I am doing better the past few days. No more panic attack since, and the crying spells have ceased. Today I am calm and content so far. I am back up to 30 K IUs/day and 50K IUs of vitamin A. For those wondering, I am also taking bone meal and magnesium glycinate in an equal ratio, if not favorable for magnesium. I'm also taking coconut oil (really improves dry skin), vitamin C, yummy very yellow icelandic butter . I know some are not considered supplements, but just thought I'd mention.

The vitamin A has been very helpful for my dry eye condition recently. In a given week, my good days certainly outnumber my bad days now.

I've mentioned this before, but after starting D3, I've noticed hair growth on areas of my body where hair has not been before. Hands, underside of my forearms, chest, stomach, etc. it is slight, but hair continues to grow in. It seems like several days will pass and I'll notice a few little hairs starting to grow where there previously was either no hair, or hair growth that was so light that it was not noticeable upon close inspection. Very very interested in this and am welcoming this hormonal balancing the D is aiding with.

Hi, everyone. I just wanted to report in that after doing much research and correspondence over the weekend, I am stopping my high-dose regimen of vitamin D3. I am now taking 5K IUs per day, accompanied by 30K+ IUs of natural vitamin A per day going forward.

I scared you?

joke

I can't take magnesium on an empty stomach, it makes me sick to my stomach. I kept wondering why I was getting nauseous in the morning... it was the magnesium in my vitamins.

Got my 1st 25[OH]D results (from 6th wk of Vit.D3:200k daily)
- - - - -
Vit.D, 25-hydrox [reference 20-100 NG/ML]
...Total = 300 ...optimal level >30 NG/ML
... D3 = 300 (endogenous production/supplementation)
... D2 = <4 (exogenous sources such as diet/supplementation)
- - - - -
I'm just completing my 8th week of 200k IU Vit.D3 + 20k Vit.A

Feeling impatient, slightly stronger, spirit willing (Vit.D3 is a mood enhancer, methinks) and flesh striving to match spirit. I'm still in bed a lot. Sleeping better, with some pain - but not so much.

HMO MD is aware of my Vit.D3 dosage, is interested and is encouraging in a cautious way. Guess I'll keep up with dosage.

Have not yet noticed furriness. Hope the thinning hair on the top of my head will get denser. Don't need hair on my tummy!

Your D3 is 10 times the optimal level and about 4 times the toxic level. I also recall your Calcium blood levels were borderline high at something like 8.5. I was under the impression that people took megadoses because they might have absorbtion problems and needed to take more to get their blood serum concentration of D to the optimum level of 30ng/ml or above. So what is the point of stepping into the danger zone, if there are no benefits to be derived being there is no absorbtion problems obviously?

In case anyone starts to slowly turn into stone after megadosing on D, this "Amino Bisphosphonate Ibandronate" compound might offer hope.

I have heard of Vitamin A and Magnesium preventing tissue calcification but came across this other "fixer" of D poisoning of soft tissues. This study totally ignores Vitamin A as a potential "detoxifier" of excess D. I wonder what natural sources of this Amino Bisphosphonate Ibandronate are available to the public. I am going to do some more digging on this.



http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content...act/131/11/2910

My serum calcium tests were on the high end of range at 10.2, 10.4 - with a range that topped at 10.8 or so. That's from memory. I agree that I am high on serum calcium, but it's still within range. High, but acceptable.

Far as I recall, the point of taking a megadose for a brief period is to saturate the fat that takes up Vit.D and to allow for the overage to affect mood and muscle strength. I think that's how Zule set me up for 200,000 IU Vit.D3 at my weight of 400#. I do not know what my 25[OH]D was before, as the HMO failed to run the test on my early April blood sample. C'est la vie!

Perhaps we'll hear something from Zule, if she has time to look in while she is being tested for her own health crisis. If not, I'll do the megadose for a few weeks more, to see if I can feel benefits increasing. I'm looking for strength.

Zule is my Vit.D3 guru. Until she returns, I'll keep on keeping on.

Zer, I think you may have misunderstood. The purpose of your megadoses is not to saturate your fat with vitamin D, but to account for the theory that your additional fat robs your body of the D that is created by being stored there. You obviously have MORE THAN SUFFICIENT levels of D3 now, and just my opinion, but I would think about moving to a maint. dose very very soon. You've brought up your levels... I personally don't think that there is any need to continue at such a huge dose any longer.

