Vitamin D Deficiency

Posted , 7 users are following.

Heavy alcohol consumption can cause lack of Vitamin D.

​I know we talk about vitamins to take during recovery...folic acid...Vitamin B...Vitamin C...B12...Thiamine....but I haven't seen vitamin D.

​My Vit D reading was very low...18ng/mL...the low range shouldn't be lower than 30ng/mL.  My Dr. has called in a supplement.

​A lack of this vitamin can cause various problems...one of them Gastrointestinal..which I have been struggling with since November of last year.

​Vitamin D (lack) can also cause soreness in our bodies...bones and joints...which I also have.  Indicated for health of heart and bones.

​I posted this for anyone recovering...or not...to consider a Vitamin D discussion with your Dr. Because taking too much can be harmful and not having enough can also be harmful...to the point of causing cancer (if you don't have enough).

 

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  • Posted

    Vitamin D isn't present in many foods, the ones which occur naturally are 

    oily fish, eggs, some fat spreads, cereals and powdered milk.

    The best way of getting vit is sunlight. Years ago lack of vit D caused rickets in children which led to bone deformities. Lack of vit D can also affect bones and teeth.

    as misssy says too much of it is as harmful as too little.

    • Posted

      Very nice and also technical reply Vickylou. Well done!

      Never heard of Rickets decease. One learns every day here! Robin

    • Posted

      Do they not t teach about rickets and scurvy in school any more?
    • Posted

      Thanks robin

      am showing my age now (52) I remember learning about it in junior school!! So no wonder you've not heard of it, you youngsters lol!

      Rickets was prevalent in Victorian times up to 1930's, especially in very poor families, where lack of food and poor diets resulted in hypocalcemia (the body is lacking calcium). This causes deformities of the bones and teeth in mainly children, more commonly known as RICKETS!

      That's your history lesson for today!!!

       

    • Posted

      Hahaha RHGB, was thinking exactly the same! you can add scabies to your list as well. Don't know what they teach in schools these days. Maybe they spend to much time on health and safety!
    • Posted

      Nothing useful I'd say, too busy indoctrinating them, so they are PC, instead of instilling life long learning and skills that will see them through life.
    • Posted

      How very true and sad.

      My seven year old grandson was staying with me last week and said "grandma can I use your iPad to do my homework as I need to print it off and I hope grandad has put a colour cartridge as you get more marks if it's in colour. Will you laminate it for me as you get a certificate and a star!"

      i asked him what about those who haven't got access to all these things, he looked at me as if I was mental and said everyone's got them and anyway my teacher doesn't like it if we have to write something, because it takes her longer to read and mark it!!!

      No wonder you want to emigrate 

  • Posted

    I am B12 deficient and get injections every 6 weeks. I also take 5mg of folic acid along side iron tablets. Will get vit D checked asap!!
    • Posted

      danielle, are you a vegetarian?  The main source of B12 is meat, so often a supplement is needed to help control the body's Immune system. It can also help combat fatigue and tiredness.
    • Posted

      I eat chicken but no red meat, just don't like it. My body doesn't absorb the b12 in the gut so I have the injections which really help. I also take Maca, that's a great little supplement.
  • Posted

    I read this with interest last night. Vitamin D, is one that has never been mentioned to me. So I did a bit of reading up.

    This piece kept cropping up in articles, I'll have to copy and paste, because if I put a link, the post will disappear for ever.

    "Getting insufficient vitamin D can weaken your muscles from a condition called myopathy. And if you consistently imbibe too many alcoholic drinks, you may significantly worsen the problem."

    “Myopathy simply means ‘muscle disease,'” says Jan W. Wijnia, a researcher at Slingedael Korsakoff Center in the Netherlands. “Muscle weakness is by far the most frequent symptom of alcoholic myopathy, causing difficulties in rising from a chair or in climbing a staircase. In alcoholic myopathy, improvement of muscle weakness usually occurs six to nine months following alcohol abstinence.

