My Warrior Friends Need to Get Checked for This

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Hi Warriors!

I'm posting this in off topic, so I know it won't get as many views, but I sure hope it reaches people who need it.

I have been plagued with health problems since the end of June - horrid fatigue, sleeplessness, bad aches, bladder issues, you name it. Long story short - doctors thought I had a UTI (I didn't), bladder cancer (I didn't), kidney problems (I didn't), or lung cancer (I didn't).

I had a CT Scan, Cystoscopy, and chest Xrays. I curled up in a fetal position and just cried for almost 2 months. They couldn't find anything wrong with me. Yet I could barely walk from one room to the next.

I don't smoke, I don't drink, I am a vegetarian (but I eat eggs, cheese, milk etc). My cholesterol is 163, triglycerides are 111 - blood pressure 120/78. Yes, I'm overweight but otherwise healthy.

Got my well woman checkup and B12, iron and testosterone are all okay.

But I get home and see something else flagged - my vitamin D is extremely low (13 when minimum is 30 and normal is about 50-60). Way below the minimum levels. Doc says she hadn't had a chance to review it yet so she didn't tell me yet but she put me on a high dose for 3 months until a recheck.

This deficiency causes all sorts of stuff - bladder issues, back aches, brain fog (which I also had), fatigue, your immune system to not work (I was sick with colds just about all last year), and more. Sounds like chronic fatigue syndrome. Even causes depression, which I normally don't have but I sure did when they kept tossing around the C word!

Being work at home people, many of you are probably like me - indoors a lot. Well, my left arm gets some sun during carpool, but not enough to get adequate levels. I was shocked as I researched this simple vitamin. I thought since I drank milk I'd be okay. And it's not something they normally check - you have to request it.

I'm now on 5,000 IU per day to get me caught up.

Just a friendly nudge to get your levels checked. Once I announced it to my list, tons and tons of people said they also had the same problems and it turned out to be vitamin D! I never knew...

Tiff
#off topic forum
  • Banned
    It's not something a lot of people know about. I'm only abut a week ahead of the curve on this post, and it's because I happened across a thread on Reddit while looking for what kind of vitamins I should take. This is apparently a huge thing.
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    • Hi Tiff,

      Sorry to hear about your health issues, but thank goodness you seem to have found the cause - it must have been a great relief after what you've been through. Here's wishing you a speedy return to normal.

      And that's great advice for everyone who spends a lot of the day indoors, especially if hunched over a keyboard. It's important to spend some time outside - even if that's just relaxing with a glass of something cool on the patio (at least, that's my health tip).

      All the best,

      Frank
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    • This is a big problem especially for those of us who live in states where there isn't ample sunlight all year through. Here in Michigan, we have about three months of nice weather.

      I also have/had a Vitamin D deficiency and have been put on Vitamin D-3, the closest to natural sunlight.

      That's why I am out in the sun a lot, a sun worshiper even, lol, natural is always better than synthetic.

      My doctor also told me that the Winter Blues is very real and is most commonly from this vitamin D deficiency, for those of us in the Northern States. Yes, it can cause depression as well.

      Terra
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    • Vitamin D deficiency is a major problem in this country.
      I try to be in the sun as much as possible (without sun screen) and have D3 vitamins I take, mostly in the winter.
      Another thing to look out for Tiff is are you eating GMO's. Just being a vegetarian doesn't mean you're not eating them and they can cause a whole host of health problems from allergies on up.
      Look into the water you drink also, is it fluoridated?
      The fluoride in our drinking water is sodium fluoride, pretty nasty stuff. About 'Fluoride' -- Truth Every Mother Should Know
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    • 20 minutes in the sun without suncream is enough to get your daily dose.

      The body can absorb vitamin D from sunlight.

      Sorry to hear Tiff, hope you feel better soon.
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  • Hi Tiff,

    Sorry about your situation and I wish you speedy recovery. Well, I guess this all sounds a little far-fetched as I'm from Africa, the sunlight capital of the world:-).

    All the best.
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  • Hope you're feeling better, Tiff. Last summer I went to the doctor for the first time in 20 years (because of a injury, not because I felt sick) and because it had been so long since I'd seen a doctor he ran the usual blood tests, which revealed I'm healthy as horse ... with the exception of slight Vitamin D deficiency.

