Fawn....or anyone who knows about being Vitamin D deficient....

[Ailuros]

I don't know if it's coincidence, but since I started taking vit D, I've been able to stop daily antihistamines (I've had to take them year round for the last couple of years). There's still some allergy - the odd sneezing, and usually some time during the day I'll develop a red itchy patch of skin for an hour or so somewhere or other. But it's minor and tolerable. I haven't changed my diet, so it's not that. My hormones are still in transition, so it's possible that they are responsible. I'm very pleased, anyway.

I'm taking about 3,000 IU per day, since that's my best guess as to what will get me to 60 ng/mL (why don't they call it mg/L?).

[Laura in Arizona]

Originally Posted by Ailuros

...I'm taking about 3,000 IU per day, since that's my best guess as to what will get me to 60 ng/mL (why don't they call it mg/L?).

There would be WAAAY too many zeros. A nanogram (ng) is 1 billionth of a gram and a milliliter is 1 thousands of a liter. This stuff is measured in very little amounts. It is easier to say my D3 level is at 60 rather than I am at .00000????006 or whatever it works out to be. Dealing in billionths is too many spaces for my calculator, I'll let someone else do the math, but the unit of measure is generally the one that makes sense and ng/ml makes sense.

[Ailuros]

Originally Posted by Laura in Arizona

There would be WAAAY too many zeros. A nanogram (ng) is 1 billionth of a gram and a milliliter is 1 thousands of a liter. This stuff is measured in very little amounts. It is easier to say my D3 level is at 60 rather than I am at .00000????006 or whatever it works out to be. Dealing in billionths is too many spaces for my calculator, I'll let someone else do the math, but the unit of measure is generally the one that makes sense and ng/ml makes sense.

Sorry, I missed a thousand out when I looked at it! Still, I suppose they could just as easily have used mcg/L, which would be the same thing as ng/mL.

Just to add to the confusion, over here it's always given in nmol/L (2.5 nmol/L = 1 ng/mL) and the supplement is sold in micrograms (1,000 IU = 25 mcg).

[weasel!]

Sorry if this is elsewhere in this thread already, but how do you go about checking your Vit D level? I heard there is a device you can buy. Does anyone have one? Where do you get them? Are they expensive?

[Ailuros]

I did mine by signing up to D-action. It cost $40, and you have to fill in a questionnaire for their study - you can see the questionnaire on their site if you want to check it out before agreeing. The test kit came in the post, you put a couple of spots of blood on the paper (finger-pricker, alcohol swab and sticking plaster are provided) then post it back to them and they email you the results within a week or two (mine took eight days from when I posted it, and I'm in England). You have to pay the postage for sending it back, so I suppose it ends up a dollar or two more than the $40.

[weasel!]

Originally Posted by Ailuros

I did mine by signing up to D-action. It cost $40, and you have to fill in a questionnaire for their study - you can see the questionnaire on their site if you want to check it out before agreeing. The test kit came in the post, you put a couple of spots of blood on the paper (finger-pricker, alcohol swab and sticking plaster are provided) then post it back to them and they email you the results within a week or two (mine took eight days from when I posted it, and I'm in England). You have to pay the postage for sending it back, so I suppose it ends up a dollar or two more than the $40.

Thanks, Ailuros! I will check it out.

[fawn]

The Vitamin D council Vesna is a good place to order a kit as well.

[Ailuros]

I think they use the same kit (it's $65 from them), and the heartscan blog sells them too ($62.50 for members, $72.50 otherwise). Heartscan offers other tests, so it might make sense to use theirs if you wanted to get more than vit D tested.

[weasel!]

Wow, it is not cheap to test Vitamin D, especially if you want to check out the whole family! I had no idea. It's cheaper to just take more Vitamin D than you think you need! Is there a toxic dose, though?

[weasel!]

Never mind, I see wifezilla already answered my toxicity question:

Originally Posted by wifezilla

One thing I did find very interesting is that drug maker Merk states on their website that it takes infants several weeks of 40,000 IU/day of D3 to START to show signs of overdose.

[Ailuros]

The recommendation seems to be not to take more than 10,000 IU per day to stay on the safe side (that's as a long term dose rate).

I think you're not the only one who thinks the testing costs a lot considering you pretty much know the answer for most of us is that you need more! The Vit D Council news page recently had this:

Newfoundland and Labrador's largest health authority said Monday it won't do any more general testing for vitamin D42 because its lab is being overwhelmed...Eastern Health's laboratory medicine director Lynn Wade said at $25 per test, it was costing a fortune to tell people that everyone in the province who isn't taking a vitamin D supplement should be taking one.

[Laura in Arizona]

Originally Posted by weasel!

Wow, it is not cheap to test Vitamin D, especially if you want to check out the whole family! I had no idea. It's cheaper to just take more Vitamin D than you think you need! Is there a toxic dose, though?

