Vitamin D hypersensitivity

[Electrisio]

Whenever I have started taking a Vitamin D supplement (D2 or D3) I have a really strong and positive result. However, as soon as it's time to sleep I'm lying in bed and can only get a few hours of sleep. I have really been trying to figure out what is going on because this happens with small doses, a single 500-1000iu dose. Yesterday I tried some and this happened. I also noticed that I felt a little bit restless and my face was tingly. To me, this seemed like it was possibly reflecting magnesium deficiency symptoms? I always take it in the morning and the bad sleep will last a day or two. I tried Vitamin D with K2 as well.

Can anyone offer any advice or had a similar experience? I really would like to be able to take vitamin D as apart from the sleep problems it is absolutely fantastic. I am currently trying to take a high dose of elemental magnesium (600mg+) for a few before retrying the D3 at a low dose. After that, I will have to give up on this dream.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

Check out the 58.30 minutes mark on this Ray Peat interview on vitamin D.

Vitamin D, Calcium and mineral metabolism with Dr Ray Peat and Kate Deering - Weight Loss For Women: eat more, train less, get results

We’ve had Dr. Peat on the podcast before, and it actually ended up being our most downloaded WinAtLife podcast. So, we brought him back again to discuss vitamin D, calcium and mineral metabolism. There’s so much good information in this one! Dr. P...

www.winatlifepodcast.com.au

 

[Electrisio]

Check out the 58.30 minutes mark on this Ray Peat interview on vitamin D.

Vitamin D, Calcium and mineral metabolism with Dr Ray Peat and Kate Deering - Weight Loss For Women: eat more, train less, get results

We’ve had Dr. Peat on the podcast before, and it actually ended up being our most downloaded WinAtLife podcast. So, we brought him back again to discuss vitamin D, calcium and mineral metabolism. There’s so much good information in this one! Dr. P...

www.winatlifepodcast.com.au

I had a listen to a fair bit of this. It basically seems like higher levels of vitamin D are ok and Vitamin D depleting magnesium and Vitamin A isn’t very likely?

Not really sure why I get this intense reaction.

 

[Rafe]

I started having a constellation of bizarre spacial distortions like vertigo in open spaces, my vision was fisheyed, I had bad proprioception in my feet making me feel like I was slipping. It got weird enough that I was really having a rough patch moving around like a normal person. I especially had trouble walking on the high-gloss floors in big box stores that reflect the overhead lights. It looks like walking in water. Weird, I know.
I also had some small warty patches on my skin on my temples & shoulder.

I stepped back to look at my bigger picture of what was different when that started. It started about a year after I was drinking a lot of milk. But not just milk but also supplementing Vitamin D. Also, worse in summer.

A few weeks ago it (finally) dawned on me that it might be the Vit D. But b/c the nutrition popular media is all “Mor Vitamin D!!” I hadn’t suspected that. I’m starting to think vit D advertising is about disposing of seed oils.

Sure enough, I stopped supp vit D & switched to (somewhat) separated raw milk , no added D, stayed out of the sun for a few days, & things tarted correcting pretty quickly.

I had started K2 but I even stopped that for now.

All that is better after about 3 weeks. The warty patches are peeling off on their own. Better sensation of grounding in space.

I think I underestimated how easy hypercalcemia can begin if I supplemented too much vit d. I didn’t have milk alkalai symptoms particularly. But I felt immediately relief when I took a couple of days mostly off milk & drank a lot of coke instead. Temporary corrective. Not a nutritional recommendation.

Meantime, I may have become a raw milk lover. It supports a local small farm, cash economy, & there’s just something about it that feeds me better. Makes the enriched protein milk I was drinking seem like protein water.

It’s easier for me to get too much vit d than I thought.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

I had a listen to a fair bit of this. It basically seems like higher levels of vitamin D are ok and Vitamin D depleting magnesium and Vitamin A isn’t very likely?

Not really sure why I get this intense reaction.

What I learned from his interview is that calcium and vitamin D go hand in hand. We get D from othe sources and don't realize it, like incadescent bulbs, fish, whole milk, grass fed meat, even releasing it from your fat stores during weight loss. I don't know how much you got to listen to, of that almost 2 hour interview, interview, but RP said to drink calcium at bedtime with the vitamin D.

