Seems I’m low in vitamin D.
I’m often low in something or another.
I take a multivitamin. Potassium.
Biotin.
Iron. Every other week.
And B injection once a week.
So Doc prescribed vitamin D2 gel caps.
I’m thinking. Vitamin D is available on the pharmacy shelf.
Looked and it’s D3.
What’s the difference?
ETA…my prescription says 50,000 iu. Isn’t that a lot?
I was prescribed that, 2 years ago when I broke a bone. It was for a fairly short period of time - 4 weeks or some such.
50K IU is a lot (the RDA is 600 to 800), and vitamin D is fat soluble, so you don’t want to be on that high a dosage for a really long time, as I understand it - but it’s worth asking the doctor if this was not made clear, and the recommendations may be different given your own health issues. Make sure you know how long you’re expected to be on it.
Years ago I was found deficient in vitamin D and was give a high amount like that for 4 weeks.
Then it went down to 2,000 a day.
I am taking 4.000 a day now, because of my hair loss, my idea…d3 is the usual kind.
Yes it is “no refills”
So I figured it will change when the prescription runs out.
My D level was low so I started taking 2000 of D3 that I get on Amazon. One pill a day keeps me level.
This may be of interest
Thx… exactly what I wanted to read.
Done.
That’s more better. Thanks.
Doctor called about another new pill I’ve been on. So I threw in why so much vitamin d2. He said I was really low and it was easier and faster to get it back to normal this way and after the bottle is empty I can go on OTC d3.
My diet is so restricted that I can’t really add foods to raise the vitamins or minerals. So other ways work better, I believe I get enough sunlight. And I eat my veggies.
A number of years ago my doctor had recommended that I start tacked a daily vitamin D supplement. I forget what dosage I had been taking, but at one point when I was about to run out I accidentally bought a bottle of D3 125mcg (5000iu) pills instead. I checked with my doctor and he said that I could take that dosage once a week instead of daily. I was glad that I wasn’t going to go to the trouble of returning what I’d bought (particularly since I had taken advantage of a BOGO sale, so I had 300 pills to use up).
My son was breastfed, and breastmilk does not have vitamin D, albeit, babies are born with a store of it that lasts several months. My son’s doctor told us not to go too nuts with the sunscreen so that he would get vitamin D; she said not to sunscreen him until 11am, and stop after 5pm, unless there was a UV caution, or the temp was over something, which I forget, but it was very high-- we usually have a week or two that high in Indiana in August. She said even after he was eating other foods, still not to slather him in sunscreen the entire day.
We followed her instructions, and he never had a sunburn. He also had a blood panel when he was 4, and was being tested for IBS-- he had no vitamin deficiencies.
Personally, I have mild IBS (I have the minimal number of blood markers necessary for a diagnosis, and manage it pretty well with diet and Imodium), but I do have slight malabsorption. If you are taking vitamins for malabsorption, you won’t overdose by taking large amounts, because you aren’t going to absorb them all-- that’s the point of flooding you with them.
I take a prescription multivitamin, plus OTC calcium daily, a D2 every week, and a B-complex every other day.
I take D2 because it seems to work better for me. My doctor says it might be because I’m a vegetarian, and have been for 38 years-- I just may absorb a plant-source vitamin better. I’ve also been told not to overdo sunscreen.
The above is obviously anecdote, not data, but it’s first hand, it’s not what my brother says his friend’s cousin does. Maybe it will help a little.
Since it’s fat soluble, it would all even out over the course of the week.
I use a calcium / vitamin D supplement. My D levels have been low a time or two, and I have some degree of osteopenia, so I truly do need both. Typiing this, I got inspired to check my results online - and I’m at the low end of the normal range (which is 30-100 ng/ml), so I do need to keep up with the supplements.
Annoyingly, I ALSO need iron supplements. Between those two (which can’t be taken too close together) and some daily medications (which cannot be taken with food or too close to the supplements), it’s a juggling act.
My magnesium is also low, which was tested on the advice of my gastroenterologist, as proton pump inhibitors can reduce absorption. I keep forgetting to take the magnesium supplement, darnit. I looked into food sources for that and it’s tough to get enough, especially given I’m eating so little these days.
Would one of these type of things help? Of course there are smaller ones.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Equate-4-a-Day-Pill-Planner-1-Week-8-5/768921427?wmlspartner
LOL - I already have morning and evening organizers for my regular meds. The issue is mainly remembering to take a supplement at the right time. I keep them on the dining room table, so I can take them with meals (but if it’s a dairy-based meal, I shouldn’t take iron then, and so on). A 4-a-day organizer would just leave me arriving at time for my evening meds, and realizing I have the two midday slots still to take.
I’ve used pill reminder apps, and I mentally just tune out the reminder chime. I compromise by taking 1.5 times the recommended dose when I remember, which I figure evens out.
I have so many medications and supplements I have a note book and CNA living in my house.
It’s more than my brain can take.
My step mom has assistants who organize her pill and makes sure that she takes them at the right time as well coordinating them with meals. It’s no easy task.
Yep. As we age, and are on more and more meds, some way of organizing them and ensuring compliance gets trickier and trickier. Add in any kind of disability (mental or physical), or anything REALLY time sensitive, and it gets harder.
In the case of a supplement, there are the “iron interferes with calcium” type of problems - which would just mean you don’t get the full benefit of one or both of them, or “iron interferes with this medication” (which I just learned recently). And there are always drug interactions (I’m on one, that I have to take midday, because it doesn’t so much interact with, as bind and render inert, anything else I take).
Loads of fun.
I’m up to 10,000 Mg a day. It’s part of the 18 pills I take each day.
However, despite it, I feel just fine. All my issues are at the point they don’t cause major symptoms and most of the pills are preventative.
I wonder about capsules. Where’s all that plastic going? If it is plastic.