It might be a bit expensive but VERY important. You can definatley take too much and it appears to be very individual. Some people can take 5,000 and just barely keep it in the proper range while another person may have their blood level shoot too high. Once you figure out the proper dosage though, you won't need to test often. I did my first test with grassrootshealth, the second test my MD did. I was taking 5,000 but bumped it up to 10,000. I will check again via grassrootshealth in Sept to see if I am over or under my target (60-80) then adjust. I have insurance so when my doc orders the test they pay for it.

The Vitamin D Council has an excellent website and will answer a lot of your questions.

[fawn]

Vesna, if I lived where you do, I'd be taking 5000 IU daily as well as CLO. Laura's right though, test don't guess.....though vitamin D toxcicity is extremely rare.

[DiamondDeb]

Originally Posted by Ailuros

The recommendation seems to be not to take more than 10,000 IU per day to stay on the safe side (that's as a long term dose rate).

I think you're not the only one who thinks the testing costs a lot considering you pretty much know the answer for most of us is that you need more! The Vit D Council news page recently had this:

If you're deficient you may need more than 10,000 IU per day. I was taking 20,000 for a while per doctor's instructions.

[Ailuros]

Originally Posted by DiamondDeb

If you're deficient you may need more than 10,000 IU per day. I was taking 20,000 for a while per doctor's instructions.

Perhaps it would have been clearer to say it's not recommended to exceed 10,000 IU per day in the long term without checking your blood levels. If you have the blood level measurement, then you can take what's needed to get to the right level.

[weasel!]

Originally Posted by fawn

Vesna, if I lived where you do, I'd be taking 5000 IU daily as well as CLO. Laura's right though, test don't guess.....though vitamin D toxcicity is extremely rare.

My mate and I have been taking 5000 IU daily since the fall of 2007. Neither we nor our sprout got sick in any way from then until early in 2009.

But now we are all three working our way through our second horrible, lingering cold of the year. I think the difference might be that the little one, who was always home with his dad before, is now in school (he did a lot of public kid activities around the time of the first cold, and now he's in a kindergarten-prep summer school).

My theory is that we all need more Vit D now than we did when he was at home, because he's getting exposed to more stuff. Once he comes down with it (he always comes down first), we can't avoid getting it because our exposure at home with him is so concentrated.

My plan is to give him a 2500 IU capsule each day (he enjoys chewing it up and eating it) and to up our own dosages to 10,000 (4 capsules). Because I sure don't want to spend the next several years sick every few months. And I'm thinking that this plan would boost all our immune systems.

What do you think, Misty, or anyone else?

[Laura in Arizona]

Vesna, I think that is a good plan as far as it goes. Although as Fawn said vit d toxicity is rare even at the doses we are speaking of, it does happen. As long as you get your levels tested along the way I think it's a great plan. The caution comes about though because unlike other supplements, vitamin d is not really a vitamin but a hormone. As such it can have profound consequences when too high or too low. Just my opinion.

[lighterbeing]

I like the Jarrow D3, and take 3-4,000 IU's daily. I work night shift and feel that I need it. If I spend time outside, I skip it for a couple of days. I have heard that to absorb it from the sun you need to not shower for 24 hours, which is why some who spend time outside then go in and shower may still be low.

[fawn]

I think it's a great plan Vesna. There are actually a lot of colds going around right now and I'm kind of wondering if they're related to this new strain of flu. I agree with you though that the little guy is bringing home some new germs you've not been exposed to......don't forget your fermented foods too as this will boost your digestion which as you know carries 80% of your immunity. Zinc is also a good idea to help you get over this cold.

Then of course, get on the CLO this winter. The combination of A & D is a superior booster.

[Ailuros]

Has anyone tried taking high doses of Vit D for a cold? If you did, do you think it helped?

I feel as if I'm getting a cold - hot, thirsty, itchy throat. I've been taking 3,000 IU per day for the last three months, and my vit D level was 36 ng/mL at the start, so I'm not likely to be very deficient, and my colds are usually over pretty quickly anyway, but I'm just curious to what experiences others have had.

[inatic]

i go/get zinc with a cold coming on.

I loved the zicam nasal swabs for colds .. im so sorry they are gone. I never had issue with them and they worked wonderfully!

[Ailuros]

I think I have some zinc - thanks for the reminder. I also have some herbal thing that Dr Eades recommended once. Why do I forget all this stuff just when I need it?

[fawn]

Originally Posted by Ailuros

I think I have some zinc - thanks for the reminder. I also have some herbal thing that Dr Eades recommended once. Why do I forget all this stuff just when I need it?

I do the same thing! I give out all this advice I've learned about and freeze when one of my family members is sick.

[Ailuros]

Originally Posted by fawn

I do the same thing! I give out all this advice I've learned about and freeze when one of my family members is sick.

I'm glad I'm not the only one. Luckily this turned out to be one of my typical high speed colds. Yesterday morning I suspected I was getting a cold, by last night it was here, and this morning mostly gone. I only had time for a couple of zinc capsules .