    I sometimes suffer the highlighted bit, sometimes I feel like an old man. I had put this down to the after effects of having my stroke. It had gone away, but came back and now I think it was down to me drinking again for several months last year, plus we didn't really have much of a summer to get out in.

    I'm of the view, that I never use sun lotion in the UK, and only put it on when I'm abroad in very hot countries where my skin is not used to the intensity of the sun.

    But the health industry is very much about us covery up and using sun lotion in the UK, whereas when I was a child, we were encouraged to go outside and play, get some sun and fresh air.

    When I was at the hospital on Monday, to see about getting a bump removed. Purely to do with my blood not clotting properly and I'd been picking at it. But it was in the same ward that they deal potential sun cancer lumps. And the nurse, who I would say was probably late '50s (I always judge people by their age, as towards what their attitude is going to be like, i.e. what era they grew up in), asked me if I used lotion, to which I said, did we 50 years ago, did we have lots of skin cancer problems then?

    She said, I don't know, probably. I was surprised at her reaction, my view has always been get out there in spring and start building up protection for the summer. I'm a Welsh Celt, and they originally came from the Southern Mediterranean, so if there is enough sun, I can go as brown as an Asian.

    Funny how people can't see it, we wrap up away from the sun, use lotion to protect us and then wonder why our vitamin D levels are very low and we're suffering from diseases that were stamped out 100 years ago.

    • Posted

      I take it you were seen in the dermatology clinic? Skin cancers like melanoma are only one of loads of cases they deal with. I picked up a verruca and needed cryosurgery. I suffer bouts of psoriasis and go to the consultant dermatologist every six months. Skin tags are cauterised in dermatology.

      i can't ever remember using sun tan lotion in the uk, like you say, most of the school summer holidays were spent outside. In the 1970/1980's it was always competion time, who was the brownist. I use sunbeds for a couple of months in the summer. I know there's risks, and accept it. Statistics show more people die from road accidents and crime than from sunbeds.

      ive never been told or advised to take vit d supplements. Think misssy said lack of it can cause stomache problems, which she suffers with. You make a very good point in that sunlight is the best treatment, but we cover and slap cream on our kids (junior kids have to have their own personal sun lotion clearly named for any outside activity, and parents have to sign that school takes no responsibility if a child gets sunburn.

      I went to watch my grandsons sports day a couple of years ago. Took a day off work. Found a seat and watched the kids come out. A teacher then started brandishing a thermometer. Two minutes later sports day was cancelled as the thermometer was above X degrees and the kids were in danger.

      youre quite right, diseases that were more or less stamped out years ago are now making a comeback, main one being rickets.

    • Posted

      That is so true!  I hadn't thought of it that way until now.
    • Posted

      Yes, it was dermatology. They kept going on about testing for skin cancer and I kept saying, it is nothing to do with cancer (that's when the questionairre came out about about my outdoor habits, I resisted the temptation to say nude sunbathing - although I sometimes say things like that, just to amuse myself and get a rise out of the other person), the doctor sent me here, instead of the main GP doing it in surgery, because of the potential for a large claret spillage all over the place.

      The doctor seems decent, and they have listened to me and done the bloods first. But I just know that they haven't taken it all in. I know as soon as they remove it, one of them will say, 'oh my, there is a lot of bleeding going on' and I shall pass them the face cloth I will have brought with me and say, that will give you about three minutes before it is completely saturated, I'd get a move on with the cauterising if I were you.

      I'd never been advised of vitamin D supplements either, but that bit that I copied and pasted, chimes in with my symptoms.

    • Posted

      I just read on a website that Sunblock does NOT block the Vitamin D.

      My other Dr. also never focused on this vitamin.  Yes, it causes myopathy and also memory loss...which I have a big problem with my memory.  I don't what drove THIS Dr. to test me for this vitamin..but i'm glad she did.