 

[Lokzo]

Too much Vitamin D causes me fatigue and weakness. Even with co-factors.

 

[Elize]

Vitamin D from Lanolin trigger histamine liberating reactions and Mast Cell activation with me. Also if from grain or seeds

 

[Rasaari]

I have usually high levels and last week decided to try some topically (~50ug), as summer is pretty much over here. That was a mistake, my feet became unusually cold (which happens only in severe stress/malnutrition) and my mood went to ***t. My pulse dropped ~10bpm in resting. It was few days like this and then I went to get some chicken liver, to get some vit A. Vitamin D in excess can compete with the thyroid (or at least the "active" D), and it needs to balance with vitamin A which is also very important for metabolism. A protects from excess of D and D (and E) protects from excess of A. Regular D is supposed to lower the "active" kind, which medicine thinks is the good kind.

Reasons for my bad reaction could be either antithyroid effect, lowering of stress hormones, or deficiency of A. I suspect it is from somekind of an antithyroid effect, as lowering of stress hormones has always been very nice. Either my D is too high or my A is too low, which I will test next week when I can get some good liver.

The sleep issue from D should be calmed with vitamin A, according to Danny Roddy

 

[LauriePartridge]

Oy. Vit D is hard. I'm still trying to figure it out. Last summer I was getting a lot of sun and hardly any Vit A and supplementing about 2000 daily IUs of Vit D until one day I took 500 IUs and I started to feel dizzy, lightheaded and cold and lethargic immediately after and my mast cell/histamine symptoms got worse. I also felt so much better after stopping supplementation as I noticed very low magnesium symptoms and insomnia with it too. That went away once I stopped. I also gained weight on it and had very bad constipation and breast pain. It could have been influenced too by the low A concurrently. Those symptoms went away as soon as I stopped and added some liver into my diet for Vit A.

It is really imperative as Rasaari said to get a balance with Vit A because Vit D depletes VIt A more than the reverse. I'm going to listen to the interview Rinse suggested and maybe learn something more especially if we can get enough through food. I try to get pastured eggs which are reported to have 4-5 times more D than regular eggs. I also drink lots of non fortified A2 milk with the fat separated although I'm not sure how much D there would be.

I'm just not convinced we need as much D as the public says. It is a hormone and there has been research to suggest it increases estrogen and serotonin. I suspect it is really important but only at correct amounts; otherwise it could be damaging.

 

[BearWithMe]

Whenever I have started taking a Vitamin D supplement (D2 or D3) I have a really strong and positive result. However, as soon as it's time to sleep I'm lying in bed and can only get a few hours of sleep. I have really been trying to figure out what is going on because this happens with small doses, a single 500-1000iu dose. Yesterday I tried some and this happened. I also noticed that I felt a little bit restless and my face was tingly. To me, this seemed like it was possibly reflecting magnesium deficiency symptoms? I always take it in the morning and the bad sleep will last a day or two. I tried Vitamin D with K2 as well.

Can anyone offer any advice or had a similar experience? I really would like to be able to take vitamin D as apart from the sleep problems it is absolutely fantastic. I am currently trying to take a high dose of elemental magnesium (600mg+) for a few before retrying the D3 at a low dose. After that, I will have to give up on this dream.

Vitamin D did this exact thing to me when I was severely deficient in calcium.

After few months of 3500mg+ of calcium a day, I can tolerate 50000IU of D weekly without any negative effects.

I think it was actually paradoxical hypercalcemia. Do you have any other symptoms of high blood calcium and/or calcium deficiency?

 

[Peatness]

I find vitamin D increases my calcium and magnesium requirements

This is a good site for vitamin D info

Sleep and Vitamins - RightSleep®

Abnormal Sleep Causes Neurological Problems: In 2005 one of my daily headache sufferers discovered she had sleep apnea. She put on a CPAP mask and voila! her headaches were gone! I thought, "Wow if I help my headache patients sleep better maybe their headaches will go away!" I started sending…

drgominak.com

 

[Gustav3Y]

Interesting thread.

