Home Q & A Questions Vitamin D Deficiency - Hi, I... Vitamin D Deficiency - Hi, I was recently tested for Vitamin D and my levels are 5 Ng/ml. 18 Oct 2012 by Rutvij vitamin d, vitamins, vitamin d deficiency, pain ... consistent pain in my legs and everyday there is a different part where the pain comes up. I also feel that I am not able to think clearly and concentrate on my work. I have been taking 50,000 IU D3 for the last 2 weeks and have seen no improvement. Should I take time off from work, would that help in recovery? Hi Rutvij, vitamin D deficiency sure can cause pain and havoc with our bodies. I also had the same problem, but my doctor had me take a prescription vitamin D, once a week, at 50,000 IU's. If you take too much it can be toxic and cause problems as well as a deficiency. Have you had your levels checked since you started taking the supplement? You may want to get it checked, you could be taking too much.(deficiency can cause pain, especially joint pain, at the wrists and other joints)
Get those levels checked and be careful with your supplements. Hello Rutvij, & welcome to the site. Yes, you levels are very low. 2 weeks is not long enough to bring them back up to normal. Sometimes they may have to have you even increase your dose to twice a week to get it up faster. This has happened to my husband who takes 50,000 units every 5 days now because after 3 months his level did not go up enough. Your doctor is the best source of keeping up with your labs to see how you are doing. Ours are checked every 3 months. My husband has been on his dose for over a year now. You also should be taking a calcium supplement. Did your doctor not tell you this? The two work together to help keep your bones strong. I am not a doctor, but would suggest you take at least 1200mg of calcium a day along with the vitamin D. Call your doctor & confirm this, & also ask how often you should have your labs checked. This does take time, so try not to worry too much. Wishing you the best... D3 has to have calcium with it as well.
This is to help metabolize it into what your body needs. Be sure you are taking at least 1200mg calcium per day with calcium rich foods. Dairy, broccoli, chard, etc.I was at a low rate as well. The doctor had me on the same schedule. He did monitor this closely as too much Vit. D can be toxic. Was this prescribed for you? Just want to be sure for your health. I too had leg and muscle cramps. It took about two months to be better. The days get better slowly and steadily. It also helps to get some sun if you are able. Fifteen minutes is all you need daily. If not, keep up the medication and you will improve. I was on Vit. D3, 50,000 IU five times a week for over a year. You have a very sharp doctor who recognizes the deficiency. Remember, even if your levels are low normal, they are not in therapeutic range yet, it just means that your body is using your stores up. Everyone else is correct also, you have to take calcium, preferably calcium CITRATE with the Vit. D. Believe it or not, scientists are going back on the NO SUN rule.
Sunscreen has caused an entire generation of people to be deficient in Vit. D. Hope that you feel better soon. Also, when you are done with your script of Vit. D, keep taking a supplement daily, about 1,000mg along with your calcium. I suffer from chronic leg pain which has gotten worse with age. I am female, 51 years old. Today my doctor prescribed 1200 IUs per day of Vitamin E which is typically for leg cramps, not consistent pain. I am to see how this works for 2 weeks. I wonder why he did not mention Vitamin D. Has anyone tried E for this purpose? Vitamin D Deficiency - My vitamin d test came back with a reading of <4, my doctor wants me to take? Posted 11 Nov 2009 • 2 answers Vitamin D Deficiency - I am a 41 year old female and I was just diagnosed with vitamin D-Def. six? Posted 7 Jan 2010 • 9 answers Posted 20 Jun 2012 • 2 answers Vitamin Deficiency - Live in South Africa. Lots of sun exposure, bloodcount vit d of 8! Posted 9 Oct 2013 • 1 answer
Pharmacology is the branch of medicine that is focused on the use and study of drugs and their actions. This page discusses vitamin D in pharmacology, its different forms and the use of vitamin D analogues. This is an advanced topic, primarily focused to educate health professionals, or to answer any questions a person might have on some form of vitamin D their doctor prescribed When we say vitamin D, we are talking about vitamin D nutritionally, in the form of cholecalciferol (vitamin D₃) or ergocalciferol (vitamin D₂). Cholecalciferol is made in the skin in response to UVB radiation. Ergocalciferol is produced in plants and fungus, also in response to UVB radiation. Cholecalciferol and ergocalciferol can both be found in the form of a supplement. In the United States, “over the counter” vitamin D is usually cholecalciferol, but this is not always the case. Cholecalciferol is produced by irradiating sheep wool. Cholecalciferol is also in cod liver oil products.
Ergocalciferol supplements are produced much more complicatedly, often involving irradiating sugars and yeasts. Vitamin D is scarcely found in food. Fatty fish have small quantities of cholecalciferol, while irradiated mushrooms have small quantities of ergocalciferol. In the United States and Canada, the Institute of Medicine currently recommends the following daily intakes: Children, pregnant women and adults, 1-70 years The European Union recommends the following daily intake: Sometimes you’ll hear scientists refer to “physiologic doses of vitamin D.” A physiologic dose of vitamin D is the dose required to maintain vitamin D blood levels [25(OH)D] in the range that ancestral humans maintained. Since ancestral humans received much more sun exposure than modern day humans get, researchers and doctors will study or prescribe physiologic doses of vitamin D, to make up for the absence of sunlight. So what is a physiologic dose? This is a dose between 3,000-5,000 IU/day, which will help you achieve the same vitamin D levels of someone who gets lots of year-round full-body sun exposure around the equator.
