Hi all,
i know that vitamin D is something that I should be taking but at what dosage? I know that the last prescription of cholecalciferol was quite high but can’t remember what it was.
On the Barts MS Blogspot website, the doctors recommend starting on 10,000iU a day and getting your levels checked (after 6 months?) and going down to 5,000 iU if your blood levels are then getting high. They don’t recommend taking calcium at the same time.
I take 5000 iu. My vitamin D level has been checked quite frequently and for me that seems to be correct. I also take calcium and magnesium.
What you should really do is get your vitamin D level checked before starting to take a supplement. As it happened, I didn’t and just guessed at it based on what other people take but have had it checked often over the last couple of years. It is possible to take too much so getting it checked out is quite important.
Sue
1 Like
4000 IU daily for me in the form of gel caps.
i take a B12 sub lingual dissolver too
along with my ever delicious tecfidera and aspirin of course.
such a nutritious breakfast!
and then when / if summer returns… i’ll be sunbathing my mushrooms again 
2 Likes
I’m on 4,000 IU a day, and it’s the one thing I really notice if I forget it - I feel lousy all day!
I’m having increased problems with fatigue lately, or maybe I’m just noticing it more because of things like ESA assessments that wiped me out entirely, I don’t know.
I take a bog standard Tesco multivitamin and minerals tablet, and basically never get any sun. I had my bloods done at the end of December and was told that was fine, and vitamin D’s definitely one of the things that will have been tested, isn’t it?
The Barts Blog contains lots of good information concerning amounts to take and the safe levels.
http://multiple-sclerosis-research.blogspot.com/2016/01/researchspeak-moderate-dose-vitamin-d.html
1 Like
I’m looking at that now Whammel. I do struggle with the Barts blog, the language is a bit too…wordy…technical…scientific…I don’t really know the right phrase to use, but I struggle a lot with comprehension when I try to read things on there.
I can still snigger like a schoolboy over this line though ;-D
“If you go into the mid-summer sunlight with your upper body exposed for ~20-30 minutes your skin will make this sort of dose of vD; therefore 10,400IU is not high-dose”
Vit D is not one of the items done on a standard blood test. You can ask for it, a GP can ask for it, I one case, a neuro wanted it for me, but it is not standard.
Geoff
It’s not? I thought it was D: This is the 3 monthly full blood count for the Tecfidera, liver function and whatnot. That’s not gonna had a D check in there?
Vitamin D is an important nutrition element of our body and we can’t live without it. If someone has deficiency of this vitamin then he can take vitamin D as medicine but after discussing with doctor.
Thank you, Whammel, for the Barts link.
I started taking 5000iu about a month ago, which by chance coincides with the Barts recommendation. I will take the advice and seek a blood test in about 8 weeks time. It is odd how safe levels vary in different contexts. I believe the EU recommend not exceeding 4000iu daily yet the Barts log talks blithely of doses over 10000iu as moderate in the context of normal summer exposure to sunlight. Fascinating.
Alun
The Barts Blog mentions…
"To remind you it is our policy to advise all our patients to ensure they are vD replete; we aim for a plasma level of 25OH-vD3 of greater than 100 nmol/L and less than 250 nmol/L. "
l have my vitd3 levels checked every six months by CityAssays Lab B/ham. lts a postal service - results can be emailed to you. lts only an easy to do pin-prick blood spot test.
0121 507 4278. And it costs £28. lt is important to take vitk2 and magnesium with your vit d3. l take a high dose - following Jeff Bowles - The Miraculous Effect of a High dose of Vitamin D3. l take 40,000ius daily along with K2 /magnesium. Magnesium also works as a laxative - so l have to be careful as l suffer with ‘rapid transit’. So l do often just use the magnesium gel and massage it into my joints. lt is easily absorbed into your system this way.
I’ve been using the mouth spray vit D 3000iu for three weeks and it seems to be absorbing better than the tablets. 145 nmol tested just over a week ago. It is more expensive than tablets though.