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1986676 tn?1329862471

Vitamin D and Hep C Treatment

I keep seeing articles about vitamin D or D3 helping to clear the Hep C virus.
Has anyone actually had a doctor suggest they supplement their treatment with D of D3
Best Answer
Avatar universal
Quite a few years ago, a hepatitis researcher came to Medhelp and told us of the emerging importance of vitamin D and that he thought having a good level may be important for TX response.  This was before you were hearing about it other places.
I gave my husband the regular dose recommended on the bottle. (I think it was 400 IU;s)  and he took that for at least a year before he was tested.  His level was the lowest number in the normal range. That was before TX attempt #3 and he was once again, a non-responder even though he stayed on TX for over 60 weeks that time.  He never became non-detectable.  I began learning more about vitamin D and for the next 2 years, I gave him more in the range of 4000 IU's.  Joe's levels were checked about 6 months ago, before starting TX #4.  After 2 years of a much higher dose, he finally was up in the upper range.  
All this explanation was so that I could point out that sometimes it takes a lot more than you would think to get it up.  It may have been made harder by the fact that my husband has cirrhosis...not sure about that.  Testing seems to be the only way to know.
I have a friend that went on a vacation to a sunny destination and sun bathed before TX.  They even got a little bit sunburned.  Afterwards they tested their vitamin D level, thinking that surely it would be high, but it wasn't.  It required  D3 supplements  to fix it.  
Best wishes,
Ev
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Avatar universal
My GYN recently put me on Vitamin D after a bone density scan revealed a 50% drop in the last year in my bone density.  I think I've read it also has beneficial effects in boosting the immune system, such as for patients with HepC, which I do have.
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Avatar universal

as evangelin posted we have different viral infections and diseases to lower vit d and change its way of working/storage and so on, so dose has nothing to do with curing deficency but only testing

as long as you check vit d and calcium monthly you can go to 10000 or 50000iu dose until you reach normal levels.toxicity is just prevented checking urine calcium with show up much before reaching toxic levels or simiply by checking serum levels of both vitd25oh and calcium often

i tried 4000iu for more than a year but only 5000-1000iu daily worked for me and my sister to reach 60-80ng/ml levels

good source on all vit d studies
http://www.vitamindwiki.com/tiki-index.php
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Avatar universal
tY
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1986676 tn?1329862471
Candyce:

Take a look at this thread!!
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Avatar universal
I had a Lexascan (full body bone scan) and everything came back good.  So I thought I was starting tx and everyone on the forum said get your teeth and eyes taken care of before starting tx.  So I went to the dentist and he took xrays and said he was starting to see some bone loss.  He told me I needed to start taking Calcium w/Vit D.  I told him I already did and he said to talk to my Hepa Dr and have him run the Vit D levels.  So he agreed to run them and they came back as a 30.  The reference range from Quest is 30-100 ng/ml.  So my Hepa Dr said to double the dosage I was taking.  I take 600mg Cal w/ Vit D.  So instead of 2 pills per day I now take 4.  He also told me to split them out..2 in the am and 2 in the pm. He also said there "might" be some correlation to SVR and Vit D levels.

So ask your Dr to check it out.  Go to wikipedia and type in Vit D.  Ton of information.  

Have a great day!

Jules
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1689583 tn?1387752394
That is good to know, I take Vit D and B12 daily , have been for years. Have not started tx yet .
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1669790 tn?1333662595
My GI did not suggest Vitamin D supplements.  After reading several posts on this forum highlighting the potential for increased SVR with interferon based trt and other benefits, I discussed this with my doc during one of my appointments.  After I gave him a copy of a few publications and the report showing I was Vit D deficient, he was all in favor of beginning the supplements.  
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Avatar universal
My husband's Dr. ordered a vitamin D test, without us asking.
It sometimes takes higher doses over a longer period of time than you would think to get the levels in the higher range, so you want to check it well in advance of starting if possible.  The fact that this was taken care of may be an important factor contributing to my husband's much better response to TX this time.  There were three failures prior to this one.  On the current TX, he  had a 2 log drop in 4 weeks which was about 3 times better than he had ever had before.  This was before adding the Victrelis.  Something made a big difference.  We tweaked other things also by taking Sam-E and TMG according to past studies, but vitamin D may be a big contributor.
Ev
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163305 tn?1333668571
The first time I did tx, my doctor had my D levels tested.
They were low and I began taking D.

This time, my doctor had already suggested I take D and calcium before beginning tx.

As crigger mentioned, there was a post recently covering this topic.

Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
There was a post about this not to long ago. My vit D level are good so there was no reason for me to get it. But I was thinking I might want to start taking it because I have not been out in the sun lately.
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