I'm currently on a combination daily dose of 600mg calcium/12.5mg Vit D3. In addition I take a daily supplement of 2000iu Vit D3.
Is this sufficient do you think? Would be interested to hear what dosages other members take.
Although I live on the sunshine island of Cyprus I've been told by a radiologist and my rheumatologist that at my age (81) Vit D from sunshine, or food, is not enough.
Would welcome your thoughts.
Thank you, and a Happy and Peaceful New Year to you all.......
Is it possible to be tested for vitamin D levels where you are? I had a hunch before I was diagnosed there might be a problem and it was found that mine was in my boots. I then had to have a prescribed 3 month loading dose course. Over the years with occasional testing I have discovered that I need 1000iu twice a day at least 5 days a week. I don’t know whether different brands or formulations make a difference though. My neighbour who is a bit older than me and has a much worse diet doesn’t take any and is fine.
Usual,prescribed dose in UK is calcium carbonate (1500mg, equivalent to 600mg calcium) and vitamin D3 (400iu, equivalent to 10µg colecalciferol) taken twice a day…
I agree with your doctors - I live in northern Italy, just about on the line where theoretically you could produce vit D from sun all year round, but apparently a high proportion of the population are vit D deficient. It is very difficult to get vit D from diet - unless you eat a lot of wild salmon (half a pound daily! farmed isn't anything like as good) or enormous omeletes (17 eggs)!
I have taken 4000 IU since I developed PMR - any less and sooner or later the blood level falls slowly but steadily to a low level. If your blood level is low you are very deficient as the body does have massive stores which top up the blood level. I don't sunbathe - and certainly not normally in the winter, the sun is shining today but it is minus 6C at lunchtime!!! And like all of us here, I take pred and pred suppresses vit D in the body. Vit D is essential for building bones by ensuring calcium uptake is adequate - that's the link to osteoporosis with pred.
You hear a lot in the media about vit D not being the super-supplement it is portrayed as by some. But I think Tim Spector, amongst others, is too far the other way and he is talking to the worried well. The doses in most supplements are OK for younger, healthy people - we need more. Whether you need as much as I take you can only really find out by having your blood levels of calcium and vit D checked at least annually to see how it is. But I'd say taking 1000-2000 IU is safe in all respects. My rheumy doesn't appear to disagree with my approach and taking a smaller amount daily is a lot more effective than letting the levels fall and needing massive supplemental doses at intervals.
Thanks PMRpro for taking the time to respond. I think I'll get a Vit D test.....
Excellent idea!!!
A total of 500+2000 IU per day seems very low, I presume you are taking Vit K2 also....?
Some of the world's leading specialiists are recommending between 5000 to 10,000 IU per day but that said it is your resulting blood serum level of D3 that matters and it should be at 40ng/ml absolute minimum and up to 80 ng/ml for optimum health.
A caveat to the above would be certainly as an older person a higher level of vit d3 is necessary, or if you are taking a lot of sun this will have an impact in providing vit D3 through the skin but also many people have gene expression defects which can limit the amount of active D3 that actually reaches or is absorbed by your cells.
At your current levels of intake of 2500 IU per day I suspect you blood levels may be below 40 ng/ml or certainly at the low end of the above 40-80 ng/ml range and would suggest your first point of call should be to have your blood levels of D3 checked and then once known adjust your supplementaton as necessary - under your doctors guidance of course.
Many doctors will revert to the long standing medical standard of 600 IU per day of D3/day which has existed since the 1950's but which was based on the prevalence of rickets at the time and has never been adjusted leading up to the unitl the more recent occurance of Covid wherein it was found 70% or more of those who contracted Covid and were admitted to hospital were infact severely deficient of Vit D3 in their blood, as are many in the western world where in many places sun is limited especcially in the winter months
The fact of the matter is it is near impossible to get Vit D3 from food and therefore sun or supplementation are the only means of taking in Vit D3 whilst too much sun can have detrimental mpacts which we are all aware of.
hope this helps
Great answer from ExpatRay!
I take 6000iu per day which is the dose calculated for my body weight. 4000iu is in the form of the readily available cholecalciferol which takes a couple of weeks to be converted into the useful form of calcifediol; 2000iu is in the form of calcifediol which can be used by the body within a couple of hours. Calcifediol can only be bought over the internet in UK - unless it’s for your dog!! - but is readily available in other countries eg. Italy and Spain.
Don’t forget K2 - I take the maximum recommended dose.
What is the maximum recommend dose of K2. Thanks
The usually recommended dose is 90mcg - there are no official RDA figures as yet.
I take a supplement containing 1000ug K2. Lots of different info on internet but all seem to agree:
“Taking 1mg (1000ug) or less of vitamin K supplements a day is unlikely to cause any harm”. ( nhs website )
I take 50 ug from H&B , I need to take two then?
The two weeks for the conversion is only at very high doses, such as 100,000 IU which might be given as an acute boost. If you are taking normal doses of 2-4000 IU, that is converted in hours.
More reading needed here 👍
I'd branch out from Dr Megan and her ilk!!! The marketing sites say what suits their sales push ... But when you are taking it longterm, all that you are doing is topping things up with a bit of a delay so no problem.
There are not many studies that have been carried out on k2 dosage.
One of the more prominent was a japanese study of some years ago which found results of improved bone absorption but at doses of 400 micrograms and even then using the m4 form of k2 and not the k7.......
My wife who has a degree of osteopenia takes 400 micro grams of k2 M7 in any event under recommendation from her doctor and hasnt had any side effects, her bone density results and any improvement is yet to be ascertained however and will be checked at her next Dexa scan in a year or so.
Outside the above japanese study most medical practitioners will recommend up to 200 micro grams of K2 M7 for the purposes of encouraging calcium migration away from soft tissue to your bones and related locations.
As stated above there are not many studies of K2 impact, as a relatively new form of medical calcium management
Even in the area of artery calcification as associated with heart disease, whilst many Cardiologists will recommend to take K2 to move calcium from the arteries and/or prevent serum /ionised calcium going to the arteries I am not aware of any studied and recorded instances of success.....
Hope the above helps to clarify.
Thanks for your reply. I forgot to mention that I get my Vit K2 from goat's kefir as well as full fat yoghurt. For some reason K2 supplements disagree with me. I also eat prunes every day to help prevent bone loss. So far, so good.....
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