Is Vitamin D induced serotonin syndrome possible? Please hear me out...

Rave re-peat

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Last April 2020 I had a severe vitamin d deficiency at 11 ng/ml. A bad case of RLS popped up out of nowhere. The doctor prescribed me 50,000iu of vitamin D3 once a week. After a month of being suicidal with an intense level of RLS the vitamin d3 actually gave me relief. I was so happy but the next couple days the relief went away. I asked my doctor if I could take the vitamin d3 ever day, he said no reason why not. So I did. I wasn't only taking vitamin d, i was also talking sleep agents full of 5htp plus CBD and a bunch of other stuff I don't remember and on the 4th night i took a high dose of magnesium.

That night I had a full blown attack. The shakes, heart pumping out of my chest, crazy vomiting, crazy diarrhea, trouble breathing. The loudest tinnitus ever I felt like electricity was going through my brain. Crazy vertigo, i thought it was the last moments of my life. Long story short, the ER said I was fine and sent me home with Xanax. This attack came in waves for the next week at least, it would be a month before I would feel normal again. The doctors sent me to a psychologist which did nothing for me.

I started learning about serotonin syndrome after research and I fit almost every single symptom. So i started following the advice i read on here and it has been SUPER helpful. Around wintertime i started feeling a lot better. I ended up moving to Medellin, Colombia. In this location the sun is full of vitamin d because its close to the equator. At this point i decided i was done with supplements and ready to live a life of natural sun and exercise with natural grown food which is the only kind of food offered in Colombia.

So on my first day here, I was out in that beautiful sun all day in and out walking around. I felt great in the sun, but that night it was really hard to sleep, no big deal, kind of weird but ok. The next day I decide to sunbathe around noon. I was sweating and feeling great. That night, took some supplements to help me sleep through this unexpected insomnia, I fell asleep around 10pm. around 11pm my eyes POP open, WHOA... heart attack? this felt very similar to the first time it happened last year. I had a brick feeling in my stomach, throwing up, heart going crazy, tremors, yup, it was another full blown attack.

This time i was more scared. The only thing i did was be in the sun all day, that couldn't really be the cause could it? Sure enough i stayed out of the sun and started feeling better 5 days later. I still couldn't believe it was the sun, so i did research and learned about the sunlight in your eyes increasing serotonin, and vitamin d also can increase serotonin.

And this is where I'm confused, on here i read people who take vitamin d with no issues. When i tell you that i have tested this over and over to make sure its the vitamin d, i even took a vitamin 5000iu pill and sure enough, ANXIETY, SHAKES, you name it... I'm having a hard time getting the doctors to believe the sun is the cause of this, but i know for a fact that it is, because i still go out every now and then to see how i react. Initially it seems to make me feel better while I'm actually under the sun, its only hours later that the symptoms show up.

What am i missing? I know my issues are serotonin related because all the advice on this forum has worked wonders for me. So why is the sun causing this? Could it be a separate issue?

And btw i have never had any kind of anxiety in my life until that first attack. I have zero social anxiety, i love people, i love sunlight, i love life. Only time this happens is when i take supplements or certain foods, and now found out that the biggest culprit is the damn sun? On one morning I wasn't even in the sun, i just had the sunlight coming through the window into my eyes and started feeling crazy and i read that sunlight in the eyes also increases serotonin. Any comments and opinions would help me greatly as I feel like I may be the only person on earth with this situation :(

You where taking 50k IU everyday?
Magnesium or not you likely would had attack anyway. You should had taken magnesium, K2 and getting plenty of calcium. Like 400-1000mg magnesium divided daily on that dose vitamin D. If done properly vitamin D is anti serotonin. If done without caution and proper knowledge it will increase 1,25 hydroxy vitamin D and PTH = high blood calcium and high serotonin. The anxiety you had in waves is normal when vitamin D is dosed in wrong way. I personally had it. Soon as I figuered it out. Ive had about 500 000 IU divided over a week. Still that dose shouldnt be long term. 10k - 20k is daily is enough. Research the connection between parathyroid hormone, prolactin and serotonin.
 

Quelsatron

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So 250k + 50 * don't know how many days. They give people vitamin D shots of 300k and more at one time and it lasts for 2-3 months. Toxicity is reached when blood level is 150 ng/ml. Yours is really good now @67, but that doesn't measure vit D stored in fat. So depending on how much fat you have it may take a while to get rid of that. The point is you may have a larger load than indicated by 67 ng/ml.
Does cholecalcipherol do anything on its own before turned into 25 hydroxy?
 

