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do vitamin D injections exist on the NHS? does it have side effects?

Posted , 12 users are following.

alabama231
alabama231

Hello,

At the start of the summer I was diagnosed with vitamin d insufficency, at first I was advised to change my diet (all the foods i eat are already fortified with vitamin d so little chance of significant change there) and to purchase an over the counter supplement. I ended up trialling three differnet kinds, one from a super market, one from a health food store and even a childs version but I had such poor tolerance to them that I had to stop (my symptoms included abdo distention / urgency of needing to go to the toilet to pass stool / abdo pain / loose stools - basically exacerbation of my IBS)

So I went back to the GP and he prescribed me adcal D3, two tablets twice a day, in terms of tolerance I managed to take half the dosage with no GI side affects, but upon rechecking my vitamin d levels were lower than they were at the start of the summer (i was advised to stop the adcal D3 for a month and then get it rechecked)

due to this my GP has prescribed me Desunin two tables twice a day, but again this exacerbates my GI disturbances (I can't take alternatives due to my peanut allergy).

what I want to know is, do vitamin d injections exist in the UK on the NHS?? I have previously spoken to my GP about an injection and he assures me no such thing exists yet doing a google search seems to imply an injection does exist (although i fear a high dose injection with exacerbate GI disturbances even more)

any advice or even words of comfort would be greatly appreciated as my constant exhaustion and aches can get quite depressing

0 likes, 25 replies

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  • dambudzo
    dambudzo alabama231

    Posted

    hi

    really sorry to hear all that you have been through.

    i sympathise with the pain due to vitamin D insufficiency - it's horrid.

    you are right that dietary changes are unlikely to have much impact on serum levels of vitamin D. the main source is via sunshine. but here in the UK that is only the summer sun between april and september. but of course need to balance exposure to sun at the 'best' time of the day (from a vit D perspective) ie midday, with risk of skin cancer.

    anyhow now is not summer and it's odd that your levels were lower at the end of summer. unless you were permanently indoors / covered up / fully slathered with suntan lotion? i'd ask your GP if there is possibly some underlying reason that is causing low vit D levels ie how are your bones? do you have unusually high 'bone turnover'? and if so they need to find out why and to deal with that.

    is your parathyroid working ok?

    (these are tests that were done for me).

    not sure about vitamin D injection, but i have heard of  vit D drops, which are highly concentrated. 

    you've obviously got to take care given the exacerbating GI restrictions but the GP should be able to sort that out and if not then ask to get a second opinion. if you have seen evidence of vit D injection online then a) check it is from a reliable source ie not some dodgy drug company but from eg NHS website or this website. print out the relevant page to show to the GP, then you have something on which to base the discussion.

    good luck with this all and hope that it gets sorted out very soon.

    • alabama231
      alabama231 dambudzo

      Posted

      thanks. I was tested for coeliac disease which was negative in case it was that causing it. my GP just said that its just one of those things being in the UK that causes low vitamin D.

      I have had lots of blood tests, my GP said that someone who is 27 i have had far too many blood tests, especially when they come back normal.

      I asked for a colonoscopy given my GI symptoms (which I have had my whole life) but he said that I don't have any clinical need for a colonoscopy (i.e. no unintentional weight loss, no raised inflamatory markers and no other symptoms that may suggest alternative GI illnesses)

      I do wonder about my bones sometimes, because I fell out of bed a few years ago and broke my toe! for such a small fall I do often wonder how my toe actually broke! how do they check bone turn over? blood tests?

      thanks for your response

    • dambudzo
      dambudzo alabama231

      Posted

      hi

      yes, my GP said the same thing to me about being in the UK.

      and yes up to  point. he put me on 800 IU per day i think and seemed to think that the problem had been solved. but i was not satisfied that my serum level should be so low mid summer when i had been outdoors 'unprotected' and that i had spent the winter somewhere near the equator....... 

      some years earlier i also broke my toe from a minor fall during an aerobics class and a chirpopdist queried this saying that i was too young for such a thing (i think i was in my mid-40s at the time). but i didn't take his concern further. 

      maybe that was due to the vit D?

      i am certainly not suggesting that you panic but you do need to have reassurance from the GP that there really is no underlying cause. how is your pituitary gland? 

      what highlighted me to a more serious problem was  that my alkaline phospatase had been steadily increasing over the years. (marker for bone turnover) it was always within the normal range so a simple spot check would not pick anything up. but the trend over time was of an increase which i queried and the GP, fortunately, took me seriously and investigated for further things. unfortunately it took me about ten years of occasional blood tests to build up the evidence ha ha.

      try with the printed evidence of vitamin D injection, or drops, and i hope that does the trick. and explain to your GP that you are not choosing to have blood tests for the sake of it - there is clearly something

      not right and you'd like him to resolve it!

      please keep us posted. 

