VITAMIN D

[Vpankhurst]

I have had GCA for two and a half years going along quite well at the moment but I don't think my diet is very good dont seem to have much of an appetite at the moment I have seen different references to vitamin D on this website can you give me your take on it regarding this illness

[Celtic PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Vpankhurst, you should ask your GP for a Vit D blood test to see whether you are suffering from any deficiency. Any deficiency can lead to pain in similar areas to that of PMR.

As you mention that you don't think your diet is very good, then it is highly likely that you aren't eating Vit D-containing foods such as oily fish and plenty of calcium-rich foods, in which case that won't be helping.

Even if you take the usual Calcium + Vit D pills usually prescribed alongside the steroids, that won't be sufficient to bring any severe deficiency to within the normal range (between 75 and 150/200iu). If the blood test reveals that you are deficient, then you will need a 3-month course of high dose Vit D3 (Colecalciferol) to bring levels up to normal, following which the level can be maintained with a lower daily dose.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Actually, diet only contributes a small percentage, about 10%, of the vit D we need unless you eat 8oz of oily fish, 17 eggs or a few kilos of mushrooms per day! It is a bit different in the USA where milk and orange juice as well as cereals are fortified with vit D (not that any of those would help me since they don't figure in my diet!). Most of our vit D is gained from exposure of enough skin to sun between 11am and 3pm with no sunscreen or clothes in the way - in the UK that only happens between May and September anyway, otherwise the sun is too low in the sky. Even then, at age 70 your skin is only able to produce less than a quarter of what it could at 20, even if you do go out in the sun for long enough every day - 20 mins in full sun, twice as long if it is cloudy. It is then stored for use in the winter.

Many doctors now recommend taking at least 2000 IU of vit D per day throughout the winter. That, however, is only enough if your body store of vit D is adequate and for the vast majority of people in the UK they are not. MrsO has told you about that.