I got a call from my doctor Friday, a week after I had 6 vials of blood drawn - mostly because I hadn't had any bloodwork in three years, but these headaches/backaches/constant fatigue just weren't going away.
Turns out my vitamin D level is low. Not just low, but 'severely deficient'.
The NIH has a page on vitamin D here, where you can see the normal levels for adults should range from 30.0 to 74.0 ng/mL.
Mine was 6.
I'm on 50,000IU of vitamin D (prescription) M/W/F for six weeks. Four weeks after my last pill I have to have a redraw to see if my levels have improved. If not, we have to start trying to figure out why.
I've never had a vitamin D blood draw done before, but looking at the symptoms it's very likely I've been deficient for a long time.
If you haven't had a D test done, you definitely should. The statistics vary from 8 percent to 55 percent in estimates of people with a D deficiency... but your risk is higher if you're inside a lot, don't eat a diet high in vitamin D or have certain health problems (check here and here). It causes some major problems with your bones (makes them soft and easy to break, osteomalacia/rickets), headaches, energy levels, weight gain... and much more.
No comments:
Post a Comment