Vitamin D?

The other day I went to my doctor for a complete checkup, which included blood work to make sure that everything was normal.

The checkup proceeded normally - both my weight and height were fine and my blood pressure was good.  The Doctor did the exam, asked a few questions and the Nurse did a blood draw and told me that they would call me in a couple of days to get the results.

A couple of days passed and I got the call back from the Nurse and it wasn't quite what I was expecting.  It seems that my liver and kidney function were normal, both my good and bad cholesterol were also normal, but my Vitamin D levels were far below normal.  As some of you probably already know Vitamin D is known as the Sunshine Vitamin......I live in the Pacific Northwest, which I mentioned before so the levels of sunshine that I am exposed to (especially during the Winter) are few and far between.  To compound that, I have a sensitivity to sunlight - too much of it and I break out in a rash, needless to say I usually spend much more time indoors rather than outdoors.

The Nurse explained to me that my levels were so low that a normal over the counter vitamin would not take care of bringing my levels back up, instead they were putting me on a prescription for a mega dose of Vitamin D.  To let you know just how low I was, she said my results came back as a "9.7" and the normal range is between 50-100.

I had heard of Vitamin D before, but wasn't sure exactly what all this meant so I did some research.  I ran across an extremely good article on the Women to Women website, the article is titled: Is Vitamin D Deficiency Casing a Cloud Over Your Health?

I was surprised at some of the information provided, but I am glad that I now understand why I am tired and sometimes lack energy.  Hopefully the prescription Vitamin D doesn't take too long to get my numbers back up - I am looking forward to finally getting some energy back!  I have to go back to the Doctor in 3 months so they can recheck my levels and I will post my results then.

So my advice is this, get outside if you can and enjoy any little bits of Sun that you find! 

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