A little lab help...

First let me just say that I have been messing with my vitamins for a few weeks to see which was causing my horrible leg cramps.  It turns out that it is my multivitimin (Kirkland) that was doing it.  In the meantime I had these labs drawn.  I know I have to get back onto the correct schedule, but wanted opinions from those *****ally know what is going on.  Thanks in advance.

Iron Bind. Cap 245(low)  Range is 250-450
UIBC 161 - Range 150-375
Iron, Serum 84 - Range 35-155
Iron Saturation 34 - Range 15-55

Ferritin, Serum - 202(high) Range 13-250

Vitamin D - 29.7(low) Range 32.0 - 100.0

Preablumin - 19(low) Range 20-40 (decreased my shakes trying to get protein in with food, but just began with one shake a day again)

Protein, Total, Serum 6.6 - Range 6.0-8.5

Albumin, Serum - 4.1 - Range 3.5-5.5

Glucose - 80

Cholesterol - 100
Triglycerides - 86

HDL Cholesterol - 35 (low)

B-12, 1040 (high)
Folate, 14.1
PTH - 62

Thanks for your input.  They did not process my Vitamin A this time for some reason, have to go back for a re-draw, ugh.

I will be increasing my Iron & D and going back to at least one protein shake per day.***

 

Nothing in the multi is really shown here. It's mainly B vites, and maybe your folate, which is lower than I like but not dangerous.

Whatever you're doing with iron and B12, continue. They are not "too high". Ferritin range can vary as much as 100 pts, month to month. Keeping it around 200 is a smart idea. My last ones had a top end of 329. The next was 240. That's a big swing. I try to keep it around 200, but of course, it's not something you can nail to a single number. Many factors influence it. How you felt that day, any inflammation present, etc.

Protein and D, as you noticed need help.

Which regimen are you following?

I was following your full regiment, then backed off a bit because the vits were making me sick.

I take 2 multis - Kirklands

Iron between 4 capsules per day (going to increase to 5)

my calcium - 2 caps 3x per day
 

Vit - K  - 1000 1x per day
 

Vit - E - 400 1x per day
 

Vit - A - 25,000 1x per day
 

Vit - D - 50, 000 1x per day (thinking about increasing to 100,000 every other day to see how that works.)

Biotin - 5,000

Copper - 2mg

B-Complex  100 - 1x per day

B-12 - 5,000 - 1x per day

B-9 - 1,000 - 1 x per day

Zinc - 1x per day

I hope I am not missing anything

Also,

Calcium is 8.9 (range 8.7-10.2)

But, I also just switched to another brand among playing around with finding the vit that was cause the cramps.

I was increasing my mags to see if that would help with the cramping, nothing!!!  I just found the multi was the issue. 

I will be taking my vits properly from now on..... just tweaking them a bit per your suggestions.

 Dena, I've found that low potassium will give you leg cramps every time. Also low mag can do it.
Are you supplementing potassium? If you are not you better have your labs for it checked, it is not good for it to be low. If it is low the OTC is pretty useless just not enough there to help, so a Rx would be in order. 

Hi Dena,

Your D is way low.  Why not increase to 100,000 a DAY? 

What was your Calcium?

What about E, K, Osteocalcin?

Potassium?

You don't take any Magnesium?  Do you have problems with constipation at all?

Not sure what you mean that your multi was causing cramps???  Aren't they usually from electrolyte imbalance?  Potassium/Magnesium/Calcium?  I have cramps too and just increased my Mag Citrate and Potassium which seems to be helping.  Even though I drink over a gallon of water a day the heat caused me to start having cramps again.

~Becky

I could increase to 100,000 a day, I was just doing small tweaks, but why not go for the gusto huh?

Well when you look at how far you have to go on your D.  You want it over 100.  I've been doing 100k of D and my D is still in the 50s.

~Becky

Oh yeah Dena ... go to at least 100K ... some of us tweek up to 150 ... I'm currently 100K a day myself.

I do take the Magnesium with each dose of Calcium, knew I forgot something. 

My leg cramps were absolutely horrendous.  I kept increasing the Mag to counteract it.  There was nothing that I could take additionally that would stop it.  So, one by one, I starting changing my vits to see what the culprit was.  So I finally narrowed it down to the multi.  When I take it ...MEGA cramps, When I don't NO cramps. Weird but true.  So, I changed to a different multi, have had no problem thus far.