Vitamin D Deficiency Symptoms persisting although levels are high

by Ali
(London, England)

I got re-test blood test results today. After about 2 months of supplementing 10k Vit D3 daily plus taking chelated Magnesium, Calcium, Zinc and frequent UV sunbeds, my levels have gone from 20nmol to 109nmol (If you are working in ng/ml, those figures would be approx 8ng/ml to 43ng/ml)

However, I am still feeling terrible!

Am I right in saying that levels rise and fall frequently until a 'baseline' plateau is reached and symptoms will fluctuate accordingly?

My experience seems to support this as I was feeling great around the time of the blood test (UV sunbed before the test and a beautiful sunny day) but had a terrible flare up of symptoms at the weekend after several rainy days spent indoors...

Could that account for the ongoing symptoms despite seemingly raised levels? After all, the blood test is a snapshot of a single day.

Please help!

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Levels are very steady
by: Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Queen!

Hi Ali,

No, actually vitamin d levels are 'slow' to react and are quite steady over long periods of time because it's a fat soluble vitamin that gets stored in the fat cells and released over time.

Magnesium and potassium, by contrast, can change dramatically in a short time if- for instance- you had diarrhea and vomiting all day. But vitamin d will not do that.

What I suspect is that you need a level just slightly higher than 43 ng/ml in order to feel better. 43 is on the very low end of what the 'optimal' level should be and that that is just a little bit too low for you.

Since you were taking 10,000 IU's plus getting UV light therapy (which you don't say whether it actually is giving you vitamin d or not- most don't) you might need a higher dosage than 10,000 IU's a day for a while to bring your levels up to a slightly higher optimum in order to feel better.

Also, you talked about UV light and sunny days and it could be that you need to get outside more often and get LIGHT. The practitioners of 'heliotherapy' in the tuberculosis sanitoriums at the turn of the century all found that the best healing occurred with the earliest morning sunlight exposure- which would have no vitamin d. Early AM sunlight 'resets' our diurnal pattern and has healing substances that we are just not yet aware of.

My other thoughts on this, too, are that you could need any combination of other things and could possibly be:

Magnesium deficient (despite taking 'some' magnesium you might be taking far inadequate dosages for what YOU actually need- some people need up to 1500 mg per day of magnesium)

Gluten Intolerant and you unknowingly didn't eat gluten for a couple of days and felt much better.

or many other things such as other food sensitivities that you unknowingly avoided for the day of the test and/or a few days before. There are LOTS of things that can contribute to feeling bad other than a low vitamin d level, but try getting yours up to 50 or 60 ng/ml and see if that helps. That is WELL within non-toxic range and is more in the 'center' of the optimum range.

Kerri Knox RN Immune Health Queen

Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune System Queen
Functional Medicine Practitioner
Immune System
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Update!
by: Ali

Hi again and many thanks for your response. Since I wrote last, I have been continuing with Vitamin D therapy.

My health seemed to keep on improving, presumably as my blood levels increased, until about 3 weeks ago, when some of my symptoms returned - muscle pain and weakness, fatigue, unrefreshing sleep, the need to urinate frequently and low mood.

I had a blood re-test last week and my blood levels are really high 222 nmol/L or 92.5 ng/ml.

I am wondering if I have recently exceded the optimal level and have too much Vitamin D in my system, which has caused the symptoms above...?

Many thanks in advance for your help!

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