Vitamin D deficiency or Chronic fatigue syndrome

by Cindy
(NY)

I'm 27 years old and was told in November that I have a Vitamin D deficiency. My level was 8ng.

He put me on 50,000 IUs a week for 3 months.
Retest again and it was 72ng.

Then he put me on 1000IU daily.

He kept acting surprised when I said my fatigue wasn't improving,and he kept saying I can't blame vitamin d deficiency for your fatigue you might have a Chronic fatigue syndrome and you'll stay like this for a years!!

He ask me to go online and read about it!!
Several months later they tested my level again and was only 30ng.

Now I'm back on 50,000 IUs for 8 weeks and I'm supposed to take a D3 supplement.
Please tell me if he's right about the Chronic fatigue syndrome.

How to know and how to diagnosed?
Is there any blood tests to diagnose this disease?
I am confused please any advice will help.

Comments for Vitamin D deficiency or Chronic fatigue syndrome

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Vitamin D Deficiency is not the only reason to be tired..
by: Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Queen!

Hi Cindy,

Well, unfortunately your doctor knows very little about vitamin d deficiency. I'm glad that he checked it and found you to be EXTREMELY deficient, but he did several things wrong in managing your vitamin d that could still be causing you to be tired:

First, he's giving you Prescription Vitamin D which is far inferior and researchers recommend NOT using it. And there are plenty of 'anecdotal' stories from clinicians who have switched saying that their patients' symptoms often didn't go away until they put them on vitamin D3.

Next, if he was more versed in using vitamin d, he would have rechecked your level of 72 ng/ml. I think that the lab made an error because 3 months of 50,000 IU's per week would not have been likely to bring your level up that high.

Next, putting you on 1000 IU's a day for maintenance is insulting to you because that is NOT going to keep your level up- as you saw. 1000 IU's is a maintenance dose for a newborn!!

So, get off of the prescription and switch to a HIGH QUALITY Vitamin D3 Supplement at the same dose as your prescription. Do NOT get 'cheap' stuff from your local drug store.

Then please read my page on Magnesium and Vitamin D so you'll see why you should ALSO be taking ....

(continued below...)

(continued)...
by: Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Queen!

magnesium with your vitamin d. Magnesium deficiency can also make you feel fatigued.

But Cindy, nutrient deficiencies rarely occur in isolation. Why would you have ONE severe deficiency without the possibility of others? The likely answer is that you have multiple deficiencies and possibly food allergies.

Did he test your thyroid? He could have easily missed Hypothyroidism- which is EXTREMELY common and sometimes goes YEARS undiagnosed (many of Oprah Winfrey's problems are likely hypothyroid and SHE went many years undiagnosed despite many health issues that she sought medical attention for!)

But you could also have:

Adrenal Fatigue

Vitamin B12 Deficiency

Food intolerances such as Gluten Sensitivity

or other things that your doctor is just simply not going to test you for because he doesn't 'believe' in them.

I would suggest that you get the book Why Do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms if My Lab Tests are Normal?. It's a HUGE eye-opener!!!

So, don't give up- doctors have made the same mistake for hundreds of years believing that Western Medicine is SOOOO good that they can't possibly miss any reasons why you might feel terrible. Yet, chronic illness is growing every year and millions are getting diagnosed with 'chronic fatigue' and Symptoms of Fibromyalgia simply because their doctors are unwilling to look at nutritional factors and don't know how to do the right tests

Kerri Knox RN Immune Health Queen

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune System Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Immune System

clarifying
by: cindy

I meant by he my endo sorry for that.

Adrenals
by: Anonymous

You may have adrenal fatigue . Alex

Me too
by: Anonymous

I've had pretty much the same experience. I'm 25 and after struggling with exhaustion for a long time I crashed in January and became house bound at which point they finally tested my vitamin D and it was 6ng/ml (15nmol/l).

I was on 40000IU vitamin D3 for 8 weeks followed by 1000IU D3 daily and at 12 weeks my levels were 36ng/ml (90nmol/l). I was told by doctor (and I've checked out the research too) that you can't make muscle properly while your levels are so low so if you've been low for a long time you can get very weak and it takes 3-6months of having normal levels for you to feel strong again.

So if you're feeling weak it might just be that - make sure you're on the right kind of vitamin D and eat a ton of dairy and green veg for your calcium, magnesium and vit K - it's always best to get it from food if you can, except for vit D which we make from the sun.

I'm 4.5 months since diagnosis now and my doctor is also starting to talk about CFS as I'm still very tired after a very small exertion and I have other symptoms like poor concentration and not sleeping well.

It's possible I brought this on by carrying on for so long with low levels and not listening to my body telling me to stop until I crashed - but that's just my own theory. The important thing to know about CFS is no one actually knows what causes it, there's no test for it, and no single cure. There's probably many different illnesses, so just because some people take years to recover doesn't mean you will.

Make sure you've been tested for every other possibility, but after that the main thing is to just find out what works for you. For me, that's really gradually building up the amount of activity I'm doing each day.

It might be that I'm recovering from CFS or I might simply be rebuilding my muscles after D deficiency, it doesn't really matter, either way I'm getting better.

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