It’s time I blogged about Vitamin D. It was in about March 2008 that I started taking 1,000 IU of Vitamin D per day. A chronic pain issue I’d had for many years disappeared within two weeks. It was like a healing miracle for me!
My Story
It was December 2007. I was feeling like a fat slug, in my post-holiday stupor from over-feasting. I had been in chronic pain since I suffered a foot injury in 1998. I broke my fifth metatarsal stepping off a curb. For those of you who like medical details, it was Jones fracture.
My fracture healed, with the help of some surgery, but as the months passed walking became painful. At its worst the pain was a sharp pain that felt exactly like the original fracture, though less intense. Usually I felt this pain as I was stepping up onto my bent toes, trying to shift my weight forward as I took a step. At rest the pain was a dull ache.
My foot specialist could not find anything whatsoever that might have caused this pain, though he examined and x-rayed it more than once. At some point, I felt my only sensible choice was to grit my teeth and live with it. It was several years later that I started shopping for a cane and a chronic pain specialist.
Then came the major turning point in the story. Not far into 2008, a friend recommended 1,000 IU of Vitamin D per day.
I want to stop here for one second, and encourage you not to give up. If somebody makes a suggestion to you to try something (like Vitamin D, or whatever..), and you can afford it, and it won’t harm you… why not just try it? Don’t be afraid to try something just because it may not work. I don’t want to miss — and I woudn’t want you to miss — the thing that does work!
I really didn’t think the Vitamin D would help me at all. But it was cheap. So, I tried it. Three days later, about 50% of the pain was gone! Within two weeks, ALL the pain was gone. There was some tenderness in that part of my foot for a while, maybe a few months, but the REAL PAIN WAS REALLY GONE! And REALLY FAST! I could walk without hunching over. Without wincing. Without faultering. I was healed!
Vitamin D
After that, I followed up with some reading about Vitamin D. Historically, there has been a lot of concern about Vitamin D toxicity, due to the fact that Vitamin D is a fat-soluable vitamin (it is actually a hormone, not a vitamin), and can accumulate in fat tissue in amounts that could become toxic. But, in contrast to concerns over toxicity is the growing belief that most of us are Vitamin D deficient. Perhaps even severely deficient.
As I read about Vitamin D, I came to believe that reports of toxic accumulation were grossly exaggerated. For those of you with fact-seeking minds: no, I don’t have any proof of this. I read conflicting stories; I chose which ones I wanted to believe. That’s all. Am I always right? No.
I am a big believer in Vitamin D. In addition to eliminating my foot pain, taking Vitamin D has also really improved my resistance to respiratory infections, cold, flu etc. I think there are many more benefits that I don’t even know about. The daily dose I have ended up with is about 6,000 IU.
If you want to find more information about the benefits of Vitamin D, there is A LOT of information out there. Vitamin D is a very popular topic of study and conversation right now. I have listed a few resources below to get you started.
Lovin’ It Low Carb
Ramona Denton
The Vitamin D Council Recommends
Take 5,000 IU of Vitamin D per day for three months.
Obtain a 25-hydroxyvitamin D test.
Then, adjust your dosage so that blood levels are between
50–80 ng/mL (or 125–200 nM/L) year-round.
Three Ways To Get Enough Vitamin D
- regular midday sun exposure
- regular use of a sun bed
- supplementation
Further Reading
Web Resources
Vitamin D Resources page at Mercola.com
Here’s an interesting article, also from Dr. Mercola, called Breakthrough Updates You Need to Know on Vitamin D. It lists many conditions associated with Vitamin D deficiency, including Diabetes, Obesity and Syndrome X.
Dr. Mercola has some very controversial opinions, and sells a plethora of products on his website, which some people don’t like. In my opinion, his Vitamin D stuff is some of his best. I don’t agree with him about everything, but I always find his opinions interesting and often thought-provoking. I do recommend his informational resources to thinking people, who like to consider all available options!
Books at Amazon
The Vitamin D Cure
by James Dowd M.D. and Diane Stafford
The Vitamin D Revolution: How the Power of This Amazing Vitamin Can Change Your Life
by Dr. Soram Khalsa M.D.
Vitamin D: Antidote to Winter and the Darkness
by Michael Merrill
Go Back to Lovin’ It Low Carb Homepage
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what a story! one idea this tiny miracle made me think of is, if your foot pain was so relieved at the smaller dose, then it shows me not to fret if i can only take a portion of the recommended doses. sometimes supplements can drain the wallet, so any level of nutrition is better than blowing it off. thanks for sharing this.
Yes, Rachel, I wholeheartedly agree!! Whatever you can take will be of help to you, in my opinion. I took only 1,000-2,000 IU for a few months, and it kept the pain away. I stopped taking it to see what would happen, and it took about two weeks of skipping Vitamin D until the pain came back again! Then I get relief in about 3 days after I started taking it again.
I did not notice my respiratory problems, and lower frequency of catching colds, improve that much until I started taking the higher dose of at least 3,000 IU. After I took that for a while, I started buying 2,000 IU gelcaps, and that’s when I went to 6,000 IU per day.
Vitamin D is absorbed so differently by different people of different weights and with different health conditions, whatever small dose you can take may be helping you quite a lot. Best of luck to you!