    So I started taking Vitamin D when I remember to take it (your post reminded me to today, otherwise I only remember 1-2 a week). The main thing though, is I get out and ride my bike everyday so I'm getting more sun. A lot of people think vitamin D comes from milk, but that's only if it's fortified. As you know, the main source of vitamin D is the sun.

    Can't say I feel any better because I wasn't feeling sick, but I have lost 20 pounds so far and my knees feel a lot better because of the exercise.
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  • Tiffany, you appear to be a Redhead - that sort of puts you between a rock and a hard place...

    Slainte'!
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  • Thanks everyone. No, my real (lol) hair color is light brown/dirty blonde.

    I stay out of the sun because I had a basal cell carcinoma on my nose about 5 years ago - all those years golfing without sunscreen and laying out at the pool in BABY OIL! Gasp.

    So I steer clear of sun but might want to do it now. I take vitamin D3 now - 5,000 IU for now. We'll see how I feel in about 6 weeks.

    Crazy how a simple vitamin wreaks havoc on you.
  • Always have a full vitamin spetrum run whenever possible when you have blood work.
    There are many that can cause problems from being too low and many that can cause problems from being too high.
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  • That which does not kill us makes us stronger.
    (“Was mich nicht umbringt macht mich stärker.”)
    Friedrich Nietzsche
    • [2] replies
    • *except when it comes to nutritional health.
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    • WOW, you read Nietzsche in the original german?

      Tiffany,

      They checked you for TESTOSTERONE? Women are VERY sensitive to that, so you would have had symptoms if it was TOO high. I can't say for women, but for men your symptoms are contraindicative of high testosterone. The only thing I have heard that gives women too much testosterone is PCOS. Too low has its own symptoms in either sex.

      BTW MY vitamin D was 20 when I was last checked, and the normal low level was 20, though they DID say they were going to raise the requirement to 30. Yeah, I keep forgetting vitamins. 8-( Vitamin D, ironically, is now, by doctors and standard reckoning, considered to NOT be a vitamin, but a HORMONE!

      Steve
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  • Hey guys,

    Just my friendly advice... whatever you do, DO NOT forget about Magnesium.

    Please listen and trust me.
    You can Google Magnesium deficiency symptoms... not pretty, I've been through 'em all.

    The worst part is that it can hardly be detected with normal blood panels. Most of your Magnesium is located in bones and organs, so it's kinda tricky to get it diagnosed.

    But please, stay safe and take your Magnesium. I've been through hell and back (panic attacks and everything).

    Have a great day and take your vitamins!

    Dan
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    • Dan,
      I wasn't going through all the different possibilities and what can happen without the proper levels,but you are right about magnesium too.

      Since my organ transplant in January of this year, I have had a very hard time keeping my magnesium in the proper range. I have ended up in the emergency room twice because it was too low, and several times guring my regular meetings with my transplant Drs the made me get IVs of magnesium right then and there.

      One of the tricky parts is that the body does not handle magnesium when taken orally for some people. I was getting sick taking the pills. We eventually got to a workable solution though.

      I drink a Carnations Breakfast Essentials once every few days. I take 2-400 mg gel caps of liquid magnesium every day,Nature's Made I think is the brand along with a multi-vitamin from a product that I actually sell.

      Since starting that, the Drs have said my magnesium,while not as high as they would like,at least has stayed in the range considered healthy.

      That was why when I posted earlier I suggested everyone having every vitamin and mineral level checked. You honestly never know where the issue might be coming from.

      PS: Potassium is another one, I believe the dangerous level for potassium is 5.8. Once above that range your heart can stop with absolutely no notice.
  • Tiffany - vitamin D deficiency is one of the most widespread problems in our country. Vitamin D deficiency causes 11 different cancers and many health problems, including syndromes. It is not just a vitamin - it is a hormone.

    The deficiency has proliferated mainly because our country allows industry to put out their own research and market it to doctors. For decades people were taught to stay out of the sun. This directive was a result of research that was funded by sunscreen industry itself. Our FDA uses research submitted by the very industries it's supposed to be controlling - fox/henhouse.