InChristAlone

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Wow this just sets in stone my belief no one should be taking high dose vitamin D. Strangely I had a restless night last night after hrs or sun exposure. But I haven't been eating enough.
 

Perry Staltic

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Wow this just sets in stone my belief no one should be taking high dose vitamin D. Strangely I had a restless night last night after hrs or sun exposure. But I haven't been eating enough.

I'm starting to lean that way. The question is, what's the right range?
 

S-VV

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Taking 5-HTP is a very bad idea. You are skipping the rate and location limiting tryptophan-5-hydrolase, and providing a substrate for aromatic-L-amino acid decarboxylase, (which is expressed ubiquitously) to form serotonin. The result is indiscriminate whole body serotonin production.

Vitamin D, calcifediol and calcitriol modulate so many genes that it's reasonable to assume that it upregulated AADC in some part of the body, leading to high serotonin due to the un physiological addition of 5-HTP.

It's not the D, it's the 5HTP.
 

haidut

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i was also talking sleep agents full of 5htp

So....you were taking sleep agents full of 5-HTP - a precursor to serotonin and known to cause serotonin syndrome - but you think it is vitamin D??
 
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qminati

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So....you were taking sleep agents full of 5-HTP - a precursor to serotonin and known to cause serotonin syndrome - but you think it is vitamin D??
yes, because it only happens when I take vitamin d. Is that not logical? i am known for being stupid sometimes, but if only happens when i take vitamin d, i thought it was a reasonable assumption. I take the 5htp without vitamin d and im fine, maybe im missing something...
 

CreakyJoints

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yes, because it only happens when I take vitamin d. Is that not logical? i am known for being stupid sometimes, but if only happens when i take vitamin d, i thought it was a reasonable assumption. I take the 5htp without vitamin d and im fine, maybe im missing something...

Well, 5HTP is directly affecting your serotonin - assuming you supplement that chronically (which it sounds like you do), your levels are likely to be elevated or out of whack anyway. I am honestly not sure where vitamin D comes into the equation, but let's assume for the sake of argument it is pushing your levels up a little (I'm still not sure how it would do this, but I really don't know enough about the subject to comment) - do you not think it would be wise to reduce the base levels of serotonin in your system, which you are artificially raising with 5HTP?

If we think of serotonin syndrome simplistically as exceeding your body's capacity for it, could you perhaps see the logic that using 5HTP to keep your levels extremely high, and thus close to the threshold at which you experience symptoms, would be extremely problematic/risky at best?

Is it not reasonable to assume that if you have the attacks immediately after supplementing 5HTP that it might in some way be responsible?

I don't know, it all sounds a bit weird to me: taking a serotonin precursor then blaming the sun. I think 5HTP has been observed to cause serotonin syndrome pretty reliably in animals, but it just seemed so obvious to me I never delved into many studies on the subject - perhaps this is hubris on my part. Again, I hope you're able to resolve your problems, but a number of people now have been extremely skeptical of your 5HTP use and you seem unwilling to acknowledge it might be exacerbating your issue. You say you can take the 5HTP without vitamin D supplementation/sun exposure and be fine - have you thought of the possibility that the reverse might be true? Perhaps it's worth considering.
 

Aegon24

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I had something very similar after taking vitamin D (depression, anxiety, diarrhea, sometimes angry outbursts and suicidal impulses, decreased libido); the side effects lasted more than 5 months, until I found the solution to my problem.

I was tested and my cortisol was extremely low whereas before vitamin D it was extremely high.

The thing is that vitamin d is an aromatase inhibitor. taking vitamin k2 or magnesium won't make any difference to your case
 
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qminati

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Well, 5HTP is directly affecting your serotonin - assuming you supplement that chronically (which it sounds like you do), your levels are likely to be elevated or out of whack anyway. I am honestly not sure where vitamin D comes into the equation, but let's assume for the sake of argument it is pushing your levels up a little (I'm still not sure how it would do this, but I really don't know enough about the subject to comment) - do you not think it would be wise to reduce the base levels of serotonin in your system, which you are artificially raising with 5HTP?

If we think of serotonin syndrome simplistically as exceeding your body's capacity for it, could you perhaps see the logic that using 5HTP to keep your levels extremely high, and thus close to the threshold at which you experience symptoms, would be extremely problematic/risky at best?

Is it not reasonable to assume that if you have the attacks immediately after supplementing 5HTP that it might in some way be responsible?

