Tag Archives: Doctors and Vitamin D

Is Vitamin D Toxic? II

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Episode II in the epic journey of Is Vitamin D Toxic?

Well I made that trip to my doctor for my annual physical.  I was pleasantly surprised at his laid back attitude of my high serum 25(OH)D.  I thought that he would read me the ‘riot act’ instead his first question to me was how my healing with vitamin D.

Here is a doctor who has now been dealing with the benefits of vitamin D in his practice long enough to see how much effect that it is having on his patients.  He also knew that I know enough about vitamin D that I would not have a long term high level of vitamin D.  He could also see from my labs results that my serum calcium was perfectly normal.

So why was my vitamin D greater than 150 ng/ml?  My wife had contracted a serious bacterial lung infection after being compromised by an exposure to soot and ash from an Ash Wednesday service.  Yeah, I know.  Anyway she passed this infection along to me.  On the first Friday night in March my lung started to ‘gurgle’ and by Saturday morning I was coughing up blood.  This bug had some very serious drillers that were digging deep into the walls of my lungs.  I did not want to go the emergency room on the weekend or any other time for that matter so I decided to take a pharmaceutical amount of vitamin D3.  I took 250,000 IU of D3 Friday through Monday.  The break came on Sunday afternoon as I started to feel better.  Believe me if my fever had spiked or more evidence of fluid in my lungs with that much vitamin D I would have been right to the emergency room.

My wife went the route of conventional medicine and took antibiotics.  I went the route of the new understanding of vitamin D and went that route.  Do not do this without being under the care of a doctor.  It worked in my case, but if it had been a more serious infection like mrsa, I could have been in real trouble.

I did not take anymore vitamin D during March while waiting for my level to return to normal.  It just happened that my lab test were two weeks after taking 1,000,000 IU of D3.  Did that warrant a toxicity warning.  I do not believe so in particular since my serum calcium was not high.

My doctor’s comments to me five years ago when I suggested that I was going to start taking large amounts of vitamin D3 was that he had learn in med school that my ‘organs would turn to stone’.  Now they have their own Diasorin testing equipment and try to test everyone that they can.  My doctors comment now is that he will be telling his patients about the benefits of vitamin D for a very long time.  His concern now is the necessity for a change in the medical practice guidelines so that patients, doctors, and medical insurance can come together.

This doctor says that he has many patients that take vitamin D and has not seen a single high serum calcium level that could not be attributed to other causes.  In other words he has not seen any vitamin D toxicity in his practice.

Our doctors are truly starting to learn about vitamin D and that all of their previous practice in medicine was on a vitamin D deficient population.  This paradigm will truly change the face of medicine.

This doctor and his practice deserves a champion’s award in the Vitamin D Revolution.  YOU ARE CHAMPIONS!  -Vitamin D patient zero.

Survived another episode of illness with vitamin D.  The sun is shinning today and you know where I will be.   –  Pandemic Survivor

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Food and Nutrition Board Delay

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During a recent visit to the Food and Nutrition Board website for vitamin D and calcium I was alarmed to find that the report had been delayed from May of this year until the end of the summer.

Most likely this will continue until the boards deadline of 24 months has ended.  That would put the report to sometime in the fall of 2010.  I would not be so concerned except for the 100,000 or so deaths each month that we delay because of vitamin D deficiency to say nothing of the suffering.

A. Catherine Ross, a vitamin A researcher, as chair most certainly is having a very difficult time in resolving the issues of a board that ultimately could have a huge effect on health as well as more of an impact on the medical economy than the recently passed health care bill.  Don’t you find it strange that a board for the Institute of Medicine that was seated to set standards and guidelines for vitamin D is chaired by a person who’s life’s research has been vitamin A?

I hope this is science and not politics at work.  It is for your health that I am concerned.  The scientist are saying that an upper limit of 10,000 IU per day needs to be set and I say that this may not be enough for an obese person.  However, anything less than this and we know that is more concerned with the medical economy than your health.  It would seem that the best DRI or daily required intake should be set for IU’s/per body weight.  It is the only thing that makes sense.

Doctor’s should also be instructed that long term levels of less than 200 ng/ml is safe for 25(OH)D.  This information already exist in the NIH Fact Sheet on Vitamin D in Table 1. It is also stated that no toxicity has been found in levels of less than 400 ng/ml.  Even though these numbers sound large they are still very small numbers.

Typically an intake from all sources of about 35 IU’s per pound of body weight should get your 25(OH)D above 50 ng/ml.  However, there is no way of knowing for sure without testing and because of the serious health consequences of vitamin D deficiency, testing should become a standard and doctors required to take enough CME’s to understand the complexities.

The longer we delay in not having a national intervention for vitamin D deficiency the suffering will continue.  Number one in this issue is that doctors need to be educated.