help with vit D levels

I don't have time to read every page here.  However, if it's not been mentioned, it's very important to take your Vitamin D with fat.  It is a fat soluble "vitamin."

As for the Vitamin D Counsel...I've found their website many years ago before the Vitamin D hype.  Back then I don't think they offered tests or sold viamins.  They do offer links to studies. I get their newsletter.

If vitamin D did not seem so important, most doctors would not be jumping on the band wagon.  Some are not as informed so they do not see the need to get the levels higher than WE want them.  However, I'm glad to see they are at least ordering D blood levels.

Good luck to all. 

Here is one of the links (just one of many which I posted on I believe page one of this thread), and when you click on any of the diseases, there are references. My D3 levels are 66 ng/ml.

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/research.shtml

Congrats, asschercut! I've noticed my bones are less achey. One of the Vitamin D scholars reported in her video (she was an oncologist) that many patients who could not take Arimidex were able to on Vitamin D.

Her main concern is that she felt her poorer patients should have the cost of Vitamin D covered by insurance.

Is Bioceuticals only available in Australia? I've been taking Biotics Vitamin D Forte Emulsion drops. But it's a little expensive.

Thanks Lucy88. I am thrilled with my D3 level results. I paid $17, and achieved those results with one little 50ml bottle, and am now upon my second - a small price to pay. Bioceuticals is a practitioner's brand here in Oz. It's one of the best in our country, I believe- alongside with the pharma-food range...most of which is also a practitioner range. I also take Bioceuticals iodine. I am not sure which countries these products are available in.

Do any of you here take natural calcium, sourced from the ocean? I had four naturopaths highly recommend ‘Ocean Milk' (coral calcium)...and ‘Lifestream Natural Calcium' in powder form, produced from a sea vegetable. I've been taking/alternating these two products for about a year now...with my D3 drops, and l quite like them.

http://www.alternativehealth.com.au/Product/coral_calcium.htm

http://www.femail.com.au/lifestream-natural-calcium-for-osteoporosis.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Most calcium supplements are predominantly sourced and processed from NON-organic material:
CALCIUM FORM SOURCE

Calcium Carbonate The rock known as limestone or a precipitated chalk (iii).

Calcium Citrate Limestone / chalk processed with lactic and citric acids.

Calcium Gluconate Limestone / chalk processed with gluconic acid.

Calcium Hydroxyapatite Degreased & processed cow bone.

Calcium Lactate Limestone / chalk processed with lactic acid.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After reading the above...I personally found the ocean based calcium a nice/healthier alternative.

Have a lovely day...x

Calcium from rock is natural since the rock is made of ancient sea shells. 

Coral calcium comes from one of two sources.  It can come from live coral and in that case you are contributing to the destruction of the world's coral reef.  It can come from dead coral and in that case the coral probably died from pollution of the water it lived in.

I'll stick to calcium from prehistoric corals an shells such as chalk.

You are right in that coral gets broken up by storms.  It is chewed up and pooped out by fish such as the parrot fish.  It is eaten by starfish.  Coral species even wage war on one another although very slowly.  However coral is, in almost all parts of the earth, under threat by pollution and global warming. Coral is calcium carbonate the same calcium found in Tums.

I have been unable to find any independent sites discussing lithothamnium calcereum.  Do you have a link to a site that does not sell the product?  I would like to know more about it and how it is processed to remove impurities.

Isn't this the "help with vit D levels??????

Does anyone know if the vit d that I'm taking says "not from fish oil" is good or bad???

Patty

I got confused somewhere in the last few pages I've read here.  Ladies, when you get your Vit. D level checked, isn't it for all Vitamin D?   Some have written that they had their D3 checked...is that a different and separate test?  I have had the bloodwork to check my Vit. D.  I don't need another test for D3, do I?

Dear elimar,

Go back to page 1 of this thread and read the links I have posted on Vitamin D. Here is one on the testing from the Vitamin D council. The test is the 25-hydroxy.

http://www.zrtlab.com/vitamindcouncil/

What are your levels? They have a different reading if you are in Canada. Mine are 66 ng/ml, and my testing was done at Mayo Clinic.

I have a best friend who was Dx with TNBC in January of 2009, had a double mastectomy March 3, 2009, and no further treatments. She just had her D levels done and she is at 77 ng/ml !!!!!!!!!!! She had been taking 10,000 IU's per day for a year now, and now she is taking 15,000 IU's a day. You have to take Magnesium (recommended dosage is 400 mg), or your body will not absorb the D.

oh and leeny is right, D3 is fat soluable so take it with a meal, or...before bedtime with a snack, and you will sleep much better.

