Vitamin D & Toxicity: Can I smack my PCP?

I asked to have my vitamin D level tested, as it was low pre-surgery and my doc suggested I take 1,000 daily supplements.  Of course I did my own research and started taking vitalady's 50,000 iu three times a week instead.  I got an email from my doc saying that my vitamin level was high and to stop taking it.  I wrote back asking what her definition of high is and to please release the results to me.  This was her response:
 

"Your vitamin D level is in the toxic range. This should not be higher than 80. Even with bariatric patients, I prefer to see this in the 40-50 range. Please hold off on the vitamin D supplements completely for the next 7-10 days then restart at the lower dose as recommended by the NP you saw."

Component Your Value Standard Range Units

VITAMIN D TOTAL	94.1	30.0 - 80.0	ng/mL

It doesn 't seem to me that this is really that high OR toxic?  Why would she want my vitamin D level to stay so low?  I'm trying to figure out how to respond to her but am not sure.  Any suggestions?

S

       

Well, you could let her know that the Linus Pauling Institute says your vitamin D level  needs to be at least 80, otherwise you're at increased risk for stuff like osteoporosis, heart disease and some kinds of cancer.  So she might prefer patients keep their level in the 40-50 range, but I prefer to decrease my risk of osteoporosis if I can.

Your level is 94?  That's great.  I would not cut back at all. 

I let my vitamin D level get in the 100's and started having heart palpitations and fast heart rate.  Vita lady says that you can't get toxic with vitamin D but when my levels got high I started having symptoms.

I would be carefull if you start having any symptoms with your heart.  I like my levels in the 80's


Tamara

I just wanted to mention that the Vitamin D Council says that vitamin D toxicity generally does not occur until your level reaches a least 200-250 and often people do not develop toxicity even at those levels.  I'm not saying your heart issues were not due to your vitamin D level being in the 100's, I have no idea what caused your heart issues, but just wanted to point out that the Vitamin D Council says that if someone has symptoms of toxicity and their level is less than 200, those symptoms are likely due to other causes.

Obviously you want to be careful with anything that affects your heart, and perhaps vitamin D affects you at a much lower level than it affects most other people for some reason.  I guess my main point is that most people can have vitamin D levels over 100 and be perfectly safe.

I had a vitamin D deficiency before surgery as well and just had mine checked this week and my doc started me on 50,000 units once a week for the next 2 months. Maybe I should have found out what my level was...thanks for posting this. Makes a person think :)

Is that the prescription D?  Because that is D2 and it's not absorbed well.  D3 is absorbed much better.  Also, have you had surgery now?  If so, you malabsorb fats so that D2 that is in oil will not work well for you at all.  You would need dry D3.

And finally, if your level is very low and you've had surgery, 50,000 IU once a week, even if it was dry D3, would not make much a difference.  You would need to take it more often than that.

Oh, and one more thing.  It's always, always a good idea to get a copy of your lab report so you can see your numbers.

94 definitely isn't toxic, it is a good level but I wouldnt' want it to go much higher.  Most labs read the range up to 100, 80 is the old range.  You respond to vitalady's vitamin D like I did - I started at 36 at my 5 week labs and then when I switched from the prescription D to vitalady's D- I jumped to 97 in 2months.

It is a balancing act at this point to try to keep it around 80-100 range, to me I try to keep it 80-90 at this point since last year I did get crazy high.  Out of the blue, my levels went to greater than 150, they couldn't measure it was over there threashold.  At that point, I had to stop it for 2 weeks and get retested - it went down 112, and then I went to 2 times per week instead of 3 times perweek and all was fine from there.

For you, I definitely wouldnt' stop it completely.  You might want to take it 3 times per week one week and then 2 times per week the next week and try that for 2 months and see how your levels come out.

Sounds like my surgeon's NP.  My D was 87 and she was stressing about toxicity.  She said my level was the highest she had ever seen in a WLS patient.  87.