[adventured]

> Get enough vitamin D… but not too much. ... even as high as 2,000 IUs a day

2,000 IU is not a high level of Vitamin D. That's a medium-to-low level of Vitamin D. 20,000 IU is high.

Most people can very safely take 5,000 IU and won't come even remotely close to seeing negative health consequences. Quite the opposite, studies have suggested you may need that level of VitD intake just to get up to a healthy blood reading, especially if you have low sunlight exposure.

The old RDA guidelines have increasingly been shown to be a scientific embarrassment over the last 20 years.

[GunlogAlm]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't the vast majority of cases of hypercalcaemia caused by excessive D consumption involve daily doses of 40-50,000 IU? I'm sure I've read this before. If 20,000 IU is high, 50,000 IU must be enormous, so I too would very much doubt 2,000 is 'high'.

[karmajunkie]

For reference, i was on a 50k IU dose of D3 last year for schools of months. It's considered therapeutic for diagnosed and lab-confirmed deficiency.

Since then I've periodically stayed on s 10k IU supplement three times a week. That's just over the counter.

[amelius]

Do you take vit K and magnesium to compensate possible side effects?

[karmajunkie]

I take a daily multivitamin that supplements those.

[brokensegue]

did a doctor prescribe the 10ks? that seems high compared to what I was suggested for a lab confirmed deficiency. Someone I know with a severe deficiency was prescribed very high levels only for a month or so.

[karmajunkie]

10k IU is available OTC, so its not a prescription, but I do take it on my doctor's recommendation. I don't get a lot of sun, especially in the winter, and I've had chronic deficiency of D3, so I supplement at higher levels than what I'd get in your average multivitamin. 50k IU is what I was prescribed for two months to get me above the minimum recommended blood levels, and it barely did that.

I do also get my D3 levels checked annually as well, as should anyone with a diagnosed deficiency.

[tathougies]

I've had doctors prescribe 10k IU vitamin D. Mine was really low and i have auto-immune thyroiditis. Vitamin D works really well for auto-immune disease for me. It has gone.

[manmal]

It very much depends. There are genes having a strong influence on vitamin D metabolism, and there are people for whom 5k I.U. are too much. (Essentially, they are metabolizing D3 into calcitriol and the other form I keep forgetting too fast)

[pkaye]

50,000 IU is typically taken on a 1-4 week interval. Being in renal failure, I myself take it once a month and increase to twice per month in the winter.

[ryanmarsh]

My doc had me on 25,000 IU once a week for a few months to get me through a sluggish period where I felt low T even though I was excercising. It’s funny how people claim certain doses are low or high. This is probably based upon what their doctor told them to take or what they heard from someone just as uninformed as themselves. Surely there’s a body mass chart for dosing that would clear this up for everyone?

[amelius]

Did your doc give you vitamin K as well, and did they check your calcium level?

[ryanmarsh]

Yes. She gave me K. I don’t recall if the blood test showed calcium.

[metaobject]

Did the treatment seem to work? Did your T-levels rebound?

[ryanmarsh]

Oh yes. It was paired with other treatments too though so I can’t be sure of causality.

I was getting acupuncture, began excercising more, eating more veggies, and dealt with the factors that were bringing about my depression.