Vitamin d deficiency: muscle weakness, twitching, neuropathy-like pain

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Hi. All.

I wanted to share my story and possibly get some advice/information from anyone reading this.

I have lived all my life in lower latitude places and never had to worry about vitamin-d deficiency. I moved to a higher latitude (44deg N) place in the US three years back and in the dark months(oct-April) I would have abdominal sounds/stomach rumbling that I could never figure out the reasons for.

I might have had some order of vitamin-d deficiency all the three years, but things came to head in Nov,2020.

On Nov15, 2020, I went for a soccer game and had an intense workout, more than my usual exertion. I felt flu-ish after the game with weakness and body aches the following night. I got worried about having contracted COVID and isolated myself. My weakness disappeared in 48hours and I thought it was a false alarm. So, I went for a hike 20th, and all the problems returned. Once again, I isolated myself, but the covid test came negative. The next 20 days, I'd be mostly in my room and had a poor diet lacking in vitamin-B12 as well.

25days into it, my muscles became so weak one day that I was having to almost drag my feet, also I started to have muscle twitching which sometimes felt like pulse bounding(arteries throbbing conspicuously) as well. My anxiety was going through the roof. Also, I would have a lot of headaches. And I started to have prickly/pointlike burning sensations (almost the way it feels when you are too warm and need to take off your jacket) all over my body. This feelings would also manifest in my throat and I had wondered about possible problems with my throat as well. The doctors did a blood test and found my vitamin-d levels to be 9ng/mol. Is a onset like this consistent with other more serious conditions like ALS or MS?

I started taking 50,000IU supplements and soak in any Sun that showed up. I would have muscle pain, pain in the bones, fingers, pain in my eys, In the worst times, I would be dizzy all the time and my eyes would be painful with eye movements. which would be reddish foreseeably. Although my twitching stopped/toned down and pain lessened gradually the first couple month, they came back after a week of no Sun, although my vitamin-d levels must have improved in the 2.5months. I ran to the doctor again and my vit-d level had risen to 37ng/mol. So the doctor was surprised that my symptoms would come back and exacerbate. My blood was tested for vitamin-B12 and it was a solid 541pg/mL. I still started to take otc 2500mcg cyanocobalamin(vitamin-B12) and in a weak my tingling/prickling/pins-&-needles pain would reduce 10fold. I wish I had taken them so much sooner.

But my muscle twitching won't stop and muscle weakness in my legs has come back again. My vitamin-d levels have been good for 3+ weeks now, but muscle weakness and twitching still pretty bad. I am going to see a neurologist and am a lot worried that I might I have something worse than vitamin-d deficiency.

Can anyone with experience tell how long a time it would take from replenished vit-d levels to fix muscle weakness//twitching problems? I am noticing a lot more bone crackling/popping sounds we well when I move. I went to an optometrist and my correctional lenses have not changed power and I can stilll distinguish colors very well. I feel dizzy to the point of inability to walk right sometimes, specially if I am starving even for 10 hours. My appetite is very low. I have a lot of problem posture-wise, sometimes neck-pain makes it hard to keep my head up. I would think that although my levels are back up, maybe my muscles and bone would take time to recover to a normal state. Or might I have a more sinister illness that the vit-d deficiency just coincided with.

S

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  • Posted

    Hey,

    I have experienced every single symptom you have mentioned here along with a few more. I assume they're all due to vitamin d deficiency because my doctor could not find anything else. I was diagnosed in june 2020 and have been supplementing ever since then without fail. Most of my symptoms have become much milder in intensity compared to when it all first started. I still get tired easily, have one second dizzy spells every few days, have a slight sense of feeling off balance that lasts a couple of seconds and have blurry vision. From what Ive heard from other people it takes a long time for the symptoms to resolve completely, over a year. It has been really hard but I'm hoping these remaining symptoms will eventually go.

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