Hey Carla, boy you have been through a lot these last few months! I'm sorry to say that I dont have an answer for you. I've been struggling with fatigue and anxiety and had blood work done to find that my vit d is low, too. I'm wondering if this is contributing to my symptoms.... Have you asked your doctor why your levels are not increasing since you are taking the supplements? Does it take that long to make an impact?
aw thanks, Monimon. My levels are increasing, but it takes time. Started out at 20.9, that's when I was diagnosed last year. Had blood drawn in November and it was 34 and then two weeks ago and it was 41. It's within normal range, but the Endo said once it's a little higher I will feel pretty darn good. Just wondering if anyone had any experience and at "what" range they started feeling "normal"...? Sorry for your fatigue and anxiety. I definitely with through that along with palpitations and some other symptoms. Everything else has checked out normal and the problems come and go. Some days are great and some are barely tolerable. We will get there!!:)
Unfortunately the symptoms of Vitamin D deficiency are very slow to resolve.
If you read through the posts on this forum, you'll see that most members report that it takes 6-12 months before complete recovery is possible.
I assume most of those members have stopped posting because they now feel well and want to resume their lives instead of posting on an medical internet forum.
http://pain-topics.org/pdf/vitamind-report.pdf
I would suggest that everyone with VDD read that link.
"In terms of vitamin D pharmacokinetics (discussed in section 2b), steady-state 25(OH)D
concentrations could be achieved as early as 40 days following the start of daily supplementation. Although, in some cases it could take up to 90 days or more for concentrations to reach
plateau levels. This was observed in the study by Lee and Chen [2008] in which significant pain
relief from neuralgia was achieved at 3 months after beginning vitamin D supplementation.
In another clinical investigation, female patients with osteomalacia who responded to vitamin D supplementation first noticed symptom resolution at about 40 days after the start of therapy, and pain relief was nearly complete by roughly 90 days [de la Jara et al. 2006]. However, one
of the patients required 7 months of supplementation to become pain-free.
Similarly, other researchers have suggested that bone-related pain may require approximately 3 months of adequate vitamin D supplementation for its relief [de la Jara et al. 2006; Heath
and Elovic 2006]. However, muscle pain may need 6 months and muscle weakness or fatigue may
require up to 12 months to resolve [de la Jara et al. 2006; Glerup et al 2000b; Heath and Elovic 2006], but
some improvements in muscle discomfort could be felt within 4 to 6 weeks.
Overall, Vasquez and colleagues [2004] recommended that at least 5 to 9 months should be
allowed for fully assessing either the benefits or ineffectiveness of vitamin D supplementation.
Likewise, Vieth et al. [2004] suggested that the greatest physiologic responses may occur after
6 months of supplementation.
Therefore, the timeframe recommended in this report – monitoring results for up to 3
months – should be a minimum period of watchful waiting. Some patients may start to notice
improvements within weeks, if they are alert to subtle changes, while others may become discouraged unless they are advised at the start that vitamin D supplementation could take a
number of months, even up to 9 months, to reach its full potential in helping to relieve musculoskeletal aches, pains, and/or related symptoms. "
Michael F. Holick, Ph.D., MD who is considered by many to be the leading researcher on Vitamin D wrote in his book (The Vitamin D Solution) that your vitamin D level may go up fairly quickly but the symptoms associated with the deficiency will take weeks to months to show improvement and many months for complete resolution.
It is the unfortunate truth. Recovery for me has not been easy mentally or physically. I've been checked for all kinds of medical conditions and nothing so far has been found to be wrong except I had a Vitamin D level of 10. My main symptoms have been severe fatigue, significant muscle weakness (proximal) and just no sense of well being. I am not 4 months into treatment and my Vitamin d level is above 60. I now have good days and bad days but I'm still far from any kind of complete recovery.
Remember that Vitamin D receptors are all over the body and a vitamin D deficiency causes all kinds of strange symptoms that may be different in each person.
This is a very interesting read on how vitamin d deficiency causes a wide range of symptoms by causing abnormalities in the part of the brain that controls your sleeping patterns. Dr.Gominak said that a Vitamin D level of 60-80 restores healthy sleep.
http://drgominak.com/vitamin-d
Thanks for all of your info! I followed up with my PCP two days ago and I started retaking the thyroid medicine I'd been on after almost getting into a car accident this past weekend because of the brain fog. I feel a lot better, but of course I know I have a long way to go. I am so fed up with the aches, pains, dizzy spells, bouts of sadness and anger, hotflashes, stomach aches, neck pains, etc. I am also tired of going to see different doctors in my PCP's practice and being told that maybe I should try some valium or maybe I should go seek some counseling. Honestly, I have very little stress outside of this health issue that I've been fighting for a year. I am sure it did little to convince my doctor of that when I had a crying fit in her office, though. I told her, "No! How is that going to fix what's going on?" Now don't get me wrong, I am not anti therapy or medication. I am just tired of not being taken serioulsy and being told my one of the docs that , "Oh there are some big words there" when I bring reference material in that I've read....This whole situation has made me look at doctors differently and I work in the medical field. FRUSTRATING!
Since this is years later.... how is everyone feeling now?
I'm new here..... VDD numbers at 18. Second week of Rx D2 50,000 IU and 1200 D3 IU.
Give me some hope because this ***** big time!