is all a girl really needs. Maybe some yogurt, too, but cheese is the important bit.
Candy – I think it must be the first vitamin to go when people get chronic diseases. And was the derisive doctor a specialist? they seem to be a little more scornful.
Hattie – Geh. I really hate the sun.
Tami – What about cheese flavoring? I just had cheese-flavored Sun Chips.
I don’t know why I’m the only woman on earth with normal vitamin D levels, but my love of cheese sure *seems* like it might be the reason.
Tami – Seriously, there was a time they said 20 was low and everyone on earth (but you) had low D. Now they upped it to 30.