 

[youngsinatra]

I took a total of 350'000 IU of vitamin D over the course of 6 days and I am feeling fine on it. I had some negative experiences with D in the past and due to that I was quite nervous to take my first big dose of 50'000 IU of vitamin D, but nothing bad happened.
I used it to initally increase my vitamin D by roughly 25ng/ml as quick as possible, due to current COVID infection. I'll go back to my maintenance dose tomorrow.

I think an initial phase of replenishing vitamin D can be very useful, because at a normal physiological dose of 5000 IU it might take 3-6 months to correct the deficiency.

 

[PeskyPeater]

I think is has to do with excited hypothalamus activity in the brain, actually scientist are not clear how vitamin D is involved in the regulation of sleep-wake cycle and are still looking at the mechanism. I think estrogen can have big influence exciting the brain while thyroid function is low . Seems to me that additional vitamin D is also overexciting the brain as it also regulates synthesis of brain serotonin. Things that work via GABA to calm serotonin signaling could help.

 

[Electrisio]

Vitamin D did this exact thing to me when I was deficient in calcium.

After few months of 3500mg+ of calcium a day, I can tolerate 50000IU of D weekly without any negative effects.

I think it was actually paradoxical hypercalcemia. Do you have any other symptoms of high blood calcium?

Interesting. Could you explain exactly what you mean by paradoxical hypercalcemia?

The whole experience is very transient around taking the D3 supplement. I guess I would say that it has a very strong stimulant effect on me that borders on anxiety-inducing and especially becomes more noticeable later in the day. I noticed some tingling on my face and in general around my body.

In general, the insomnia is like my body is glowing/incredibly energetic and even though my mind can relax and slow down, that feeling in my body stops me from falling asleep. Was that similar to yours?

Doesn't D3 increase calcium levels though, so wouldn't supplementing extra calcium make it worse?

 

[Aegon24]

This is the first time I've heard about insomnia caused by vitamin D.
vitamin D is necessary for the synthesis of melatonin, a very important hormone for sleep.

The laxatives that deplete my vitamin D, also give me monster insomnia and nervousness.
All this usually disappears after taking 2 or 3 vitamin D capsules.
The problem I have with vitamin D is that after a certain dose, it tends to calm my system down too much.

 

[Rinse & rePeat]

Ray Peat says you should read a book, instead of listening to random people, before taking progesterone.

 

[BearWithMe]

Interesting. Could you explain exactly what you mean by paradoxical hypercalcemia?

The whole experience is very transient around taking the D3 supplement. I guess I would say that it has a very strong stimulant effect on me that borders on anxiety-inducing and especially becomes more noticeable later in the day. I noticed some tingling on my face and in general around my body.

In general, the insomnia is like my body is glowing/incredibly energetic and even though my mind can relax and slow down, that feeling in my body stops me from falling asleep. Was that similar to yours?

Doesn't D3 increase calcium levels though, so wouldn't supplementing extra calcium make it worse?

Yes my expirience was very similar.

D3 definitely increase calcium levels. The thing is, when your body is deficient in calcium, the blood level of calcium goes up, because your body will leech calcium from bones and teeth to use it for more important purposes. That's why it is called paradoxical hypercalcemia.

I'm not saying this is necessarily your case, I'm saying this is possible.

How is your calcium intake, long term? Are your teeth healthy?

 

[Electrisio]

Yes my expirience was very similar.

D3 definitely increase calcium levels. The thing is, when your body is deficient in calcium, the blood level of calcium goes up, because your body will leech calcium from bones and teeth to use it for more important purposes. That's why it is called paradoxical hypercalcemia.

I'm not saying this is necessarily your case, I'm saying this is possible.

How is your calcium intake, long term? Are your teeth healthy?

Teeth are healthy yes, looking at my diet I think my calcium intake is probably decent. I haven't really tracked it that much but I consume quite a bit of whey protein and oats which I see are both solid sources of calcium.

 

[sousfifre96]

If you experience side effects, there is no point in taking it.
What is good for others is not necessarily good for you.