I don't know, it all sounds a bit weird to me: taking a serotonin precursor then blaming the sun. I think 5HTP has been observed to cause serotonin syndrome pretty reliably in animals, but it just seemed so obvious to me I never delved into many studies on the subject - perhaps this is hubris on my part. Again, I hope you're able to resolve your problems, but a number of people now have been extremely skeptical of your 5HTP use and you seem unwilling to acknowledge it might be exacerbating your issue. You say you can take the 5HTP without vitamin D supplementation/sun exposure and be fine - have you thought of the possibility that the reverse might be true? Perhaps it's worth considering.
well i came here for advice being that im a little slow sometimes. thanks for the reply. I threw away the sleep aids for good. No more 5htp. Sometimes i need a good smack upside the head to make sense of things. I will try the sun again at some point with no other supplements. If it still happens, ill come back and find you! lol just kidding. thanks for taking the time to write this...
 
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qminati

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I had something very similar after taking vitamin D (depression, anxiety, diarrhea, sometimes angry outbursts and suicidal impulses, decreased libido); the side effects lasted more than 5 months, until I found the solution to my problem.

I was tested and my cortisol was extremely low whereas before vitamin D it was extremely high.

The thing is that vitamin d is an aromatase inhibitor. taking vitamin k2 or magnesium won't make any difference to your case
how did you resolve this issue? is there a cortisol blood test available?
 

Rave re-peat

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If your using 5htp and not getting similair feeling then its not serotonin. Vitamin D is
yes, because it only happens when I take vitamin d. Is that not logical? i am known for being stupid sometimes, but if only happens when i take vitamin d, i thought it was a reasonable assumption. I take the 5htp without vitamin d and im fine, maybe im missing something...

If you are basically taking serotonin. And then you say you experiencing serotonin syndrome wich 5htp is known to cause and have caused many times in people with several reports. You instead think its vitamin Ds fault and you should stop vitamin D?
Vitamin D as far as i know have never been linked to serotonin syndrome. Its just not possible. Although it has been linked to hypercalcemia. Wich can resemble something like serotonin syndrome. Google hypercalcemia symptoms.
If your still sure its serotonin syndrome its definantly the 5HTP that would had caused it
 

Rave re-peat

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I had something very similar after taking vitamin D (depression, anxiety, diarrhea, sometimes angry outbursts and suicidal impulses, decreased libido); the side effects lasted more than 5 months, until I found the solution to my problem.

I was tested and my cortisol was extremely low whereas before vitamin D it was extremely high.

The thing is that vitamin d is an aromatase inhibitor. taking vitamin k2 or magnesium won't make any difference to your case

How much vitamin D did you take? And did you take magnesium? If so how much magnesium daily with your vitamin D? Did you get PTH and calcium tested aswell?
 
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qminati

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If your using 5htp and not getting similair feeling then its not serotonin. Vitamin D is


If you are basically taking serotonin. And then you say you experiencing serotonin syndrome wich 5htp is known to cause and have caused many times in people with several reports. You instead think its vitamin Ds fault and you should stop vitamin D?
Vitamin D as far as i know have never been linked to serotonin syndrome. Its just not possible. Although it has been linked to hypercalcemia. Wich can resemble something like serotonin syndrome. Google hypercalcemia symptoms.
If your still sure its serotonin syndrome its definantly the 5HTP that would had caused it
im gonna test this theory out in a couple weeks, i will go out into the sun without taking any supplements for a while and see what happens.
 
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qminati

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How much vitamin D did you take? And did you take magnesium? If so how much magnesium daily with your vitamin D? Did you get PTH and calcium tested aswell?
yes i assumed it was hypercalcemia at first, but all my tests came back within normal range. I only took a dose of magnesium for the first time about an hour before my first attack. My pth and everything else was within range.
 

CreakyJoints

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well i came here for advice being that im a little slow sometimes. thanks for the reply. I threw away the sleep aids for good. No more 5htp. Sometimes i need a good smack upside the head to make sense of things. I will try the sun again at some point with no other supplements. If it still happens, ill come back and find you! lol just kidding. thanks for taking the time to write this...

You're super welcome. Like I said, my knowledge of vitamin D is really poor, so if it is in fact the problem, perhaps some of the other comments may offer valuable insight; but my knowledge of serotonin syndrome is first-hand, and it's probably one of the worst things that's ever happened to me. I really really hope it never happens to you again!
 
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qminati

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maybe it has something to do with the gut being stimulated?
i will say that since eating carrots daily i feel like it is bringing my clearheadedness back. i guess its doing a good job fixing my gut?
 

Frankdee20

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5HTP was the greatest mistake of my life, all the heroin, cocaine, and alcohol in the world never created the hellish physiology that 5HTP caused .... dead serious
 

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