D is for Deficient in Vitamin D

"How much blood are you going to take from me today?" I asked the lab tech at my primary care physician's office. 

"Oooh, well, you don't really want to know," said the big black woman as she swabbed my arm.  The smell of alcohol stung my nasal passages.  "In fact, honestly, you might want to turn away."

I did as I was told.  I'm not one to argue with my phlebotomist.  After all, they're the ones who have the right to stick you with a sharp object and watch you bleed, and that's their jobs and all...I would imagine they could make the whole process a hell of a lot more nasty at the drop of your hat if you're an unmitigated bitch to them.

Well, eight long tubes of blood later, I thought, that wasn't so bad.  Until I stood up and the room kinda did a little dance on me.

I staggered out of the room and up the hall like I'd just gotten out of a frat party, circa 1991, but a whole lot less fun involved, gotta say. 

A week later, the phone call came in.  It was Dr. Awesome's assistant, and she said, "Well, the good news is, all but one blood test came back normal."

"And the bad news?"

"The one that came back abnormal shows that your Vitamin D levels are very very low.  So you have to take fifty thousand units at a time." 

"Wait.  Did you say fifteen thousand?"

She laughed.  "No, dear.  FIFTY THOUSAND units."

"Oh, God, well, I've got a Walgreens right by me, so I'll run out and get some, I guess."

"You might want to tell me which one:  you have to have a prescription to get 50,000 unit increments."  She laughed harder now.  "I mean, after all, without a prescription you'd be swallowing a bottle a day!"

Am I a goofball or what?  But what do I know?  2009 was the year I began a serious trek back to a healthy life.  I've lost 42 pounds total, stopped drinking soda of any kind in March of '09 and I cut down on my Coffee Coolatta obsession from daily to weekly...and now I'm at once a month.  You laugh, go ahead, but I'll take my freakin' progress however I can.  I returned to Tae Kwan Do and I was exercising daily until I got bronchitis in October...and after I recovered from that, then came my stupid Bell's Palsy.  Bite me.

So now I'm taking Vitamin D like a fiend.  One of my blog's readers sagely recommended I discuss Vitamin D.  Well, kudos to her.  Here's the discussion.

In the Northeast where I live, adults and children alike are found, especially as of late, to be seriously deficient in Vitamin D.  How deficient?  Well, researchers from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia measured kids' blood concentration from this part of the country and found that over half of them had inadequate Vitamin D levels.  OVER HALF.  And that's just our children...if you're an adult, whether male or female, you run the risk of osteoporosis or osteomalacia (bone softening) if you have such a deficiency.  That's one yucky collision course with nasty aging, y'all.

Vitamin D promotes healthy bones because it aids in the absorption of calcium; it also has been found, according to recent and mounting studies, to stave off Type 1 diabetes; alleviates muscle and bone pain; breast cancer; bone cancer; colon cancer; prostate cancer; ovarian cancer; esophageal cancer; and cancer of the lympathic system.  Could this be why cancer is on the rise?  People just aren't getting their Vitamin D?  Oh, and don't give me that crap that you don't live in the Northeast so you're probably OK and/or you're outdoors a lot.  If you use sunscreen, it is known to counteract the Vitamin D benefits of 15 minutes of sunlight--and that includes everyday sunscreen, makeup, etc.  Plus, experts are now saying that it isn't worth the risk of skin cancer to forego utilizing sunscreen just to get your Vitamin D (well, duh....).

But 600 IU daily is what we're supposed to get, and trust me, food isn't exactly filled to the brim with it.  GET A SUPPLEMENT!  And if you're constantly getting sick all the time, consider 1,000 to 2,000 IU daily (please run this past your doctor, but it's the sort of thing you could probably call his/her nurse with in terms of a quick question).  What foods can you eat to help get your daily Vitamin D dose?  Try fortified milk; soy milk; rice milk; salmon; shrimp; and eggs.  Lactose intolerant?  Don't like these foods?  Did I mention take a supplement?  Oh, yeah, I did.  It costs, like, under six bucks to get a bottle of Vitamin D pills from your local supermarket...that's gonna run you about what a bag of chips and a bottle of dip will run you, so please don't whine to me about the cost of supplements, because Lord knows you're probably familiar with chips and dip, folks.  Forgo one round of the latter to get cozy with the former, because Vitamin D should be everyone's friend!  At 50,000 units daily, it's my freakin' lover!

Comments

[Lisa]

I'm so glad you gave a nod to "D" vitamin! (That was supposed to be a play on words there, like "the" vitamin because this stuff is potent IMO.) Just one little FYI...based on what I've read, it's important to get the GEL caps, not the tablets, to help with absorption of the supplement.

Also too, I'm definitely trying to get a few minutes of real sun (minus the screen) whenever possible. I really feel the 10-15 minutes per day that you need for Vit D isn't enough to hurt you minus the sunscreen. But that's just my opinion. I hope "D" stands for "Damn, this stuff works" and you're on the mend faster as a result!

[Debbie Ball]

I am currenty on the same does of vitamin D perscription. Have have both bone and muscle pain. This is REAL! Thanks for sharing Stac!