Hey everyone,
What are your vitamin supplement and dosage recommendations?
I take over the counter VitD & B12 but my levels are still on the lower end and I am noticing symptoms such as achy joints and severe brain fog.
In my last posts I mentioned I had been through a thyroid swing from under active to over active. I haven’t re tested my levels yet as doctor wants to wait 6 weeks but I’m now taking 25mg of thyroxine and I feel more balanced now with less heart palpitations.
Thanks!
Do you have your latest vitamin test results? You really should test levels before supplementing.
Vitamin D should be around 100 - 150. Buy one that includes vit K2 to help it go to your bones. Some are available in oil or you can take it with an oily meal for better absorption. Use this calculator to work out how much to take to get your level to 100-150. wildatlantichealth.com/vita...
amazon.co.uk/Strength-Subli...
Folate - aim for a level of 20. Recommend taking an active/methyl (should say on label) B complex which contains 400mcgs folate (also B12). Occasionally some people require a higher dose of folate, often due to having MTHFR genes in which case buy a separate 400mcgs methylfolate and slowly add to your dose over several weeks. A B complex as opposed to a stand alone either folate or B12 helps to keep all the B's in balance. This B complex has all the right vitamins at a not unreasonable cost for 90 days supply. amazon.co.uk/Liposomal-Soft...
Test results
How is your diet? Are you vegan or vegetarian?
Your ferritin is also low. Yours is 36 and NICE guidelines suggest lower than 30 is deficient so you are very close to being totally deficient.
Ferritin should be around 90 - 100 for best use of thyroid hormone. Suggest increasing iron rich foods in diet and eating them often. Chicken livers, pate, red meat etc
I eat meat every day and spinach! I feel so tired all the time… Would an iron supplement work well? I do have an over the counter one.
Thanks!
This is the problem with low stomach acid. Almost doesn't matter how good your diet is, the deficiencies still happen. It is still worse though for people who don't eat meat!
Ideally to raise ferritin you should concentrate on using diet to raise levels as if you supplement you can then get iron overload. You could also do a full iron panel to see how your levels are in general. Ferritin is a storage vitamin.
CharlyMae
If you post your current results, including the reference ranges for
Vit D
B12
Folate
Ferritin
plus units of measurement for Vit D and B12, suggestions can be made . Without knowing your levels nobody can make any suggestions as what supplements you need and what dose.
Test results
CharlyMae
They could all do with improving.
Ferritin: 36 (20-275)
Ferritin below 30 is classed as iron deficiency by NICE. You should ask your GP to do a full iron panel based on your very low result, this should include]
Serum iron
Saturation percentage
Total Iron Binding Capacity
Ferritin
There are a few suggestions for ferritin, one being that it should be half way through range which would be 150 with your range. Another is that the optimal level for thyroid function is 90-110ug/L.
You shouldn't self supplement with iron tablets, if you already have a good serum iron and saturation percentage level then taking iron tablets would take them too high and cause iron overload, hence the need for testing with a full iron panel. It's possible to have good iron/saturation levels but low ferritin, in that case you'd try to improve ferritin level by diet, eg by eating liver regularly, maximum 200g per week due to it's high Vit A content, also liver pate, black pudding, and including lots of iron rich foods in your diet
bda.uk.com/resource/iron-ri...
everydayhealth.com/pictures...
When supplementing with iron a GP should monitor levels regularly with a full iron panel.
B12: 361ng/L (180-914)
According to an extract from the book, "Could it be B12?" by Sally M. Pacholok:
"We believe that the 'normal' serum B12 threshold needs to be raised from 200 pg/ml to at least 450 pg/ml because deficiencies begin to appear in the cerebrospinal fluid below 550".
"For brain and nervous system health and prevention of disease in older adults, serum B12 levels should be maintained near or above 1000 pg/ml."
How much B12 are you currently taking and is it methylcobalamin or cyanocobalamin?
Are you also taking a B Complex to keep all B vitamins in balance?
Folate: 10.5 (2.7-34)
Folate is recommended to be at least half way through range which would be 19.5 plus with that range so yours is on the low side but not deficient. Eating folate rich foods and taking a good quality bioavailable B Complex will help.
Suggested B Complex supplements:
Thorne Basic B - sometimes out of stock and can be expensive
Vitablossom: hempoutlet.co.uk/vitablosso... - awaiting stock when I checked last week
Yipmai: amazon.co.uk/Yipmai-Liposom...? - this is the same as Vitablossom but branded for Amazon
Remember to leave off B Complex for 3-7 days before any blood test, including thyroid.
Vit D: 62nmol/L
How much D3 are you taking?
Which form of D3 - softgel, tablet, capsule, liquid?
Are you taking D3 4 hours away from thyroid meds?
Are you also taking D3's important cofactors - magnesium and Vit K2-MK7? Are you taking magnesium 4 hours away from thyroid meds and Vit K2-MK7 2 hours away from thyroid meds?
You might want to check out a recent post that I wrote about Vit D and supplementing:
healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...
and you can check out the link to how to work out the dose you need to increase your current level to the recommended level.
Your current level of 62nmol/L = 24.8ng/ml which suggests you would need 3,700iu D3 daily to reach their recommended level, nearest to buy would be 4,000iu or cheaper to buy 5,000iu and take 6 days a week instead of 7.
For D3 I like Doctor's Best D3 softgels, they are an oil based very small softgel which contains just two ingredients - D3 and extra virgin olive oil, a good quality, nice clean supplement which is budget friendly. Some people like BetterYou oral spray but this contains a lot of excipients and works out more expensive.
For Vit K2-MK7 my suggestions are Vitabay, Vegavero or Vitamaze brands which all contain the correct form of K2-MK7 - the "All Trans" form rather than the "Cis" form. The All Trans form is the bioactive form, a bit like methylfolate is the bioactive form of folic acid.
Vitabay and Vegavero are either tablets or capsules.
Vitabay does do an oil based liquid.
Vitamaze is an oil based liquid.
With the oil based liquids the are xx amount of K2-MK7 per drop so you just take the appropriate amount of drops.
They are all imported German brands, you can find them on Amazon although they do go out of stock from time to time. I get what I can when I need to restock. If the tablet or capsule form is only in 200mcg dose at the time I take those on alternate days.
If looking for a combined D3/K2 supplement, this one has 3,000iu D3 and 50mcg K2-MK7. The K2-MK7 is the All-Trans form
natureprovides.com/products...
It may also be available on Amazon.
One member recently gave excellent feedback on this particular product here:
Here is what she said (also read the following replies):
healthunlocked.com/thyroidu...
Another important cofactor is Magnesium which helps the body convert D3 into it's usable form.
There are many types of magnesium so we have to check to see which one is most suitable for our own needs:
naturalnews.com/046401_magn...
explore.globalhealing.com/t...
and ignore the fact that this is a supplement company, the information is relevant:
Can anyone recommend a good book on Vitamin D?
recommended B vitamins
Vitamin D3 & K2 recommendations
Vitamin D3 spray recommendations? 
