I can't tell you what's safe for you... by: Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Queen!
Hi Melissa,
So, first of all I can't tell you what is 'safe' for you to take or not. No one on the internet can do that, but I can provide you information.
So, even those with kidney problems can still take vitamin d, and your creatinine on the 'upper end of normal' is STILL normal. While it's great to follow up with that and see if it continues to get higher, it's still normal! Again, whether it's safe for you to take magnesium for whatever reason or not, you are not in kidney failure.
Next, you do not 'push up' calcium levels by taking either calcium or vitamin d. Taking calcium does NOT cause calcium levels to go up unless you take MASSIVE amounts of it. An Elevated Calcium level has nothing to do with taking calcium and is a 'broken' metabolic problem.
Vitamin D, also, does not 'push up' calcium levels- when vitamin d levels are in the low or normal range. It's ONLY when vitamin d levels are toxic that calcium levels get out of range from taking vitamin d. You are FAR FAR FAR from having toxic levels of vitamin d that would cause your calcium levels to go up.
So, all in all, you need Vitamin D and magnesium and calcium, but you also need Vitamin A and Vitamin K in order to avoid problems with vitamin d. You also need Vitamin B6 in order to absorb magnesium, etc. etc. These are only the interactions that we KNOW about. There are likely many more that we don't. So, you are on 'information overload' and are trying to figure out EXACTLY the right nutrients to take and how that fits in exactly with your condition.
But all you really need is a super good quality multivitamin and mineral supplement like Beyond Chelation Improved Multivitamin and Mineral Daily Packs that contain magnesium, calcium, Vitamin A, Vitamin K, Vitamin B6 and other good stuff in doses that are adequate and forms that are well absorbed- do NOT make a mistake and get some crappy 'drug store' brand and think it's the same thing. This extra supplementation will provide the 'insurance' that you need to cover any possible deficiencies that you might have that will cause problems when you take vitamin d. Now whether it is 'safe' for you to take that is not my call, nor can I advise you on that...
I appreciate the information but I have to disagree with you about what you said about calicium not going up after taking Vitamin D. As I'm sure you know, Vitamin D increases calcium absorption so it would only make sense that calcium levels could increase.
I was taking 6000 IUs a day which I read was safe from this website. I don't have parathyroidism because I've been checked and have had consistent low normal calcium my whole life until I started the Vitamin D. I also made sure I had a very small amount of calcium in my diet. I have been doing a lot of research and have been on other websites where this has happened to others as well without parathyroidism. Neither me or any of those people were taking calcium. A month after I stopped the Vitamin D, my levels started dropping again.
IF your calcium were high, you might have a case by: Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Queen!
IF your calcium level has actually been high, you might have had a case, but your calcium level was normal and it fluctuated within the normal range. A calcium level of 9.7 is PERFECTLY NORMAL and simply a fluctuation in the normal range. What you are saying is that by taking vitamin d, your calcium level went from a normal level to a normal level. That means absolutely nothing, and if you've had normal levels all of your life, why is your doctor continually checking it anyway? What a waste of money.
And another question for you is, how do you know that 'low normal' levels of calcium are 'good' when somehow a higher normal is 'bad'? It's quite possible that the low normal level of calcium was not optimal for you and that vitamin d corrected that. And again, the amount of calcium that you take in has almost nothing to do with calcium levels. Calcium levels are NOT like vitamin d levels or magnesium levels where you take vitamin d and levels go up in a linear predictable manner.
You can take TONS of calcium and a healthy body will simply get rid of the excess and the calcium levels will not go up. Conversely, you can have too LITTLE calcium intake for years and decades and your calcium level will be normal because the body is smart and maintains calcium levels within the normal range expertly despite intake. Again, calcium levels have little to nothing to do with calcium intake- as I explain on the Blood Calcium Levels page.
So, I'm going to disagree with YOU that vitamin d pushes calcium levels up when vitamin d levels are maintained in the optimal range. There is absolutely no evidence that it makes calcium levels too high when vitamin d is in the normal range and in your example it made you go from normal to normal, which is still completely normal! And there is absolutely no reason to believe that your calcium level will continue to rise into the abnormal range simply because you are taking vitamin d at normal doses.
Whether my levels were normal or not wasn't the topic. The topic was that my blood calcium levels are consistantly 9.0 and have been for the past 2 years. After the first FEW WEEKS after taking vitamin D, they started going up which isn't a fluctuation. They went up and stayed up until I went off of the Vitamin D supplements. I was only on the supplements for 1 month so if I had stayed on them, they probably WOULD have been too high but I wasn't dumb enough to wait for that to happen.
