I don’t get enough (read: any) sun and I’m exhausted all day long. I can’t remember the last time I woke up feeling refreshed in the morning. So last weekend, I decided to start supplementing with 5000 IU/day of Vitamin D and taking 2 B-complex gummies. I could have gotten a vitamin workup first, but from the reading I’ve done almost everybody is deficient in D anyway.
So today is day 3 of my new vitamin regimen. I woke up feeling so good, it was practically unbelievable. I didn’t need to snooze my alarm at all, I just hopped out of bed and felt happy (crazy! I’m never happy in the AM). Is this a placebo effect, or could vitamins actually kick in this fast?
Not an expert, but in my experience vitamins don’t work like that. They’re beneficial in the long term, or possibly not at all. My vote is for placebo effect.
Feeling marked mood alterations and energy level changes after three days on vitamin supplements suggests placebo effect.
“almost everyone is deficient in vitamin D” is an overstatement, no matter whose evidence you believe.
There are differences of opinion on what constitutes actual deficiency. According to Institute of Medicine standards, something like 10% of Americans are getting less vitamin D than needed for optimal health, which is a lot less than “almost everyone”.
Were you tested beforehand for a vitamin D or B deficiency? If you don’t have a problem, taking the vitamins won’t fix anything. Until lab tests show a problem, I vote placebo.
BTW: You could still get tested. If you still show a deficiency, then you might not be taking enough vitamin D or B.
I also would lean toward the placebo effect, but there is the possibility you had some sort of mild deficiency. The thing is if you are deficient in a nutrient, it would take a lot longer than 3 days to replentish it.
When I was diagnosed as being B12 deficient, I took the supplements for 3 months before my doctor re-tested to see where my levels had gone. So in 3 days they probably hadn’t gone anywhere.
Having said that, the mind-numbing fatigue that led me to get tested for B12 went away much sooner than that. In a week or two, I’d guess.
Yeah, I take 10,000IU a day since 2009, and my test last spring showed my D3 level right in the middle of the range. My D2, BTW, is next to zero - my body is not making any D on its own.
OP, you might want to see about getting full bloodwork done, including a lipid panel, thyroid levels and vitamin D, and anything else your doctor thinks could be contributing to fatigue. Low thyroid levels and high glucose levels can cause fatigue. Get your blood pressure checked. I get full blood panels with the above add-ons done yearly whether I need it or not, since I’m overweight, my doctor won’t call me healthy unless all that is coming out OK.
Speaking purely from personal experience, I was significantly vitamin D deficient on my bloodwork last year and I now take a reasonably high dose of prescription-level vitamin D now (50,000 units/week now, originally twice that). I didn’t notice any difference when I started taking the vitamin at all, and I was experiencing significant fatigue at the time.
The only vitamin I’ve personally experienced combating fatigue was iron, when I was measurably anemic, and again I took a high prescription-only dose. Even then, it was not as noticeable as you’re describing.
That said, B vitamins are in 5 Hour Energy and other similar energy drinks. They’re reportedly part of the energized feeling you get. I don’t take them and haven’t done the research, but this seems more likely the effect than the vitamin D, though placebo seems possible too. Consumer Reports says they couldn’t find much to substantiate an energy boost in B-vitamins: Does 5 Hour Energy Work? - Consumer Reports
There’s no way it would work for Vitamin D, as the effect is very delayed, but some of the B vitamins are rather fast correcting. B12 shots, for instance, often have noticeable effects in just a few days.
And all it takes is a small effect to convince you that you are feeling better, which in and of itself gives you more energy.
A couple of years ago, when I was extremely deficient of B12, I had tingling hands, insomnia, and continuous headache. All of those were gone within a couple of hours of starting B12, so its effects obviously can be very quick. I did have more energy within the first couple of days, too, but that could have been the insomnia going away and me getting sleep.
It took me a bit longer, probably more than a week, but I noticed a definite decrease in my pain level (Myofascitis) when I started taking vitamin D, and improved energy with vitamin B.
And I used to be one of the most skeptical person re: vitamin. FWIW I had blood tests which showed I was severely deficient in vitamin D back in 2010 just before I moved from Alaska (I imagine the vitamin D levels of Alaskans are about as bad as those of Canadians), to the lower 48.
IMHO, they help a lot. Do some research on taking too much vitamin D though, from what I’ve read, taking too much can cause some problems as well (leaching calcium from bones etc. YIKES!). Now that I live in Colorado (300plus days of sunshine a year), I find I don’t need to take it nearly as often to keep the pain levels down.