4 ms·

I suffer from allergic asthma and tend to catch colds quite frequently. This year I started supplementing with 2000 UI of vitamin D daily and it's as if my imm

I suffer from allergic asthma and tend to catch colds quite frequently. This year I started supplementing with 2000 UI of vitamin D daily and it's as if my immune system started functioning normally, in the last 10 months I only caught a really light cold that I could barely notice, whereas before this the winter season alone would bring 2 severe cold or flu episodes that would knock me down for several days. I can't really say if it's the vitamin D, or other changes in my life, like losing some weight or walking more, or the cold exposure I've been practicing (primarily because I heard it burns calories :-)), it might be even placebo, I haven't isolated these variables well, but my wife and close ones are amazed by the transformation. E.g. 3 weeks ago everyone in my household got the flu, except for me. So now I got everyone in my household on vitamin D, especially b/c of this coronavirus scare. During summer time we might not need it, but the sun doesn't see us during winter. And vitamins are probably no defense against the coronavirus, but a deficiency could amplify the damage (as vit D has a role in our immune system) so it's best to ensure that we aren't deficient. Also we tolerate large doses of vitamin D, so it can't hurt.

neuronic 7y ago
> it's as if my immune system started functioning normally Nothing constructive to add, but I wanted to say I am glad you are feeling much better. This is great to hear!
lmedinas 7y ago
I suffer from similar issues with allergic asthma, which type of allergy and in which time of the year do you suffer more ?
- bad_user 7y ago
  Thankfully I don't seem to suffer from pollen allergies, my sensitivities are to cats (saliva) and to moisture and mold, so I don't have a time of year in which I'm sensitive. I do regret not being able to adopt cats :-( When I was in my twenties I've gone through severe asthma episodes, due to exposure to such allergens and once you get inflamed it's really hard to reverse without proper treatment. So I eventually went on a treatment with corticoids and Symbicort and by avoiding the problematic allergens I've been fairly well under control ever since, haven't needed any treatment for years. Before that I was using Ventolin, which wasn't working well and gave me tachycardia episodes, thank god treatment for asthmatics got better. But I remained fairly sensitive to colds, many colds I catch evolve into bronchitis.
PaulRobinson 7y ago
I have a really funky immune system. I have psoriasis for starters, and in 2017 I had to have neurosurgery to remove strep B from my spinal column and learn how to walk again because my immune system hadn't been able to fight it off. I have reduced my alcohol intake, lost weight and have been taken medication that isn't an immunosuppressant (acetretin), for the psoriasis, along with the NHS giving me a free flu jab as I'm in an at-risk group despite being only in my early 40s. I was taking vitamin D back in 2017 after it was recommended to me by one of the doctors, but slowly got out of the habit, and I'm now wondering if it can help with some of this. I have a jar of 3000 UI knocking around, so I'll start taking it today, and see how this goes - I have an outward looking signal on how well my immune system is behaving based just on my skin condition, which I've lived with for years so should be a good indicator of whether it improves or not. If you want to know more, just ping me via the channels mentioned in my profile and I'll happily update in a month or two - let's see if I can provide a sense of it!
- hexl 7y ago
  I had MS-like symptoms about 2 years ago: weird sensations on my skin, sudden pain spots, random ant-like crawling sensations, etc... they were getting worse but MRI came fine, Spinal Fluid testing came fine, etc... However, my vitamin D levels were low. I started taking D3 and noticed that some symptoms got worse at first but gradually went away after a few weeks. Now, every time symptoms come back, I take vitamin D and they are gone a few days later.
blub 7y ago
It says so on the leaflet probably, but over 500 units per day over a long time raises the risk of kidney stones.
mntmoss 7y ago
I have been supplementing with varying amounts of D3 since 2010. That year a housemate had come down with a bad flu and I handed him 4000IU as an "anti-inflammatory". The next day he knocked on my door ecstatically and asked what that was. His symptoms had nearly disappeared. And in the past decade, I can count only a few times when I was struck hard by cold or flu, and they were when I had let supplementation trail off. When I'm having it daily, then the typical inflammatory symptoms only appear near or past the peak of the infection, and otherwise it just presents as tiredness and scatterbrained thinking, which I have learned to notice and pay some attention to. I currently believe that some theraputic benefit may continue up to 8000 IU or so, but this is purely guesswork on my part, having tried amounts higher and lower. What I am confident in saying, having reviewed the research recently, is that there is some clinically studied, but poorly understood positive correlation between vitamin D supplementation and regulation of cytokine production, which is crucial for surviving the symptoms of respiratory diseases of this type.
qbaqbaqba 7y ago
> 2000 UI of vitamin D daily If you can, you should ask your physician to have your vitamin D level marked. Too much is not good either.
- bad_user 7y ago
  I've checked my 25-OHD levels before (which prompted my doctor to recommend vitamin D supplements) and 6 months after. 95% of the population need supplementation with 1700 UI to reach a serum level of 75nmol/L (considered optimal) [1]. Men can metabolize 3000-5000 UI [2]. The body adapts to higher doses by stopping solar synthesis thus we can tolerate up to 10000 UI [3]. Also vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin and a supplement isn't necessarily absorbed well. Thus 2000 UI is generally recommended for individuals that have sub-optimal levels (this was a prescription from my doctor which is fairly standard) and it isn't considered toxic if you take up to 10000 UI. [1]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17344484 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17344484 [2]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12499343 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12499343 [3]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10232622 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10232622

