Low Vitamin D level appears to cause sleep apnea

[sylvie]

[quote="RandyJ Correct dosage method of drops is directly onto the tongue. .[/quote]

VERY good to know. Thanks! I just licked mine off a plate. Otherwise, it could be dicey trying to drop it on your tongue from the dropper (dosage-wise). You deserve a big happy face

[RandyJ]

Sylvie,

What's dicey about sticking out your tongue and letting a drop fall from the end of the dropper onto your tongue (from 1/4" away)? I've never had a problem ...

Note: I don't let end of dropper touch my tongue.

[sylvie]

I'd be afraid. Look at the first bad review that pops up on that link I gave. They said it's very easy to overdose. It would be embarrassing to die from Vitamin D overdose.

[RandyJ]

I'd be afraid. Look at the first bad review that pops up on that link I gave. They said it's very easy to overdose. It would be embarrassing to die from Vitamin D overdose.

I couldn't find the negative review you mention. However, as long as someone understands the difference between a drop and a dropperful, they should be good to go. I've been using eye drops all my life so the concept of a drop or two was not foreign to me, but when my dr prescribed the D3, she did stress that I was to take 3 drops daily, not droppersful, so I guess people do occasionally get confused.

A dropperful contains 60,000 IU, so obviously one could get into trouble quickly if he didn't understand the difference.

[sylvie]

Your hand-eye coordination must be magnificent. I can only wish....

[lazer]

So in your opinion, if I take the liquid form of D-3 you eluded to, I could ditch the capsuls and based on my number.

You really need your doctor on your side for this, since any vitamin D therapy should be checked with blood test every 3 months. With LiquiD3, 1 drop = 2000 IU. Correct dosage method of drops is directly onto the tongue. And make sure you count drops, NOT droppersful.

2000 IU daily is not going to raise your D3 level significantly in 3 months, even if drops supposedly absorb much better than gelcaps. However, before beginning a 4000 - 6000 IU daily dose, I'd want the support of a dr. If your GP doesn't seem too knowledgeable about D3, you may want to seek out a naturopath.

Thanks RandyJ, I haven't ordered it yet and I plan to talk to my doctor about it my next appt coming up here early Jan/13 which is for my Cpap compliance checkup anyhow. I'm going to press him a bit about feeling better if my range was 50 - 60 since my other conditions and sedentary year-round indoor job, ect... I'm for anything simple that could make me feel better and I already take enough pharma & vitamin pills so a couple drops of D-3 a day doesn't bother me if it will make any difference.

[Jay Aitchsee]

Lazer, when I had my D3 checked, it was around 30. I started taking 2 X 2000 IU gelcaps daily (4000 total) for 3 months; afterwhich, I had it checked again and it had risen to around 60. Then I dropped back to 1 gelcap daily (2000 IU) and have continued with 2000 since, getting tested about every 3 months. After more than a year, my level has stayed just about 60. Now, after more than a year, my deep sleep has improved as well as my daytime fatigue. However, I can not attribute that strictly to D3. During the year I also worked very hard at improving my AHI and sleep hygiene as well as making sure other factors, like B12, were optimized. In the beginning though, there did seem to be a very high correlation between taking D3 and increased deep sleep as measured by Zeo.

[NoSADr]

Maintain a blood level of D3 at 60-80ngm/ml for 6mos-1 year, then recheck your AHI. If it is zero, then you no longer have OSA. Congratulations!
Note: keep in mind, it may take longer than a year to reach a zero AHI status (remember D3 deficiency should be corrected anyway because of it's well recognized risks).

[Jay Aitchsee]

OK, I will.

[JohnO]

Thanks to this thread (which I started reading last fall) I had the Doctor check for Vitamin D levels during a physical last week. I scored an 18.
The doctor prescribed 50,000 IU per week for 12 weeks, then another blood check. He figures that after that I can drop to an OTC daily dose of D3.

I don't expect it to "cure" anything, but who knows -- I figure it can't hurt!

John

[RandyJ]

Thanks to this thread (which I started reading last fall) I had the Doctor check for Vitamin D levels during a physical last week. I scored an 18.
The doctor prescribed 50,000 IU per week for 12 weeks, then another blood check. He figures that after that I can drop to an OTC daily dose of D3.

