Vitamin D and Fatigue

Hi Everyone; GCA 39 months on 8 mg pred

I have been so tired with no will power to even go outside (no sunshine). I have severe arthritis in the knees and back so I really have to push myself. I got a new Rheumy who did an hour physical and listened. Here the Dr. has to special order a Vit D test as they are very expensive to do. He did and the result is I am very low. I am on 10,000 units a day. As for numbers we need to be between 85 and 200, I was at 47. I have been on it for a week and I no longer go back to sleep for 3 to 4 hours in the day. This has a domino effect to calcium and magnesium intake. I am also at adrenal reawakening for the second and last time. But thanks to all the info I get from all you I am prepared and have readjusted the vitamins needed by the adrenal glands to " start their engines.|"

This may not be the case for most everyone but please consider getting the reading

just to make sure and eliminate it as a cause.

Happy First Day of Summer !

[Soraya_PMR]

Thanks for this lindanna. I’m also at 8, tried 7 and failed miserably, adrenal type symptoms are plaguing me.

I deliberately didn’t take my VitD away with me on holiday mid May, didn’t think a week without would hurt, and lots of sun would compensate...... but reading your post I just realised I haven’t taken it since I got back either! What a numpty!! Just popped 5,000iu will see what happens. I’ve been very sleepy, VERY sleepy.

Thanks again.

[Hidden in reply to Soraya_PMR]

So glad to be of help. We have so much to take care of and sometimes the "one more thing to do" is just to much!

[piglette]

My vit D level was 26, my results said that normal is 50-150 nmol/L. I believe deficient is 25 and below. I take 800 iu a day along with calcium. Why is a test so expensive where you are? My pharmacist was offering them for free recently, probably hoping people would buy vit D supplements. Are you taking steroids? If so you should have been offered vit D and calcium from the time you started taking them.

[Hidden in reply to piglette]

That is a big difference in what my norm is. Yes I am on prednisone for 3 years and yes I have taken Vitamin D and Calcium all along. I was told to take 1200 Calcium and 1000 Vitamin D from the first Rheumy. Six months ago a new Rheumy increased the Vitamin D to 3,000 when asked why she told me because of where we live, Canada, less sunshine. So I increased to 3,0000. A month ago a new Rheumy and I am sleeping, lethargic and gaining weight. The level is based on 80 as opposed to your 50 could it be because I live

in a northern country? When I asked why a doc had to order the test I was told that everyone was ordering a Vit D test and since it was quite expensive they had to put up conditions. I also conferred with my pharmacist to make sure I was taking enough. The bone density scan in 2016 was fine and I got permission to stop AA as it was causing me breathing issues. Now I have to rethink things.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Hidden]

Please see my post below.

[HeronNS in reply to Hidden]

Same here. Can only get Vitamin D test annually.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

i have to say that if they cost £25 or so in the UK (and £28 by post all over the world) - why are they claimed to be so expensive? A GP in the UK told a friend they cost £200 - it is NOT true!

vitamindtest.org.uk/index.html

[Hidden in reply to PMRpro]

What I have found is my province in May 2016 restricted Vit D testing because of mounting costs. Each province negotiates their own cost. My province has restricted testing to people who already have Vit D deficiency diseases and can only be done every three months. All I could find for cost is a range $32.00 to $93.00. Doctors have to fill in a request.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Hidden]

The point of my link is - you can order one for a very reasonable price any time you like.

[Hidden in reply to PMRpro]

Thank- you PMRpro. Another tool for my basket.

[GOOD_GRIEF]

Well, the good news is that there are reports that increasing Vit D level helps with chronic pain, whether from arthritis or from other factors. Another is that once the deficiency is made up, a maintenance dose will keep your levels up.

Get out in that Canadian sunshine when you can, especially in the elry mornings and later in the day/evening when the burning rays are low. Sunscreen interferes with the mechanism that makes our own natural Vit D, so try getting 15 minutes or so a day sans the lotion when the sun is low on the horizon.

[Soraya_PMR in reply to GOOD_GRIEF]

Did I read somewhere that if our shadow is longer than we are, that the production of VitD doesn’t happen? In other words, we need the sun high in the sky to be effective. It’s also possible I’ve dreamt this, or made it up!

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Soraya_PMR]

It probably works - the sun must be high in the sky so the rays strike the skin at an angle closer to vertical (it never will be vertical unless you are at the equator) to flick the switch that puts the process into action.

But it all depends on the little factory still being in working order - and as we age it gets slower and weaker. At age 60 it does about 20% of what it did at 20. And any screening effect - sunscreen or clothes slows it further. A Factor 8 sunscreen reduces the vit D made by well over 90% and a light suntan is equivalent to using Factor 12 cream.

[Soraya_PMR in reply to PMRpro]

So my spectacular Menorcan sun tan is hindering me? Well I’ll be blowed! I can fairly guarantee that my factory is on a ‘work to rule’ if not a full ‘all out strike’. All the rest of me is working to rule, so why not that? Maybe 2 VitD pills today.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Soraya_PMR]

Sounds like a plan!!!! Mine appears to have shut down too - the amount of time I spend outside with no sunscreen should allow for a reasonable vit D level. But no...

[HeronNS in reply to Soraya_PMR]

It's true.

vitamindsociety.org/press_r...

[Soraya_PMR in reply to HeronNS]

Woo! I didn’t imagine it. Thanks Heron.

[Hidden in reply to GOOD_GRIEF]

I started doing this at 5pm. Thank-you I was worried about the sun screen aspect but what you said answers that. Feel better already!

[GOOD_GRIEF]

As others have said, the sun needs to be high to get the Vit D factory going, but you also need to build up that tan before you venture out into the sun between 10 and 2 without sunscreen. I wasn't writing coherently when I said what I said. Get your tan building done before 10 and after 2, and in a couple of weeks you'll be OK when the sun is high in the sky without sunscreen, at least for 15 minutes or so. With Pred thin skin, we really don't want any blistering sunburns....

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to GOOD_GRIEF]

The recommendation is that you go out in the sun as long as you can at a time without burning up to 10-15 minutes - that is how to get the vit D without risk. You don't NEED to develop a tan at all - it is after all a sign of skin damage, not healthy at all. Not that that stops me being out in the sun but I don't "sunbathe" and wear a shirt and hat.

[GOOD_GRIEF]

But you won't make Vitamin D unless your skin is actually exposed directly to the sun.

[HeronNS in reply to GOOD_GRIEF]

Tanning (increasing melanin) actually decreases Vitamin D production. I believe this places dark skinned people at a disadvantage for making Vitamin D when living in climates with a shorter part of the year when sunlight is effective.

[GOOD_GRIEF in reply to HeronNS]

That's true. The higher the level of melanin in your skin, the less likely you are to burn, and the less Vitamin D you'll produce.

It's all a balancing act, like everything else. All choices have risks, and all choices have consequences.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to GOOD_GRIEF]

If your comment was aimed at me - I have given up expecting to benefit from sun. I need supplements. I do spend a lot of time out in the sun with enough skin exposed for it to be possible to make vit D - but I am out in the sun early in the year and am brown by early May which reduces the likelihood of making enough.

[GOOD_GRIEF in reply to PMRpro]

I'm not "aiming" at anyone. Just participating in a conversation. No offense meant.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to GOOD_GRIEF]

Lord no - wasn't any taken! It is so difficult to tell with this forum and I'd just commented I don't sunbathe and wear shirts and hats - and in Australia the slip, slap, slop approach has led to mass vit D deficiency!