    • alabama231
      alabama231 dambudzo

      Posted

      well it was my constant moaning to my GP that got me tested for vitamin D.

      I was adament that I must have been anaemic or problems with my thyroid (I have very strong family history of a dodgy thyroid) but they always came back normal and in the end I almost snapped at my GP and was like "for gods sake! I am 27, yes I have a stressy job and drive 100miles a day (50miles to and from work) but this is more than just you everyday tiredness! I go to bed earlier than my almost 90year old grandma and my sister tells me I look ill with my exhaustion!" and in the end he said that the only things I have never been tested for was folate, B12 and vit D and then he asked me whether I wanted to be tested for those or not!! I was like of course I do!!! and thats how my vitamin D was discovered

    • wise_ocean
      wise_ocean dambudzo

      Posted

      Hi just wondered why you ask about the pituitary gland? 
    • dambudzo
      dambudzo wise_ocean

      Posted

      just beacause it is responsible for so much and when it goes wrong the symptoms can be easily missed by medical people. i know of someone who put up with years of wierd symptoms that were not really symptoms and it was only when things got bad that the problem was identified - and it was the pituitary. so when i hear of strange things eg low vitamin D for no reason, I get suspicious. probably being over cautious!
    • karishma123
      karishma123 dambudzo

      Posted

      Hi, can u help me if u have same or cme acros any similar case.

      Actually I am worrying about side effects of injections. I am taking multivitamin injections due to iron def and low b12. Have taken only 2 times so far and from yesterday noticing tiny shiny red spot. id noticed 4-5 such spots on my arms and two at my back. Is this a side effect of injection or what. Have u seen anyone getting such spot after taking multi vitamin injections.

      Thanks reema

  • lizzyluv
    lizzyluv alabama231

    Posted

    Hey,

    I've been in the same boat as you are. I suffer from IBS and there isn't much that doesn't worsen it. My Dr gave me a prescription for vit D3 50k iu which is slow release so it's much gentler on your stomach and I only took it once a week for 8 weeks. Now I'm taking liquid vitamin d and is really good and doesn't make you sick. You also want to make sure you take calcium, which not only is great for your bone density but also aids with the absorbtion of vitamin D. I don't know if you tolerate milk but taking your vit d with a glass of 2% milk is ideal as it has calcium and fat which is needed to store the vitamin.

    • alabama231
      alabama231 lizzyluv

      Posted

      I must admit there is a spray / liquid in a local health food shop that I was tempted to trial.

      I don't drink regular cows milk, I take soya, but I do take other dairy products in small doses. maybe I will try it with a yogurt.

      my problem is that because it worsens my IBS it makes me worried about when and where my symptoms will present themselves which of course in turn worsens my IBS because i'm anxious and worrying about it all!! vicious circle!!

    • lizzyluv
      lizzyluv alabama231

      Posted

      I'd give the liquid kind a try it is supposed to be absorbed quicker too so might be a good option for you. You don't need to take it with dairy, it's a fat soluble vitamin so taking it with a meal containing fat should help a lot.

      I hear you on the vicious cycle, anxiety only exacerbates IBS. My doctor even recommended anxiety meds to help with it but I refuse to go down that route. I am thinking of trying cognitive behavioral therapy as I hear it can have a huge impact on controlling IBS symptoms

  • wise_ocean
    wise_ocean alabama231

    Posted

    Hi  vit d injections do exist as my mother had this a couple of yrs ago. 

    • alabama231
      alabama231 wise_ocean

      Posted

      thanks.

      I went back to the GP this week to ask for it because the vitamin D tablets were exacerbating my IBS symptons so much. (I have now tried 3 over the counter and 2 prescribed tablets) and he said that he has never heard of anyone having abdo pain, bloating, loose stools etc... from vitamin D tablets and that injections isn't something they offer.

      At this point, I provided print outs from my local medical clinical commissioning group which says intramuscular injections are available and he just kept going on about how oral supplementation is the recommended route of replecement and I kept saying that I appreciate that oral route is meant to be the preferred route, but I can't tolerate that method!

      Anyway he said that he would speak with a collegue of his at the local hospital and get back to me next week

    • dambudzo
      dambudzo alabama231

      Posted

      well at least you had the printed evidence.

      good luck with it and hope the doctor sees sense.....

  • lucynewas
    lucynewas alabama231

    Posted

    you don't need injections - you can buy d-lux spray in pharmacies now - in fact I saw some in Boots today.  It took 6 months for my levels to get back to normal.
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