I don't expect it to "cure" anything, but who knows -- I figure it can't hurt!

John

I got mine up from 11 to 51 in 3 months, then to 90 nine months later. I started with a daily dose of 6000 IU LiquiD3 and decreased it to 4000 IU after I got to 51... under doctor's supervision.

[DreamStalker]

I'm like you. I do a lot of research also. Somewhere in my journeys I read capsules don't do didly. You have to take the liquid form to get good punch.

I suppose that depends on the brand of capsules that you get. If you buy your generic D3 from Walmart or Costco, there is no telling what the Chinese manufacturers put in those gel caps.

Use a name brand like Carlson's. The important thing is to take your D3 with dietary fat. D3 is a fat soluble vitamin (actually a prohormone) and requires digestible fat to be absorbed into the blood stream from your intestines. Fortunately, we humans can synthesize D3 by exposing our skin to sunlight for about 30 minutes a day.

Anyway, I do a lot of research too and follow up with experimentation. I raised my serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D to 70 ng/mL and maintained it for over 2 years now. Unfortunately, I still have OSA ... so for me it did not cure my OSA. But I do have a fantastic immune system and can heal cuts in a couple of days and have not had a respiratory infection in over 7 years. People all around me are always getting sick but I never do anymore.

[caffeinatedcfo]

Before recommending a sleep study, my PCP tested all of my vitamin levels - including vit D - to diagnose my daytime fatigue and morning headaches. They were all always within normal ranges. I was diagnosed with OSA based on sleep study.

[Jay Aitchsee]

More on the benefits of vitamin D:
http://www.webmd.com/ibd-crohns-disease ... RSS_PUBLIC

WebMD News from HealthDay
By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter

Extra Vitamin D May Ease Crohn's Symptoms, Study Finds
Improvements reported in muscle strength, fatigue and quality of life

...Extra vitamin D "was associated with significantly less physical, emotional and general fatigue, greater quality of life and the ability to perform activities of daily living," said Tara Raftery, a research dietitian and doctoral candidate at Trinity College Dublin. She is scheduled to present the findings Saturday at the Digestive Disease Week meeting in Orlando, Fla.
Raftery and her colleagues evaluated 27 patients who had Crohn's in remission. (Even in remission, fatigue and quality of life can be problematic.) The patients were assigned to take either 2,000 IUs (international units) of vitamin D a day or a dummy vitamin for three months.
Before and after the study, the researchers measured hand-grip strength, fatigue, quality of life and blood levels of vitamin D.
The daily vitamin D supplement benefitted participants in many ways, Raftery found. "When levels of vitamin D peaked at 30 ng/mL (75 nmol/L) or more [a level considered healthy], muscle function in both the dominant and non-dominant hands were significantly higher than in those who had levels less than 30 ng/mL," she said...
...Quality of life improved more for the D-supplement group, too. Using a standard measure to evaluate quality of life, the researchers found those who achieved a healthy blood level of the vitamin scored 24 points higher than those not on supplements. A 20-point difference is considered meaningful from a "real-world" perspective, Raftery said...

[saltwater woman]

Having found myself unable to use my cpap after a very successful start of a couple of years -- it started to exacerbate pressure hives and now it actually causes migraine no matter how loose I manage to get the mask while still being able to keep it on -- I've been looking for another answer. I found the youtube video mentioned at the beginning of this post and was intrigued when I watched it and hope it helps me. Through watch the university of California you tube presentation, Vitamin D: the original source and how to use it, (sorry I don't know how to do links) I've worked out that to get my vitamin d (actually not a vitamin but a hormone) by going in the sun, I need to spend 15-20 minutes a day, exposing 45% of my skin, between the hours of 10.00 am and 2pm. This goes against cancer council of Australia advice but I'm figuring the time spent in the sun is only a short period and chances of developing a skin cancer minimal. I just hope that I will start to feel better. I have so much trouble with medicines, vitamins (often it's the fillers in the pill etc) that I just feel that getting my vit d the free way, via the sun, might be the way for me to go.


It's summer here in Australia and I took myself off for a walk at the beach for 20 mins, getting my sun exposure and also exercising my legs walking through knee high water and got to say I do feel better. I know it's not the vitamin d factor yet, but rather the cool of the water, the beautiful breeze and the view that lifted my spirits. At least today I did something nice.