Everyone should ask their doctor about a test on your Vitamin D levels

[hyphenate]

I've been finding out left and right about some problems that new doctors are finding, that one of my old doctors (the one I call an idiot, because he WAS one) didn't even take into consideration.

My new endocrinologist is an expert on diabetes, and he said that I should NOT be suffering from so much neuropathy this soon, and was thinking about other potential causes of the weakness I have in my legs. He sent me to get a test to see what my Vitamin D level was, and while I have been taking 1000IU a day for some time now, the test revealed my level at 14--when the low normal is 40.

I've been researching some of the problems of a Vitamin D deficiency and my jaw dropped--many of the symptoms are remarkably like some of the problems I have. I found this one article that has a lot of information, and some people might be surprised along the way. If you do, ask your doctor to test your Vitamin D levels, and see if a simple fix like a Vitamin D supplement a day will help you. Since I've been taking the one pill for awhile now, it's apparent it's not enough for me, and that I'll have to go to 2 a day, but I'm also going to try to get more sun, because that's one of the more natural ways to get enough.

http://www.slate.com/id/2105560/

[OnionPatch]

1. Thanks. Good article.

I've been wondering about this. I definitely have some symptoms of vitamin D deficiency, including osteopenia (the beginnings of osteoporosis) and have been battling non-specific musculoskeletal pain for years. I think I'll ask for that test.

[hyphenate]

3. Good luck--

if a vitamin supplement can help, it'll be great! Sometimes I shake my head when doctors push us all toward so many drugs, when we simply need to have better diets and more natural vitamins.

[hedgehog]

2. I convinced my mother to start Vitamin D - she's cut her insulin usage in half

and she doesn't seem as frail!


I had my husband on 1000 IU a day, so his doctor tested him. The results came back showing a low level, so the doc upped his dose.


I think someday people will look back on what considered good nutrition in the late 20th and early 21st centuries the way we look at bleeding!

[hyphenate]

4. My mom slipped and fell about

a year or so ago, and broke her hip and shoulder. She's a stubborn old git at times--her mom (grandmother) had a serious case of osteoporosis (widow's hump), and my mom should have been more aware that she was likely to inherent the brittle bones from her, but she's never paid much attention to her diet--or her health, for that matter! She's broken more bones than most people I know, and it's been harder for her to heal through the incidents.

I think you're right--there will come a day when everything we believe in in medicine, nutrition and health will be revealed to be barbaric. I don't think I'll be alive, but it's a comforting thought nevertheless.