Jayppers is right.
Furthermore the blood level will continue to raise even if you stop taking vitamin D now. So, be careful...

Since I have no idea what my level was before I started with Vit.D3 and was just assuming that I might be starved for Vit.D and might benefit as Zule did, I cannot say much other than to report what my test results show as of 4/24.

Just had msg from my HMO, saying that my Vit.D test is "fine - above 300" as if there is no problem having a result of 300 when optimal is >30. Sigh. Visit with MD yesterday involved discussing that test result and my current dosage - and she did not object to my continued use of 200,000 IU Vit.D3 as a way of pushing myself into whatever benefit might exist from Vit.D or heliotherapy for muscles gone weak and for moodiness. I'm hopeful that I am not doing myself serious harm, winging it like this. If Vit.D can kick me into better health, I'd like to see what that feels like. Just a couple of weeks more, to finish off the 3mo jolt to my system. Then...well, what might be a better dose? I guess I'll have to ask for more tests, then wait weeks to find out what my by-then-historical blood chemistry was, then adjust dosage to suit.

Folks, we are so on our own to figure out what to do. Thanks for your input.

I appreciate your interest and your insights. I do not pretend to understand much of what goes on or of what I am ingesting to regain some health. Sigh.

Science News Online
Week of May 12, 2007; Vol. 171, No. 19

Childhood Vitamin D—A Dark Side?

Janet Raloff

Most people don't get nearly enough vitamin D, best known as the sunshine vitamin. This shortfall can be bad because the vitamin is known to fight cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, gum disease, and infections. Sadly, for some urban children there can be a downside to vitamin D: It enhances their bodies' uptakes of the toxic heavy metal lead.

A research team led by John D. Bogden of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey–New Jersey Medical School in Newark has now quantified the effect. In the April Environmental Health Perspectives, Bogden and his team report that among urban African-American youngsters, blood concentrations of lead can rise to potentially toxic concentrations in summer, when their vitamin D concentrations also rise, presumably due to regular sun exposure.

The researchers recruited 142 children who were 8 and under: 91 African-Americans, 51 Hispanics. All came from families participating in the federal Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program, which provides supplemental food, counseling, and medical screening to low-income women with children.

"What was surprising to me," Bogden says, "was just how strikingly different blood-lead values were in the African-American and Hispanic kids"—especially since they came from the same city and have similar socioeconomic backgrounds. Lead was virtually undetectable in Hispanic children 4 and older year-round. It averaged about 4 micrograms per deciliter (µg/dl) of blood in the younger kids, but only during the summer. The rest of the year, the youngest children's blood was virtually leadfree.

However, blood tests from the black children told a different story. In winter, lead averaged about 12 µg/dl of blood in children 3 and under, and roughly 5 µg/dl in the older kids. Come summer, values in both groups spiked dramatically: to about 22 µg/dl in the younger group and 9 µg/dl in the older children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers blood-lead values of 10 µg/dl and higher as excessive.

Values not benign

Bruce P. Lanphear of Children's Hospital Medical Center in Cincinnati and his colleagues have shown that in kindergarteners, IQ can fall as blood-lead values climb above 5 µg/dl (SN: 5/5/01, p. 277: Available to subscribers at http://www.sciencenews.org/20010505/fob4.asp). In one study, his team kept track of babies until they reached age 5, and the researchers found that "IQ declined by 7.4 points as lifetime average blood-lead concentrations increased from 1 to10 µg/dl."

Such findings, Lanphear says, indicate that no concentration of lead is safe.

In the latest study, Bogden found that the most important factors associated with high summertime blood-lead concentrations in black children were the kids' ages and blood concentrations of vitamin D. Toddlers, who were at highest risk, also get the most dietary vitamin D because they drink a lot of milk fortified with the vitamin. Moreover, children at this age can consume lead-laden dust by putting their hands, toys, and almost everything else in their mouths, says Bogden.

The intriguing question this study raises, he says, is why the Hispanic children's lead values were so much lower than the blacks'. It's something his team plans to begin investigating immediately. If the researchers can pin down how Hispanic children generally avoid lead, applying the lesson to blacks "might almost eliminate the problem," says Bogden. The disparity could trace to different housekeeping practices, he says, or diets.

In fact, he notes, because the body responds to lead much as it does to calcium, "increasing dietary calcium will reduce lead absorption."

