Strange Side Effects From Vitamin D

[BFSDiner]

Just interested in hearing from anyone here who gets strange side effects from Vitamin D.It is the most confusing thing for me. If I take even 1,000 IU of Vitamin D, within 5 hours I will be so unbelievably exhausted that I just want to go to sleep. Within 24 hours, I develop aching and "pinching" and stabbing sensations in my groin glands, neck glands, or armpit glands. This time around its my groin gland. The very gland that was swollen the week before my BFS started. That was my first symptom. My left calf which was fully knotted up for 4 months when my BFS was at its worst, also begins to tighten up again very uncomfortably. One other guy on here who I correspond with regularly reports inflammatory reactions as well. For him its increased twitching, muscle cramps, pains, etc. If he wants to chime in here and go into more detail, go for it. Its a very strange thing for me, because Vitamin D is supposed to suppress immune inflammation, but its obvious to me its increasing my immune system (or other) inflammation noticeably. To the point that I can regress back into my non-twitching BFS symptoms within 24 hours, after months of being 100% cured. I am just worried about having my Vitamin D levels too low (I hover around 30 naturally), so I feel like I need to be taking it. -B-

 

[SecretAgent007]

TwitchBFS, not all vitamins are created equally. Many of the vitamins you buy over the counter are synthetic and are not the same as vitamins from natural sources. The FDA approves them just the same, but I think you know that doesn't carry much weight. The Vitamin D that met my doc's standards is called "Bio-D-Mulsion Forte" by Biotics Research. Here it is on Amazon: I am not sure if you have had much experience in doctors who use muscle response testing or similar forms of bio-feedback, but it has proven to me in being a great way of determining if something is good for you or bad for you. Bad can mean sensitive, allergic, toxic, etc. Good means it is in harmony with your body and you can actually utilize it.Anyway, I think it is likely the case that you are reacting to something synthetic and not Vitamin D itself. I have had experience here. I remember my mother in law was visiting us from Minnesota last year and she wanted to go to Target to get some stuff. I was walking with her through the personal care aisles and she was picking out bottles of vitamins from off the shelf. Knowing my own experiences with these I asked her if it would be alright if we put them back and I bought her some better vitamins. We were going to my docs later that day anyway. She agreed. I made a quick appointment for her to go in after me and just asked for a nutrition check. They did their thing and gave her some of their good supplements. They really weren't that much. She called us about 2 weeks later from Minnesota and was amazed at how much better she was feeling. She had more energy. She had spots on her hands where her skin was discolored (as old people get) that were going away. It is amazing the difference that it makes in what we put into our bodies. The stuff you buy in the freezer section labeled "Healthy Choice" is far from healthy. Unfortunately the same goes for the vitamin and supplement aisles. It can be easy to feel overwhelmed about what in the heck is actually good for you and what is bad. I was amazed when I learned about these simple holistic medicine adopted techniques that really do work. They have for me, my family, and my friends time and time again. I used to be amazed by it all, but now I am so exposed to it and familiar with it that it is simply an adopted part of my reality. To someone foreign to it though it just seems strange. Hopefully you know me well enough by now to know that I've lived through this and am genuinely here sharing this info trying to help. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

[GHayes420]

I had a negative reaction when I supplemented with Vitamin D. I was only taking about 500iu of the highest quality I could find. It made me restless, sleepless, anxious/depressed and fatigued. I stopped after about a week and a half. My Vitamin D level hovers around 31 as well.

 

[Gracer]

Dont you think you just overdose? It is very individual by the way how much you need. Your daily norm is 600 ME or so, and if you drink milk, eat fish (a bit of salmon is Ok), some butter and egg yolk, you should be fairly Ok with your food income and extra supplement is just not necessary (unless you do not have any malnutrition). Having being more outside also helps keeping it up.As for "more" or 'less" natural, most vitamines are anyway either extracted from natural sources or produced by yeast in which synthesis is done via the same natural biochemistry as in your liver The only difference might be in how they are purified and with what stuff they are mixed in the supplements itself.What you describe (speely sensation, pains in the muscle) looks much like hypercalcinemia symptomes which might be a consequence of long term overdose of vitamine D.

 

[Gloria123]

I haven't noticed one way or another with Vitamin D and take 2000 IU a night.However, I would imagine this indicates that you might have something auto-immune lingering in you? Vitamin D boosts your immune system, so maybe your immune system doesn't want or need the boosting? Just a guess.You two are by far, not the only people I have heard on this board who have troubles with Vitamin D.And, all of us seem to be very low. Mine's even lower, around 25 or so.Mitra

 

[BFSDiner]

No, its not overdose.Some very basic reading on Vitamin D reveals that overdose symptoms don't come in people until you start pushing past 10,000 IU per day. The way to determine how much you take is to get your blood levels tested. The ideal blood level for Vitamin D here in USA is now considered 50-70 with 60 being ideal. If you are at 30 and taking 2,000 IU per day then you are not overdosing. Some people need 10,000 IU just to get up into the 50's .... 600 IU is wholly insufficient for most people to get their numbers in range. I do believe that its stimulating my immune system and I do believe there's some element of an inflammatory immune syndrome going on in me.Some further reading reveals that there are many ways to get Vitamin D. You've got Vitamin D3 which is sourced from lanolin (wool) which can cause reactions. There is also a Vitamin D3 that is sourced from a plant (lichen) which many take because they can't tolerate the standard lanolin type. There are others yet who opt for Vitamin D2 as a lesser alternative because those are always vegan sourced. Still others opt for topical Vitamin D lotion to get their numbers up, bypassing the liver entirely. And finally there are also vitamin d patches from patchmd.com for transdermal absorption. I have purchased all of the above and will see how I tolerate. Worst case scenario Im back to the standard D3 from Lanolin and I start out at 250 IU for a month, then kick it up to 500IU and so forth. Very very very slow increases. All I know for sure? Im not going to live my life with a Vitamin D level at 30. The proper level should be 60 for prevention of cancers and numerous other disease. So this is going to be a priority for me.-B-

 

[antThatGuyWithNoName]

I've taken 5000 UI a day nearly every day for 3 years and it barely keeps my numbers normal. When I first had my vitamin D checked at the start of BFS it was 11 which is extremely low. I maintain the mid 30s now. I think it's helped me a lot with overall inflammation/BFS symptoms. It might be a placebo effect but when I run out of Vitamin D for a few days I start flaring up. I've also noticed that some of them don't seem to perform the same as others. Right now I take the "Nature's Bounty Vitamin D3 Softgels" and they seem to work well. Anecdotal, I know...but that's my take on it.