Having just got a copy of the letter St T's has sent my GP after my recent appointment, which states my vitamin D levels are "very low" I decided to have a hunt around on the net to try and piece together some more of the emerging information and came across this interesting snippet, please note the use of the word "might" in the article...
Hi Andy
interesting publication hon. I too have vit d deficiency. Thanks hon.
Take care gentle hugs love sheena xxxxxx 
Vit D & Iron Deficiancy and Folic Acid Deficiency also anyone else got Anemia of Chronic Fatigue it can only be cured if you can cure the illness no cure for Hughes yet I have plenty of patience in March I have had Hughes for 28 years and only 11 years DX
thanks, I, too, have extreamly low Vit. D (as well as B-12). Woner if there is a connection?
I too have been Vitamin D deficient. This is very interesting news. Thanks so much for the post. I've actually been reading a lot about other deficiencies that can have a profound impact on health. Melatonin is another one. We usually think of it as a sleep-related hormone, but it has many other functions. And my functional medicine consultant has prescribed it for my GERD, which he believes is linked to my APS and over autoimmune situation.
Hi TheKid, could you tell me more about melatonin use for GERD and the link with APS? My GP has assured me the two have no connection but I've been on proton pump inhibitors for a while now to absolutely no avail so I'm beginning to wonder. (I also take folic acid, prescribed by rheumy). Thank you and thanks to AndyA for the interesting news about vitamin D deficiency.
So here's a link to an article my functional med specialist wrote on GERD. That should explain it all.
chriskresser.com/is-gerd-an...
Regarding the link between GERD and APS, I too have been told that there is none. However, it is known that autoimmune conditions often cluster together. So one might have Lupus and APS and something else. So if GERD has an autoimmune component, then it too might appear with other autoimmune conditions. And since autoimmunity, regardless of the disease, has commonalities, addressing autoimmunity as a whole might have some efficacy.
So for me, that means a Paleo diet designed to address autoimmunity and supplementation that would do the same. This is why I'm planning to start melatonin. I have also been advised to start low dose naltrexone as its off-label use has been showing some promising results for people suffering autoimmune diseases.
Thank you very much, I've looked around on the Internet a bit and melatonin does seem to help. My only concern now is whether people with APS can actually take melatonin, since it is a hormone and I've been told we should not take hormones, e.g. no birth control pills or hormone treatments for menopause etc. Or is melatonin harmless? Will check with my doc. Thanks again!
i am on HRT but a very low dose but i have 2 blood test a year and there test for loads of things
Thank You for sharing this. -t is very interesting. I (here are griuos campoaigning for mass vitamin d supplementation in Scotland because of high rates of MS. It is correlasted with sunshine apparemtly and is rarer in warm sunny climates. I have a friend who has been taking it for years to treat seasonal depression. She starts in august incre4ing it as it goes deeper into winter and then stops for a while in summer. Another friend has had long periods of chronic fatigue. She was getting very fatigued again and feeling very low. She was fearful that she was facing monthsw of illness again. I suggested vitamin D and it has turned it around. She said she felt different within a week.. I started taking it earlier this year. I still had another long period of. Severe fatigue for five months across the summer but I noticed that my mood held up better and I seemed to cope better with being ill. I have also changed to heparin from warfarin so I had also thought it could be because I no longer have the fluctuations in INR to deal with.
Thanks again for sharing this Ann
Hello everybody, low vitamin D levels appear to get picked up in many autoimmune conditions and certainly is a topic much discussed on thyroid forums! Mary F
Very interesting, thanks for sharing. B12 and folic for me
This was in the paper today.
Vitamin D awareness in decline, say doctors
Doctors say many people have inadequate levels of vitamin D and the public are no longer aware of its importance
reddit this
Comments (46)
Denis Campbell, health correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 24 January 2012 20.43 GMT
Article history
Oily fish are a source of vitamin D. Photograph: Tom Payne/Alamy
England's chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, is concerned that young children and some adults are not getting enough vitamin D. According to the BBC, she is to contact medical professionals about government guidelines which recommend that some groups, including under-fives, may require daily vitamin D supplements.
Not receiving enough of the vitamin can lead to health problems including rickets, broken bones, muscle weakness and infections including TB. Research last year suggested that a quarter of Britain's toddlers did not have enough vitamin D in their bloodstreams.
As evidence goes, the survey in October by the Feeding For Life Foundation is imperfect. Its conclusion is arresting and prompted plenty of media coverage. But, as the Department of Health pointed out, there is no national data available on how much vitamin D children of this age have in their blood. The authors looked only at vitamin D obtained from dietary sources – such as oily fish, cereal and margarine – and not from exposure to sunlight. The foundation receives financial backing from the baby food firm Cow & Gate.
Davies said: "We know a significant proportion of people in the UK probably have inadequate levels of vitamin D in their blood. Our experts are clear – low levels of vitamin D can increase the risk of poor bone health, including rickets in young children." People at risk of having too little vitamin D, including mothers-to-be and under-fives, are already advised to take supplements, she said.
Professor Mitch Blair, consultant paediatrician at Northwick Park hospital in London and the officer for health promotion at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said he had seen a resurgence of rickets in the last two to three years. "The main reason is that the public aren't aware of the importance of vitamin D any more," he said.
"My most recent one was two weeks ago: a 16-month-old Asian boy who had very bow legs and wasn't walking. Blood tests done by his GP had established the child had a vitamin D deficiency. We started him on intensive treatment, supplements in syrup form rather than tablets, given his age, which he'll take for three months. That will reverse his rickets eventually and in time, hopefully in months, he'll start to walk", Blair said.