The one solution Bogden doesn't want to advocate is reducing vitamin D intake. Overall, blacks already have the lowest average blood concentrations of vitamin D of any group in the United States. A major factor in that statistic is that skin pigments filter out much of the vitamin D–making sunshine (see Understanding Vitamin D Deficiency).



The first of two parts. Next week: Childhood Vitamin D—A New Benefit?



References:

Canfield, R.L. . . . and B.P. Lanphear. 2003. Intellectual impairment in children with blood lead concentrations below 10 µg per deciliter. New England Journal of Medicine 348(April 17):1517-1526. Available at http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/348/16/1517.

Kemp, F.W. . . . and J.D. Bogden. 2007. Elevated blood lead concentrations and vitamin D deficiency in winter and summer in young urban children. Environmental Health Perspectives 115(April):630-635. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.9389.

Lanphear, B.P., et al. 2000. Cognitive deficits associated with blood lead concentrations <10 micrograms per deciliter in US children and adolescents. Public Health Reports 115(November/December):521-529. Available at http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/ar...i?artid=1308622.


Further Readings:

Moore, C.E., M.M. Murphy, and M.F. Holick. 2005. Vitamin D intakes by children and adults in the United States differ among ethnic groups. Journal of Nutrition 135(October):2478-2485. Available at http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/content/full/135/10/2478.

Raloff, J. 2006. The antibiotic vitamin. Science News 170(Nov. 11):312-317. Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20061111/bob9.asp.

______. 2005. Vitamin D boosts calcium potency. Science News Online (Nov. 12). Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20051112/food.asp.

______. 2005. Understanding vitamin D deficiency. Science News Online (April 30). Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050430/food.asp.

______. 2004. Vitamin D: What's enough? Science News 166(Oct. 16):248-249. Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20041016/bob9.asp.

______. 2004. Vitamin boost. Science News 166(Oct. 9):232-233. Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20041009/bob8.asp.

______. 2004. Should foods be fortified even more? Science News Online (Sept. 11). Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20040911/food.asp.

______. 2001. Lead therapy won't help most kids. Science News 159(May 12):292. Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20010512/fob1.asp.

______. 2001. Even low lead in kids has a high IQ cost. Science News 159(May 5):277. Available to subscribers at http://www.sciencenews.org/20010505/fob4.asp.


Sources:

John D. Bogden
Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health
Medical Sciences Building, Room F506
UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School
185 S. Orange Avenue
Newark, NJ 07103-2714


Bruce Lanphear
Children's Hospital Medical Center
TCHRF-6527
3333 Burnet Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45229-3039





http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20070512/food.asp

From Science News, Vol. 171, No. 19, May 12, 2007

^^That's scary, because who knows how much lead we absorb in a day..

I think I've developed a partial-insomnia problem. It takes me forever to fall asleep (sometimes not until 11, sometimes not until 2AM), which is a problem, because it's having adverse effects on my body and health. I have a strong inclination the insomnia is being brought on by me taking all my supplements at night time with my dinner; and since I do intermittent fasting (only eating one meal a day at night), I can't really take the supplements any other time because I'm afraid their digestion will disturb the fast.

What should I do in regards to taking supplements? I'm only taking vitamin D3, MCHC calcium, and magnesium glycinate, and it's most likely the vitamin D3 that is keeping me up. Perhaps I should take it at 3PM, when I've fasted for 20 hours, so that the fast isn't really ruined, but then I'll get off on the MCHC and magnesium, and calcium needs fat ingestion with it to be absorbed at all. I may resort to eating a small fatty snack at 3PM every day and taking all my supplements then.

Eat cilantro to purge the body of heavy metals like lead, mercury and aluminum. Cilantro apparently attracts such things and will cleanse a body of such toxins in a few weeks. Eat cilantro. I do - and I don't much like its taste, but I like bitter things, so I can munch a mouthful of cilantro now and then. It's not worse than the supplements I take that gag me to swallow so many pills.

Cilantro, actually, is easier for me to take. I may even learn to like it. But right now, I don't like it much. Love thinking of all that heavy metal being drawn out of me. (munch munch)

Demi, thank you for posting such informative articles.

Is it possible that the writer of this article is not aware of how much cilantro is in Hispanic food? Could this be due to the fact that cilantro is served with almost any dish I've ever had in a Mexican restaurant? I used to avoid eating the leafy garnish, but now am an avid muncher of cilantro and parsley and the like.