Another Vitamin D ?

Do you still suppliment during the summer?  I just read a report that said you get 10,000 iu vit D from 10 minutes in the sun in shorts and a teeshirt, mid day.  So if you are outside the majority of the time during the summer with no sunblock is there a necessity to suppliment?  I know I will have to during the winter.

Yes, DS'ers have to supplement all year round.

What Julie said. Plus, would you really want to spend all summer without sunblock just to try and get a bit more vitamin D? Skin cancer ain't no joke.

No I do not wear sunblock unless I am going to be by the water or out for long time.  My son is allergic to sunblock.  We have his special expensive stuff but only use it when necessary. 

I get a LOT of sun in ALABAMA.  The skin cancer people would have me strung up.  My D is still only in the 50s and I was taking 50k twice a day AND getting sun.

What is your current D level?

So yes, you still have to supplement.

~Becky

She said it was alittle low but I had them done towards the end of winter.  She said as long as I am getting outside now I should be fine. That there was no need to suppliment till after surgery.  When I go on the 20th I am going to ask for the exact number

I was a little low prior to surgery and they didn't recommended me taking anything additional, but I decided to "Vitamin D load" prior thinking that it would be better and easier to get that high before surgery. 

 

6 months post op I'm still low...maintaining, but low.

Do your best to get to the high end of the reference range now before it becomes an uphill battle.
Just my $0.02

What does a "little low" mean?  Are you taking your doc's word that you are a little low or have you seen the actual lab value?

Now is the you can start learning to advocate for yourself.  If you are low pre-op you can bet your ass you will be low post-op.  And it is very, very hard to bring your levels up post-op b/c of our malabsorption.  So do what you can NOW, as a pre-op, to get your labs as good as you can!!  And remember - just b/c your doc wears a white coat - does NOT mean that he knows all.  You do need to question what he's telling you.

A lot of it will depend on how well you absorb it, and also how eficcient you are at PRODUCING it from UV exposure.

From the end of Sept to the beginning of May, I take D3 50k twice per day... from May to Sept, I take it once per day and my labs have been pretty awesome once I kicked them back up about 2 years ago... I'm still "in range", but I'm at the higher end of that range.