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Comment by written-beyond | Hacker News Reader

My life changed after I got tested for vit D and started talking supplements. I was severely deficient. I am now sufficient and everything changed for me.

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In December by chance I put a pack of Vitamin D into my shopping basket. I did not think much, thought to take 1000IE but then decided that for the first week I take 3000 to catch up. Muscle pain went and control over eating improved. I did not expect any changes based on past experience with 1000 but this time I could not ignore it (age can play a role) and I stayed on 3000. Tests a month later showed I was just not deficient any-more. I continued on the regime and started having improvements in long running skin issues to the extent my dentist noticed. It may not be a miracle drug but one should not underestimate cumulative impact individual factors, age and lifestyle changes (less sun) that may change levels and demand.

I do think this is worth emphasising: the article only focuses on mortality. Not quality of life. Vitamin D makes me not feel like crap, it's cheap, and effectively zero risk. I'm not expecting it to make me live longer, I like that it makes me live better.

2 years ago i caught some repeated strep throat infection, repeated like 6-8 times - because my original general doctor said that with low CRP there is no way i have bacterial infection... before i found a doctor who finally did proper swab and ABTs - but i was so far gone that i got horrible headaches, muscle pain, stinging, absolute weakness... on top of that i cought covid and proper flu. Totally crazy, when they did mi vitamin D it was at 10% of minila recomended value. I god vit D and some immunity pills(pigs blood cells - this is questionable). I was slurping the vitamin D every day and in couple of weeks I was almost back to normal.

I have seen neurologists, imunologist, infection diseases specialist, everything is boreliosis qack and even somatic doctor...

Funny thing is before i got sick i spent 3 months on tenerife, so no reason for me to have low vit D. But it was probably depleted by immunity trying to fight the repeated infections.

so yeah, get your vitamin D checked if you feel weak, low on mood or anything out of zen

I used to take 4k IU + K² and think that I'm covered, since 4K units was a lot.

I landed on just above deficient when tested.

My wife was on kind of same regime, but didn't follow it very strictly. She was deficient, but not extremely.

It was quite surprising, because I got warned when buying 4k unit tabs that they were quite strong and pharmacy clerk suggested taking less.

Have you looked into UVB lamps?

Had a friend talking about them, but they seem to be prohibitively expensive. Do you have positive experience using such lamps?

I tend to have some eczema on my scalp that sun really helps with.

Maybe a lamp that costs the equivalent of a week of holidays in a warm place could be justified after all.

I don't have any experience myself but they do seem to be effective. Yeah, I think you'd have to compare it to a holiday, or how much time that would mean in a Solarium.

What exactly changed?

I am deficient, too, and take supplements (rare liver disease).

I wonder if taking mushrooms soaked in the sun improves absorption compared to supplements?

Make sure those mushrooms are prepared well though because as I understand it, the human digestive system has a hard time breaking down chitin cell walls, so without proper preparation, the mushrooms may pass through mostly undigested.

The point about letting the mushrooms soak up sunlight to boost their vitamin D content is totally true and absolutely fascinating though!

> When commonly consumed mushroom species are exposed to a source of ultraviolet (UV) radiation, such as sunlight or a UV lamp, they can generate nutritionally relevant amounts of vitamin D. The most common form of vitamin D in mushrooms is D2, with lesser amounts of vitamins D3 and D4, while vitamin D3 is the most common form in animal foods. Although the levels of vitamin D2 in UV-exposed mushrooms may decrease with storage and cooking, if they are consumed before the ‘best-before’ date, vitamin D2 level is likely to remain above 10 μg/100 g fresh weight, which is higher than the level in most vitamin D-containing foods and similar to the daily requirement of vitamin D recommended internationally.

Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6213178/

How do you know the changes aren’t placebo?

Because I was suicidal, had extreme mood swings and all of the muscle pain and instability.

I didn't even know about vit D, didn't research it. I just got a panel done to get an idea of what's going on with me and discovered I was severely deficient on vit D

That doesn't undermine OP's point. Being deficient is unhealthy. But that doesn't mean an overabundance makes you healthier.

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