Some researchers, as well as the Vitamin D Council, believe that physiologic doses of vitamin D should be the public recommendation until research guides us otherwise. This is why the Vitamin D Council recommends 5,000 IU/day, to make up for the sunshine most modern day humans don’t get. A “pharmacologic dose of vitamin D” is a term referring to any dose greater than a daily physiologic dose. These are also sometimes called ‘mega doses,’ ‘loading doses’ or ‘Stoss doses.’ Doctors will sometimes use pharmacologic doses to quickly raise vitamin D blood levels. A common practice is to prescribe a pharmacologic dose of vitamin D (50,000 IU once per week) when a patient tests low in vitamin D. Researchers will also sometimes use pharmacologic doses in their studies, also to quickly raise vitamin D blood levels. In general, the Vitamin D Council believes that daily physiologic doses are preferable to pharmacologic doses, though every individual has different needs.
If a patient is low in vitamin D, sometimes it is prudent to prescribe both a pharmacologic and physiologic dose. Or in simpler terms, a mega dose for the short term, and a daily maintenance dose for the long term. A few studies have shown that cholecalciferol (vitamin D₃) is better than ergocalciferol (vitamin D₂) at increasing vitamin D levels and better for various health outcomes and mortality risk. Also, since the body produces cholecalciferol rather than ergocalciferol, it is commonly thought that cholecalciferol is better for people than ergocalciferol. There are no studies that show whether vitamin D in tablet, gel, capsule, drop or sublingual form is preferable. There are a few vitamin D cream products on the market. At this time, there are no studies that examine how well, if at all, vitamin D is absorbed through applying creams to the skin. Vitamin D supplements are widely available “over the counter” in the United States. These supplements are usually vitamin D₃, but it’s important to check the label to make sure.
Vitamin D supplements come in a variety of IUs per pill, some of the most common sizes being 400 IU, 1,000 IU, 2,000 IU and 5,000 IU, though products vary. Vitamin D is also usually found in multi-vitamins, found in amounts of 400 to 1,000 IU, though sometimes more. Vitamin D is also sometimes coupled with calcium and promoted for bone health. Unless a doctor takes extra care in prescribing their patient vitamin D, patients are prescribed a product called Drisdol. Drisdol is ergocalciferol (vitamin D₂) in 50,000 IU pills, usually prescribed to take once or twice weekly, fortnightly or monthly. The Vitamin D Council generally recommends against this because vitamin D₃ is preferable to vitamin D₂. It should also be considered, that rather than just take a weekly dose of vitamin D in the short run, a long term strategy should be setup to get daily vitamin D in the long run. Most people can take vitamin D supplements with no problems. However, care is needed in a few situations.
A vitamin D metabolite is a chemical in the body that the body produces when you take vitamin D. When vitamin D is taken, the liver turns vitamin D into 25(OH)D. Then the kidney and many other tissues in the body take this 25(OH)D and turn it into 1,25(OH)₂D. Since these are the forms the body wants and uses, sometimes doctors prescribe these forms if you can’t produce them yourself when you take vitamin D. However, in the United States, 25(OH)D is not available over the counter or by prescription. It has been available in the past. It is not known if it will be available in the future. 1,25(OH)₂D (activated vitamin D) is available by prescription, sold under the trade names Rocaltrol, Calcijex and Decostriol. The use of 1,25(OH)₂D is not to treat vitamin D deficiency, but rather treat hypocalcemia and bone disease in people with abnormal conditions like hypoparathyroidism, kidney disease, osteomalacia, rickets and others. 1,25(OH)₂D is prescribed in these instances because the person has difficulty producing 1,25(OH)₂D in their kidney, or maybe they need extra 1,25(OH)₂D to compensate for lack of parathyroid hormone and more.
Sometimes doctors recommend those with kidney diseases to take both plain vitamin D and 1,25(OH)₂D. Vitamin D analogs are drugs chemically and physiologically similar to vitamin D or its metabolites. They are developed by researchers for specific purposes. Most analogs on the market are used to treat people with kidney disease, those at risk of low blood calcium, and those at risk of bone diseases and other rare medical conditions. There are also analog creams that have also been developed to treat skin disorders like psoriasis. Here are some analogs currently available on the market: Barker JN, Ashton RE, Marks R, Harris RI, Berth-Jones J. Topical maxacalcitol for the treatment of psoriasis vulgaris: a placebo-controlled, double-blind, dose-finding study with active comparator. Fukuoka M, Sakurai K, Ohta T, Kiyoki M, Katayama I. Tacalcitol, an active vitamin D3, induces nerve growth factor production in human epidermal keratinocytes. Skin Pharmacol Appl Skin Physiol. 2001