    You don't want to sunburn -this is true. But if you are either avoiding the sun completely or slathering the wrong sunscreens on - you are going to be plagued with issues that you are actually trying to avoid. A few years back an Australian scientist noticed how fast skin cancer was becoming a nightmare problem - effecting 1.5 million people a year - and found it was because people are avoiding the sun.

    You can take supplements (D3 NOT D2) and it helps - but supplements do not produce the sulfide compound that sunshine produces - and that sulfide is anti-carcenogenic. The vitamin D produced by sunshine is actually a protective agent against the radiation - so until you overdose and burn, you are getting what you need to prevent damage in the very thing you are told is bad for you. There are a lot of other benefits to sunshine, too. Synthetic melatonine will eventually lose it's effect if you take it all the time for sleeping - sunshine is a natural melatonine control and does NOT ever lose its effect. Sunlight prevents depression - there is a name for depression people go through in the winter because of lack of daylight but I don't remember now what it is.

    Get your sunshine -- if you burn easily, use sunscreen AFTER you get 15 to 20 minutes of sunshine so your body can produce that Vitamin D you need. Choose a NATURAL sunscreen. Some sunscreens have chemicals in them that are so lethal that most countries have banned them. Companies in the US just give the FDA money and some skewed research to get them through.

    Zinc oxide might not look so pretty, but it's a good screen and zinc happens to be fantastic for your skin.
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  • I'd suggest 10-15 mins of sunshine every day or every other day, and stay hydrated with quality h20. Get well

    Grant
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  • Tiffany - another thing that people misunderstand about sunshine:

    Sun will dry your skin out and make it wrinkle, so the predominant thought goes. Actually, the reason people are drying out in the sun is a lack of Omega 3 oils in their bodies. I either take a capsule of oil - flax or krill every day or sprinkle a few spoons of ground flax seed on foods. You have to grind the seed because it's too hard to digest down - but the seeds have a few benefits that pure oil doesn't - such as fiber.

    And Grant is right to stay hydrated with water that does NOT contain fluoride -- fluoride in your water will wrinkle until you can get a part in a commercial as a California Raisin.
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  • I use Sparkletts water?

    And she just started me on Triple Omega 1500 fish oil pills because even though my total cholesterol was 163, my HDL fell to 34 from 41.
  • Don't worry about your cholesterol - if ya think it's too high - take a nice paced walk for a mile or two - bike, or roller skate or dance. Aerobic exercise cleans out your blood system. You have to have some cholesterol to keep your veins from leaking and women need more than men, yet most doctors don't figure that into their equations. Just more pill pushing if ya ask me. It makes me feel better that your doctor uses omegas instead of pills though. That's a very good thing. Means he has some sharps and that he cares - - he could get commissions from selling the pills, so he must actually like you, LMAO.

    I'm not sure what Sparklett's water is. Never heard of it. I usually choose places to live that they don't dump fluoride in the water in the first place. People that live where there is dumping (yes, dumping - the type of fluoride in water isn't natural - it's industrial waste) would do best to get whole house filters and make sure that filter takes fluoride out - most won't. Reverse osmosis takes most crap out of water. Don't forget that skin is absorbent so you need to filter your bath water, too. It's even more dangerous when absorbed through skin because it bypasses toxin filtration organs.

    Kim - high potassium levels will severely fatigue you. Most people will sleep it off before they get to deadly toxic levels. I have a problem with that because I'll drink a half gallon of Apricot juice at one sitting - I love the stuff. LOL. For magnesium - seeds and nuts are loaded. If you eat the potassium at the same time as the magnesium, they kinda cancel each other out.
  • Here ya go Sal,
    Sparkletts® Home and Office Bottled Water Delivery in 3 and 5 Gallon Bottles
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  • Be a little expensive to bathe in, eh?

    Ah crap - just about to format my skin care book on kindle and don't think I mentioned sunshine once. Now I have to go look it over and add that in if it's not there. Good thing I saw this thread. Nuts. More work. Whoopie.
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  • Great thread. Learned a lot. Reminded me to take multivitams thrice a week at least and stock on those Fish capsules. They are great for balding head as well.
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    • I really hope you feel better fast Tiffany. It sucks when you're so sick and can't figure out what is happening. Been there, done that myself, and the best thing I ever did was change doctors. Make sure you give us a holler here and let everyone know how you are progressing.