neuronic 7y ago

> it's as if my immune system started functioning normally Nothing constructive to add, but I wanted to say I am glad you are feeling much better. This is great to hear!

lmedinas 7y ago

I suffer from similar issues with allergic asthma, which type of allergy and in which time of the year do you suffer more ?

bad_user 7y ago
Thankfully I don't seem to suffer from pollen allergies, my sensitivities are to cats (saliva) and to moisture and mold, so I don't have a time of year in which I'm sensitive. I do regret not being able to adopt cats :-( When I was in my twenties I've gone through severe asthma episodes, due to exposure to such allergens and once you get inflamed it's really hard to reverse without proper treatment. So I eventually went on a treatment with corticoids and Symbicort and by avoiding the problematic allergens I've been fairly well under control ever since, haven't needed any treatment for years. Before that I was using Ventolin, which wasn't working well and gave me tachycardia episodes, thank god treatment for asthmatics got better. But I remained fairly sensitive to colds, many colds I catch evolve into bronchitis.

PaulRobinson 7y ago

I have a really funky immune system. I have psoriasis for starters, and in 2017 I had to have neurosurgery to remove strep B from my spinal column and learn how to walk again because my immune system hadn't been able to fight it off. I have reduced my alcohol intake, lost weight and have been taken medication that isn't an immunosuppressant (acetretin), for the psoriasis, along with the NHS giving me a free flu jab as I'm in an at-risk group despite being only in my early 40s. I was taking vitamin D back in 2017 after it was recommended to me by one of the doctors, but slowly got out of the habit, and I'm now wondering if it can help with some of this. I have a jar of 3000 UI knocking around, so I'll start taking it today, and see how this goes - I have an outward looking signal on how well my immune system is behaving based just on my skin condition, which I've lived with for years so should be a good indicator of whether it improves or not. If you want to know more, just ping me via the channels mentioned in my profile and I'll happily update in a month or two - let's see if I can provide a sense of it!

hexl 7y ago
I had MS-like symptoms about 2 years ago: weird sensations on my skin, sudden pain spots, random ant-like crawling sensations, etc... they were getting worse but MRI came fine, Spinal Fluid testing came fine, etc... However, my vitamin D levels were low. I started taking D3 and noticed that some symptoms got worse at first but gradually went away after a few weeks. Now, every time symptoms come back, I take vitamin D and they are gone a few days later.

blub 7y ago

It says so on the leaflet probably, but over 500 units per day over a long time raises the risk of kidney stones.

mntmoss 7y ago

I have been supplementing with varying amounts of D3 since 2010. That year a housemate had come down with a bad flu and I handed him 4000IU as an "anti-inflammatory". The next day he knocked on my door ecstatically and asked what that was. His symptoms had nearly disappeared. And in the past decade, I can count only a few times when I was struck hard by cold or flu, and they were when I had let supplementation trail off. When I'm having it daily, then the typical inflammatory symptoms only appear near or past the peak of the infection, and otherwise it just presents as tiredness and scatterbrained thinking, which I have learned to notice and pay some attention to. I currently believe that some theraputic benefit may continue up to 8000 IU or so, but this is purely guesswork on my part, having tried amounts higher and lower. What I am confident in saying, having reviewed the research recently, is that there is some clinically studied, but poorly understood positive correlation between vitamin D supplementation and regulation of cytokine production, which is crucial for surviving the symptoms of respiratory diseases of this type.

qbaqbaqba 7y ago

> 2000 UI of vitamin D daily If you can, you should ask your physician to have your vitamin D level marked. Too much is not good either.

bad_user 7y ago
I've checked my 25-OHD levels before (which prompted my doctor to recommend vitamin D supplements) and 6 months after. 95% of the population need supplementation with 1700 UI to reach a serum level of 75nmol/L (considered optimal) [1]. Men can metabolize 3000-5000 UI [2]. The body adapts to higher doses by stopping solar synthesis thus we can tolerate up to 10000 UI [3]. Also vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin and a supplement isn't necessarily absorbed well. Thus 2000 UI is generally recommended for individuals that have sub-optimal levels (this was a prescription from my doctor which is fairly standard) and it isn't considered toxic if you take up to 10000 UI. [1]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17344484 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17344484 [2]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12499343 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12499343 [3]: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10232622 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10232622