      ​The supplement must be strong because I picked it up yesterday and the directions are only to take 1 per week.  And liquid form works better than the dry pill.  She gave me the capsules with the liquid oil in them.

      ​I took one yesterday..no change in my bathroom problem yet.  I am seeing the Gastro Dr. today.

      ​I'm glad drinking is one of the reasons Vitamin D can be short too..because cancer is also one of the reasons we can have trouble absorbing the vitamin.  I have to think rationally that I drank for a month straight...and that is the "cause". 

      ​Also, I read that if our vitamin D is in normal range....that our bodies are able to FIGHT CANCER and even prevent it.

    • Posted

      ps..I also read that it is NOT likely that our bodies will make up the deficiency with food and sun alone.....and if there is a deficiency it needs a boost (basically) by a supplement to regenerate back to the healthy level.

      ​So, if anyone is drinking or has drank...that tells me...they should ask their Dr. for a Vitamin D check.

    • Posted

      Sunblock does block UV, it does allow some through, but not enough. The UK is currently experiencing a four fold increase in rickets.

      Whilst some of that will be down to darker skinned immigrants, whose pigment does not allow much UV through naturally, it seems mainly down to the use of sunblock and kids playing indoors on gaming machines.

    • Posted

      Yes, I will agree that we deplete our bodies of some resources far quicker than the body can replace them trhough natural means, when drinking. Plus we don't tend to eat well either, 'cause that just gets in the way of drinking and seems too much like hard work.
    • Posted

      Interesting discussion, learnt a lot about vit b and checked my vits this morning. I have always taken calcium, vit B as I don't and can't drink milk or eat dairy since I was about 2. It says I take 100 percent rda plus 200 percent in my abc plus vits and minerals tablet. So I'm taking 300 percent. Don't have any tummy problems though.

      And. Regarding the sun, I had to study suntanning for coarses I was on. We didn't know much about the dangers of UV when we were young but where skin cancer is concerned, the worst damage is done when you get sunburnt as a child and doesn't show up until decades later. The most at risk are fair skinned. Also 90 percent of skin aging is caused by the sun which is abit scarey. Even looked at one of those screens that show up skin damage which is also very scary. You can get UV damage even when it's cloudy so I wear sun protection on face spf 15 all year round( in my face cream) as I walk my dog every day for an hour. I suppose I'm vein as I don't want to look 70 when I'm 50..haha!! 

      Rather silly when I'm worrying about this though when I'm damaging myself for years through alcohol abuse !!!

    • Posted

      OMG..I NEVER ate when drinking....and I don't know why.

      ​Went to my appt.  My folic acid was too high as well...and that can also cause stomach problems.  If anyone is taking this everyday...I would watch it....

      ​Colitis is my temporary diagnosis...they are going to see how I do on this medicine they prescribed.  I was honest about the "drinking" and asked if drinking could cause "Colitis" and she said it very well could be a contributor too it.

      ​She also said that if we tested EVERYONE in the office for Vitamin D...because we live in the NorthEast...she could bet that EVERYONE would be deficient.  She told me that she herself had a level of 8ng/mL.  I only know the lowest it should be is 30.  I did not look up the high end.  So that made me feel better...that she had it to in the past.

    • Posted

      That was funny what you said about being vein.  I'm the same way...but only when I'm sober.  I don't give a crap when I am drinking I don't even go out if I am drinking.

      ​But, my hair has to be perfect when sober!  I went 25 days without showering on the last binge...and my hair was suffering..had so many knots it was a real JOB to brush thru it the first time.  It purely exhausted me. 

      ​But, your right...I try to make myself look my best if I can...and it just doesn't make any sense how I could destroy my looks and my internal organs with alcohol.

    • Posted

      I eat like a pig when drinking,hence why I went from 8 stone in my thirties to 12 stone in my fourties.....and that's one of the reasons I get so depressed,I hate being so fat sad

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