Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Story of Vitamin D Toxicity (2022)

devaboone.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 170 posts

Re: Story of Vitamin D Toxicity (2022)

#11

Post by JohnMakin »

alyandon wrote: post #9
JohnMakin wrote: post #4

I struggle to believe that a physician told her to take 5000 IU of vitamin D daily for 5+ years. This is nearly 10x canada's recommended winter time dose for adults under 70. After years of struggling with severe joint pain and mental fog/depression, among other things it was discovered that I had critically low vitamin D. They prescribed the 5000 dose but told me at least 10 times how I should NOT continue this high…

I was diagnosed with low serum levels of vitamin D so I take daily supplements. The general guidance for my condition is 1000 IU daily. At one point in time, I discovered I had been taking 5000 IU/day instead of 1000 IU/day for about 180 days because of the bottles being identical except for the dosage printed in Flyspeck Times Roman 4pt. Fortunately, I alerted my doctor and a followup blood test confirmed I was stil…

Yea, the dosage and labeling for sure needs work. I see 2000 IU doses regularly sold in stores and the bottle says you can take 2/day. Obviously no doctor would recommend that for anyone not sick. I also get regular blood tests since, I'd guess most people using supplements do not.

Re: Story of Vitamin D Toxicity (2022)

#12

Post by skerit »

> Vitamin D is a steroid hormone, in the same category as sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone, and glucocorticoids like the stress hormone cortisol. Steroid hormones are all made from cholesterol, and looking at their molecular structures, you can see the similarities

Does it matter that 2 different things have a similar molecular structure? Surely a tiny little difference can have a huge difference in how a substance interacts with our body?

Re: Story of Vitamin D Toxicity (2022)

#13

Post by aidenn0 »

snapcaster wrote: post #3

Interesting stuff, I hear people advocating vitamin D supplement all the time. I'm wary of supplements in general so have mostly avoided it but never realized it could be dangerous (I tend to think I should be able to get everything I need from my diet)

> (I tend to think I should be able to get everything I need from my diet)

I should note that pale skin is a mutation developed because Europeans in a certain range could not get sufficient vitamin D from their diet, which was mostly cereal crops.

Also, disease can change things. A family member had leukemia and after it was in remission, she has needed to take very high levels of vitamin D to maintain recommended blood levels. Her required supplementation is high enough that her doctor has her take regular blood tests to make sure it doesn't go too high.

Re: Story of Vitamin D Toxicity (2022)

#14

Post by I_Am_Nous »

skerit wrote: post #12

> Vitamin D is a steroid hormone, in the same category as sex hormones like estrogen and testosterone, and glucocorticoids like the stress hormone cortisol. Steroid hormones are all made from cholesterol, and looking at their molecular structures, you can see the similarities Does it matter that 2 different things have a similar molecular structure? Surely a tiny little difference can have a huge difference in how a…

It can, in this case our body can swap the "dangly bits" of cholesterol to something different like vitamin D. Aside from this, it also depends on the receptor in question. Some receptors can accept levo and dextro molecules even though they are mirrored and therefore different shapes, while some have higher affinity for one and the other basically doesn't fit at all.

Re: Story of Vitamin D Toxicity (2022)

#16

Post by red-iron-pine »

JohnMakin wrote: post #4

I struggle to believe that a physician told her to take 5000 IU of vitamin D daily for 5+ years. This is nearly 10x canada's recommended winter time dose for adults under 70. After years of struggling with severe joint pain and mental fog/depression, among other things it was discovered that I had critically low vitamin D. They prescribed the 5000 dose but told me at least 10 times how I should NOT continue this high…

5000 IU daily for 5 years is crazy.

Vit D is fat soluble and will stay in the body a long time. Short term big bursts if you're deficient are probably fine, but more than 2000 IU a day for years makes me nervous.

for comparison, Vit C is water soluble and you can slam Emergen-C 2000 mg packets without issue as long as you're hydrated and have working kidneys -- you'll pee it out.

Re: Story of Vitamin D Toxicity (2022)

#17

Post by DarknessFalls »

halfmatthalfcat wrote: post #10

Isn’t that why you’re also suppose to take K2 with Vit D?

I think so, but I'm not 100% sure how it was producing cognitive effects. Most doctors don't seem to recommend K2 in addition to D3. Vitamin K would have helped to channel calcium into her bones and out of her soft-tissues. This would have helped significantly with her osteopenia and would have lowered her blood serum calcium levels.

The other thing that the article omits is that overweight people don't metabolize Vitamin D as effectively. It gets stored in fat. So if this subject was thin or in excellent shape, that would have been a factor in determining the proper dosage as well.

Re: Story of Vitamin D Toxicity (2022)

#19

Post by hammock »

JohnMakin wrote: post #4

I struggle to believe that a physician told her to take 5000 IU of vitamin D daily for 5+ years. This is nearly 10x canada's recommended winter time dose for adults under 70. After years of struggling with severe joint pain and mental fog/depression, among other things it was discovered that I had critically low vitamin D. They prescribed the 5000 dose but told me at least 10 times how I should NOT continue this high…

The widely used daily recommended amounts of Vitamin D (600 IU in the US and Canada) are wrong, by a factor of 10, and based on a math typo that no one caught until 2017: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5541280/. I guess many still don't realize this fact.

"We call public health authorities to consider designating as the RDA ... around 8000 IU for adults"

Re: Story of Vitamin D Toxicity (2022)

#20

Post by shadowgovt »

snapcaster wrote: post #3

Interesting stuff, I hear people advocating vitamin D supplement all the time. I'm wary of supplements in general so have mostly avoided it but never realized it could be dangerous (I tend to think I should be able to get everything I need from my diet)

That advocacy makes sense for a lot of Americans. A combination of living in latitudes north of 45 degrees and the general trend of people moving to work indoors really depresses natural generation of the vitamin for a lot of people.

But as with so many other things, it's not hard to go overboard.

Post reply on HN