Hi - I don’t suffer from thyroid problems thankfully, but I have seen that you are all extremely knowledgeable regarding supplements, so I hope you don’t mind me posting here.
I’ve had my regular bloods done (I’m diabetic) and my vitamin D has come back at 23 (should be greater than 75). I’m now on a 7 week course of Plenachol 40000u, and have been advised to take OTC vitamin D afterwards.
Would anyone be able to advise a good product and source of this please?
Many thanks in advance. K
Frankiekat
I assume, as you are in the UK, that the unit of measurement is NMOL/L in which case a level of 23 comes into the deficiency category (maybe even severely deficient) and requires loading doses of D3 totalling 300,000iu over a number of weeks.
Your 7 week course of Plenachol 40000iu will give you 280,000iu so you are being treated correctly.
However, to tell you just to buy an over the counter supplement without further testing is rather silly. Unless you know what your new level is then you wont know what dose of D3 to continue with.
If your GP wont retest after the loading doses (and many wont saying it is too costly) then you should do a home fingerprick blood spot test with City Assays (an NHS lab in Birmingham who do this test for the general public).
When you have your new level, come back to the forum and post the result. I will advise how much D3 to buy and can suggest good brands.
The Vit D Council recommends a level of 100-150nmol/L so once we reach that level we need a maintenance dose to keep it there. As D3 is fat soluble, excess can get stored and reach toxicity level so we have to ensure we stay within the recommended range.
Your doctor wont know, because they are not taught nutrition, but there are important cofactors needed when taking D3
vitamindcouncil.org/about-v...
D3 aids absorption of calcium from food and K2-MK7 directs the calcium to bones and teeth where it is needed and away from arteries and soft tissues where it can be deposited and cause problems.
D3 and K2 are fat soluble so should be taken with the fattiest meal of the day.
Magnesium helps D3 to work and comes in different forms, check to see which would suit you best and as it's calming it's best taken in the evening.
naturalnews.com/046401_magn...
Check out the other cofactors too
Wow, thank you for this brilliant response - perhaps I should have said that I am having further bloods at 4 and 8 weeks to check both calcium and Vit D levels, so I will post further then. Thanks again 
You're welcome
You are very lucky to have a GP who is retesting and keeping an eye on calcium levels.
Yep. A friend had her vit D come back at 30 range ~80 up. GP told her it’s only a little low and not that important!!! B12 was 80 range began at ~100. Same thing not too bad just little low. 😀
I told her my thoughts of her GP.
I really would like to inflict some of these low nutrient levels on these doctors and see how they feel then say they're not important and refuse to prescribe supplements. They'd soon change their opinion.
I had my Vit D levels tested many years ago by a private doctor. The results were sent to my GP who said that my levels were fine; the private doctor said that my levels were too low and I should take 5000iu per day. So long ago that I’ve no idea what the levels were.
Penny
Are you still taking that amount?
Have you retested recently?
The Vit D Council recommends a level of 100-150nmol/L and once we reach that we should take a maintenance dose which we have to find by trial and error, retesting twice a year to ensure we keep within the recommended range.
Also, there are important cofactors needed when taking D3, magnesium which helps the body use D3, and because D3 aids absorption of calcium from food we need Vit K2-mk7 which directs the calcium to bones and teeth where it is needed and away from arteries and soft tissue where it can be deposited and cause problems.
Hello Seaside Susie, thank you for your comments; I do take magnesium and K2 with my Vit D3. I take 5-10,000iu per day in the winter and 5,000iu per day in the summer and have had my Vit D tested fairly recently. I cannot recall the numbers but my private doctor said that they were high but fine. I follow Dr Coimbra who successfully treats autoimmune conditions with high doses of Vit D (up to 500,000iu per day) who says that we should all be taking 10,000iu per day. (Although at the high doses he insists that patients are under medical supervision and avoid all calcium.)
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