Ironically, after a few months of being off of them, my level is back down to 9.0 again. That is not a coincidence. When the range is 8.7-10, and mine was at 9.7, I may have had a NORMAL level but was on the high side of the spectrum where it has not been for the two years prior. That is EVIDENCE. Not only has this happened to me, it has happened to others as well. My doctor does a CMP for other medical problems which consists of many tests and calcium is one of them so it's not a waste of money.
Sorry, it's evidence that your calcium levels were normal and still are.. by: Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Queen!
Hi again,
The fact is that your calcium levels were normal without taking vitamin d, and they still were normal while taking vitamin d. There is NO EVIDENCE, as I said before, that your levels would have continued to climb because of the vitamin d. There have been THOUSANDS of studies on vitamin d, including checking calcium levels, and not one study has ever shown that calcium levels will become abnormally high with NORMAL vitamin D levels, and in fact the definition of vitamin d toxicity is high vitamin d levels WITH a high calcium level. High calcium levels simply do not occur with normal vitamin d levels WHEN there is no underlying metabolic problem that causes the calcium level to go up.
It appears that you've already decided that you are right and nothing will change your mind despite no studies backing up your claims and many backing up mine. You can continue to believe that your calcium levels would have continued to climb, but there is absolutely no reason to believe that it would. Both your levels were within normal limits and a fluctuation within normal limits IS completely irrelevant.
Come back and write me again if your calcium level is high when your vitamin d level is in the optimal range. Otherwise there is no reason for me to believe that taking vitamin d will negatively affect your calcium level- since it hasn't in hundreds of thousands of other people in thousands of studies. But you can 'believe' whatever you choose to believe if you want to.
Changes from normal to normal are insignificant. It's still normal and a slight rise in normal because of something that you did in no way means that your level will continue to rise because you continue doing that intervention- calcium levels just simply don't work that way. The body has a calcium 'thermostat' (the parathyroids) that keeps calcium levels within the normal range regardless of what your dietary intake is. A fluctuation in that temperature range in your house doesn't mean that the thermostat is broken, it simply means that the temperature in order to kick in the heater has not come on. YOU are assuming that your 'thermostat' is somehow broken because your calcium levels are fluctuating. If your parathyroids truly are normal, then there is NO REASON to believe that your calcium levels will continue to go up. You have a basic ignorance of the biology of the parathyroids in order to believe that your calcium levels will continue to rise unchecked because of taking vitamin d.
Maybe rather than talking to people whose calcium levels fluctuated within the normal range from taking vitamin d and are panicked about it, you should be studying the physiology of the parathyroid glands and calcium metabolism. That would serve you FAR better....
You are a sad sad woman by: Kerri Knox, RN- The Immune Queen!
Hi again Melissa,
You are a sad sad woman to call me a fraud and make such ignorant and baseless allegations against me simply because I exposed your ignorance on this calcium issue and you are unable to give up your belief around it.
Think about it Melissa, if getting vitamin d increases calcium to dangerous levels, then all lifeguards around the world would be incapacitated with illness and feel terrible during the summer. But studies checking the vitamin d and calcium levels of lifeguards show they have vitamin d levels of up to 250 ng/ml WITHOUT abnormal calcium levels. You do NOT know what you are talking about and since you STILL 'believe' despite evidence to the contrary, your idea is simply a religion that you are preaching instead of science or fact. Humans are designed to get LOTS of vitamin d. What humans are NOT designed for is to have their calcium levels checked every week by neurotic patients who are sure that any change from a NORMAL calcium level to ANOTHER normal level is the disastrous consequence of taking normal and adequate amounts of vitamin d.
And no, I'm not going to publish your smarmy, ugly ignorant comment. But for you to think that I'm a 'fraud' because I proved you wrong says far more about your inability to accept facts than my ability as a researcher.
And just so you know, when you call me a fraud because I 'don't have anything about vitamin d side effects' on my site is inane. I suppose that the 100 pages that I have on my site is 'nothing' about vitamin d side effects. You can see one of the these at the page ENTITLED Vitamin D Side Effects.
Despite that, you'll still think I'm a 'fraud', as you say, because I didn't quote Mercola. I happen to quote RESEARCHERS on my site- AS DOES Dr. Mercola. I suppose that in your book, the researchers who came up with the dosage guidelines that I quote are frauds too because THEY don't quote Mercola!
So, you can continue to 'believe' in your religion that taking the amount of vitamin d that is required to achieve Normal Vitamin D Levels will cause high calcium levels when all the evidence and science disproves this, but you will be doing a lot of damage to people who will now be too afraid to take the amount of vitamin d that they need to be healthy- including the amount that Dr. Mercola recommends.
You can respond with another mean and ignorant comment if you like, but I won't see it because you've been banned from my site... Good luck with your life and I can only hope that your ignorance doesn't harm too many others...
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