      If you are you drinking a lot of coffee or soft drinks, you should ask your doctor the effect those have on your health and if you need to cut out a lot or just a little.

      Unfortunately, our area's water supply is fluoridated, one of many reasons (besides high taxes,) we'd love to move somewhere else.
  • Yes my cholesterol is low enough - has to be under 200 and I'm 163. Just that my HDL dropped a little, so I'm building that back up.

    As for bathing - no clue what's in my water there. LOL!

    I know nothing about all the magnesium and potassium, etc.

    When they first thought I had bladder cancer, they put me on a restrictive diet for 18 days - no chocolate, sugar, coffee, Cokes, tomatoes, and almost none of my favorite fruits.

    It was hell. But now I'm back. I am drinking more water than anything, though - I built a habit, so I'm glad.

    It's been an eye opener for sure.
    tiff
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    • I tend to stay away from doctors and if I have a problem try to figure it out and fix it myself. Until you get into the swing of things it can get real confusing learning about what you actually need to be healthy and how to get it.
      I blew out two disks in my lower back (again) in the beginning of May and it wasn't till the beginning of August before I got everything right and actually started healing. But once I got it right it only took a month to heal.
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  • Vitamin D3 is great!!!!!!!!!
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    • I LOVE the sun. Not one summer in my life were there any arguments logical enough to make me stop going out in the sun. I wear a bathing suit under a long white dress shirt and long jeans out in the rock and gem fields - spend a LOT of time with the clothes in the backpack just soaking up the rays. It's sooooo rejuvenating. When people say that the sun isn't good for you I always wonder where humans got so cocky that they thought they had a better environmental formula than Mother Nature's. ? Whatver - my skin is never healthier, muscles never more tone, than when I'm at least a golden brown.
  • Magnesum is VERY important! Some things that can happen if you are low in it?

    Immunity can drop!
    Memory can get worse!
    You can get arthritis!
    Healing can slow down!
    Pain and inflammation can increase.

    The GOOD thing is that most things can recover near 100% when levels rise. And the difference can be significant pretty quick.

    Steve
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    • For a natural way to get magnesium, try eating green, leafy vegetables such as spinach, collard greens and cabbage, legumes include goodies like peanuts, soybeans, lentils, beans and peas, fruits like bananas, avocado, watermelon, blackberries and raspberries. Potatoes should have both magnesium and potassium. I'm thinking that bananas probably also have potassium.

      So many of us manage to get stuck in a rut eating our favorite foods (my any time fav is hamburgers with swiss cheese and bacon) and I need to make some big changes myself. I think that change will start with adding raw spinach to the sandwich instead of lettuce
  • Sorry to hear but I'm glad you stayed on top of it, many people forget about the importance of vitamin D. I was one of them.

    Having increased melanin in my skin (melanin blocks some of the UV rays necessary to produce Vitamin D) AND working at home AND having my office in the basement AND working at night has resulted in my being extremely Vitamin D deficient as well. To be honest, I never even thought about it until the problems started.

    So I know how you feel. Feel better soon.
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  • Sheryl Crow " Soak Up The Sun " - YouTube
  • Heysal,

    CTS is more than mere pain. It can lead to loss of hand use. Of course, if someone prescribes such meds prior to that point, as a mere palliative, they should have their license yanked.

    Steve
  • It can be controlled with natural elements, Steve - also a change in whatever you are doing repeatedly that is giving you the crimp. I think the statement that the doctor needs his license pulled is the most accurate case in this situation. Plus the woman is a hypochondriac and also needs the excuse to stay on disability. So she's gonna wreck her kidneys to get a free $600 check every month. I find the situation disgusting from both sides.
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    • There isn't any way to "control " it with any chemical, outside of relieving pain. It is a physical problem. Once it occurs, the ONLY way to heal it without surgery is REST!!!!!!!! Sure, chemicals could help, but when was the last time you heard of them being absorbed within a millisecond, let alone accelerating healing to such a degree. And it could take weeks to heal right, even if it practically just started.

      It IS amazing what people would give up for the sake of a few bucks that may be worthless in the near future.

      I agree with you on everything else. I'm just saying...

      Steve
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