Another really good article on D3. If the media would get the facts straight when reporting about D3, perhaps people would be taking the proper dosage.

http://www.vrp.com/articles.aspx?ProdID=2130

Dear olivia,

What you are taking is D2 and not D3, unless you are from Austrailia. If you don't believe me call your pharmacy and ask them if your script is cholecalciferol (D3), or ergocalciferol. The script form of D2 are brand names Driscol and Calciferol. First sweetie, they are totally worthless, and D2 is the plant-based form. It is a form not found naturally in humans. When you're exposed to the sun, what form of vitamin D is activated in the skin? It's all vitamin D3, no vitamin D2 whatsoever.

Why would you want to continue to take something that is making you sick? Olivia, just stop taking it!! Just take 10,000 IU's of D3 every day, and your D levels will go up. I did not look back over this thread to see if you posted your D levels. I am assuming they are low? Are you, or have you been taking Magnesium? Did your doctor tell you that you had to take Magnesium for the D to be absorbed?

Dear Olivia,  

I wrote a reply to you last night and it is somewhere in cyber space! lol!! I am assuming once again that your levels must be very low, or she would not have called you. I would call tomorrow morning and ask them to give you your D levels.Then when you go for your appt. on the 15th, request that you receive a copy of all your test results. That is your right. Keep them all in a notebook, and these will be the baseline in the future. Most oncs do not have a clue about vitamins/supplements or nutrition. They have about one hour training in medical school on these, as all the medical text books are written by the pharmaceutical companies. The pharmaceutical reps push the script D2.  

I am not a doctor, only the mother of a woman dx with TNBC. However, common sense tells me that your body is regecting the D2 script, and if it was me, I would not take it. That of course is your decision.

So, it was your nutritionist who requested the D level testing and not the onc. Yup! that figures. Every person dx with cancer should have their levels checked immediately upon dx, and then supplementaion started if you are deficient. In the almost 3 years that I have been posting and reading on BC sites, I bet I can count on one hand the times I have read of an onc ordering D level testing. They are clueless. Of course so are most PCP's.

Hi 123Donna!

Did you read the article that I posted on April 10? Just a few posts behind this one. The safe upper limit is 10,000 IU's. You only rose 3 ng/ml in 3 months.For every 10ng/ml that you want to rise, you have to add 1000 IU's, so to get your levels to 100 ng/ml, you need to add about 4000 IU's more daily. You didn't mention the Magnesium, and that is a must do.There is a gal on this site who is in full remission and her D3 levels are 108 ng/ml. Her onc told her to keep doing whatever she was doing. One smart onc...wish they all would learn from him!!

Nan,

The oncologist and the nutritionist both requested the Vitamin D  level. The oncologist is the one who called me to tell me it was low.  

I have not had my vitamin D tested by my primary physician yet to have it sent to the nutritionist.

So, long story short - both independent of one another wanted it tested.  

Olivia 

Dear Donna,

Three years ago when Lori was dx, I had never heard of D3 as an immune booster. It was Ronda who educated all of us on the TNBC site. However, since all the oncs tell a woman on chemo that she cannot take any supplements/vitamins, as it "may" alter the effect of the chemo, Lori never started the D3 until after. Ronda on the other hand, took all the supplements/vitamins, did colon cleanses, you name it she did it. She came through chemo,rads and even a hysterectomy, much better than anyone else. As Lori has said if she knew then what she knows now, she would have taken everything and not told the onc. Her body, and her life.She says it is not her responsbility to educate the doctors.

If the breast surgeons would follow the protocol for removing tumors/cancer, it could save millions of lives.If the women would insist that they follow this protocol, they could possibly save their own lives. "Preventing Surgery Induced Cancer Metastasis", an article worth reading.

My friend's son was dx with lung cancer in October, the surgeon at MSK insisted that he have chemo first, and he could not take any supplements/vitamin. Well, the chemo did nothing, and in fact the tumors grew. When they did surgery, he was not permitted to take anything then either. They aborted the operation and gave him 2-6 months to live.

Just recently, he was operated on again at Brigham and Women's, they removed the entire lung..."got all the cancer", said he would live to be 105, and before the operation he was told to take Vitamin C, D3, and also potassium. He is home now and is doing very very well!! What a difference in protocol. Either that or the other surgeon was just plain ignorant of the benefits of supplements. I think the latter, although the other surgeon did say he followed "protocol". They need to change as people are dying needlessly.