The boy's Asian heritage is relevant. Those at greatest risk of vitamin D deficiency are people with dark skin and those who live in northern Britain. Scotland's notably high rate of multiple sclerosis, which is also linked to lack of vitamin D, has prompted medical experts to call for food sold there to be fortified with it. Scotland's lack of sunshine is deemed to be the culprit.
Public awareness has declined since schemes such as free cod liver oil and free vitamins given out at baby clincs ended, Blair said. Dr Benjamin Jacobs, a consultant paediatrician at the Royal National Orthopaedic hospital in London, said such programmes were stopped because they were deemed "unnecessary, possibly harmful". In retrospect, he said, "that was a major mistake".
The NHS tries to tackle the problem through its Healthy Start scheme, which gives mothers from poorer backgrounds vouchers to exchange for either fruit and vegetables or supplements. Ninety per cent of those eligible join the scheme, but only 5% end up collecting the tablets – although take-up is better for fruit and veg. Doctors such as Blair believe it is an overly complicated scheme, especially for those for whom English is not their first language, and that simplification is needed.
The guidelines say children and pregnant women should have 400 units a day of vitamin D, but that is far less than is recommended elsewhere. In America, experts have suggested 4,000 units.
The Department of Health has asked the independent scientific advisory committee to review the evidence on how much vitamin D different population groups need. The likelihood must be that this review will lead to an increase in the amount certain groups are told to get, new initiatives to raise awareness of the problem and – the hard bit – ideas on how to get more of us to get more vitamin D.
Hya all, funnily enough i have episodes of anaemia and all of my pregnancies the placenta was never formed properly, a consultant gave me high dose folic acid and it was the only pregnancy i didnt heammorhage with
I too , have low vitamin d levels have been put on vitamin d' s, no help then tried prescription d 's no help even prescription d's plus vitamin d 3's it then went up a few points ( not much ) but hasnt moved any since i get checked every 3 months 
doctors cant figure out why my levels stay so low. Thanks for the article very interesting and then seeing the many responds of you all , with the same thing really makes me wonder if it is the illness
Hi
I also have GERD and I was told that anemia of chronic disease is also called anemia of inflamation and when I get inflamation it effects my blood so my anemia is up and down x
I heard about this May 2011 and asked my GP to test my D levels.
(Both my GP and wife said, "you live in California, you have plenty of D in you.") Well I was very low on my D level. The report I originally heard in the US stated that low D was linked to autoimmune diseases.
Hi all,
I found a couple more interesting articles on vitamin D and autoimmune disease, and in particular APS earlier, and will post them up when I get back on my laptop.
Something that strikes me from this thread is the relationship many appear to have with GERD, I was initially diagnosed with the condition, despite my symptoms not matching any of the lists of associated features or classical presentations that I've seen published, the main thing has always been a tenderness in the sternum, something which I now find is also a classic symptom of vitamin D deficiency, along with ribcage pain (how many people have a Fibromyalgia diagnosis thrown at them from out of the blue, I did).
I doubt my lack of vitamin D is down to lack of it in my diet and lack of daylight, I eat oily fish 3-4 times a week, along with plenty of dairy and take any chance i can to get out in sunlight as the dark winters depress me a bit the last couple of years, added to other symptoms I've had I wonder if malabsorpsion is the issue, I'll ask my GP when I see him next, he likes a healthy "debate" about my symptoms, even if he pretends he doesn't : )
Andy
I too have symptoms of gerd on and off , also was dx with fibromyalgia about 25 yrs ago was told the tenderness in my sternum and ribcage pain was due to it I also have awful pain in shoulder blades and down my arm I've wondered if our bodies can't absorb the D's My doctors have tried everything perscription D's plus vitamin D 3s at the same time , nothing seems to bring it up
I find this very intresting! I am new to this group and I was diagnosed with Hughes 6 years ago. My doctors knew pretty much nothing! I hurt all the time and they said this had no relation! I started to feel as if people thought I was crazy. I mean how can others understand what I mean or even believe me at 24 when I say I hurt all over and even interally? I was recently diagnosed with MRSA and apon studying the causes two of the main links is an autoimmune disease and low vitamin D so I had a double whammy! One of the biggest things you can do to prevent getting MRSA is take vitamin D hm so I was more than likely doomed from the start! Please read up on this! Especially if you live in America in the South! Take vitamin D at this point MRSA is spreading as quick as a common cold and I promise you it is PAINFUL!!!!
Dawn--this is the first mention I have seen tieing MRSA with APS--my son (25) diag 2 yrs ago with APS after PE--then 18 months later back in hospital with MRSA. I wondered if related, but could find no info. Can you point me to any additional info I can read. Thanks Cheri in KS
Hi dawn
welcome and glad you found us.
I'm so sorry you having such an awful time. Mrsa is awful illness to battle on top of everythin else you going theough. Looking more likely that vit d deficiency and Aps are linked, so many of us have it. I hope your medical team get things sorted.
Take care gentle hugs love sheena xxxxxx
I too have low vitamin D. I was prescribed a very high dose from the endochronologist which made me ill for around 3 weeks. Having recovered from that I am supposed to take a regular normal dose each day, however, I still seem to have gastric problems with even a small dose. I have tried pills and now drops, but still have difficulties. Anyone else in this situation?
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