HealthBee

OK. I can’t get enough of Vitamin D lately. I’m fascinated learning about it.

One of the questions I had with my doctor was to ask about Boniva. I had been taking it for years, and when my x-rays showed my bone density as improved enough that I no longer had osteoporosis my doctor pulled me off of it.

About a month ago, I went to my doctor and learned that my toe was cracked. I asked her if perhaps my osteoporosis was back. She told me that she wanted to get my Vitamin D levels back to normal before she put me back on Boniva. I asked what her thinking was, and she told me that even if I took Boniva (or any other Bisphosphonate such as Fosamax or Actonel), my body would only build weak bone. Without Vitamin D levels at a normal level, you’re not really helping yourself.

As always, talk to you doctor about what is best for you, but you might want to ask to be tested for Vitamin D.

My friend Trisha at Ideas for Women, pointed out a great article on Scientific American about Vitamin D. It’s a little long — 6 pages of small type — so you might want to print it off.

The article goes into the new studies and developments scientists are finding out about this vitamin and it is much more important than originally thought.

For many years, Vitamin D was only thought to influence bone development. But recent studies have shown that Vitamin D — or rather the lack of it — is actually tied to cancers, autoimmune diseases and infectious diseases. It is showing that the recommended daily allowance needs to be re-evaluated.

The article starts with a historical use of the vitamin to treat rickets and tuberculosis. It then goes into a laymen’s study of what Vitamin D actually is, how it is used in the body and what the different types are. It then talks about various studies that are being done.

I think one of the most interesting things about this Vitamin is that, while it is a fat soluble vitamin, it is difficult to overdose on it. A direct quote from the article

Toxic vitamin D overdose through supplementation is certainly possible, although it is generally seen when doses of 40,000 IU or more of D have been taken daily for an extended period. Sunshine-induced vitamin D toxicity has never been observed, however. To put this in perspective, an adult woman with white skin exposed to summer sun while wearing a bikini generates about 10,000 IU of vitamin D in 15 to 20 minutes. Longer exposures do not generate higher amounts of vitamin D, because UVB light also degrades the vitamin, preventing too much of it from building up in the skin.

It is definitely worth talking to your doctor to be tested for Vitamin D deficiency. All it takes is a simple blood test, and it is estimated that 40% of people are deficient. You are at particular risk if you are Asian, African American or Hispanic — that is, people with more pigment in the skin.

See also: Are you Vitamin D Deficient?

OK, I admit it. For the longest time, I absolutely hated taking calcium supplements for the simple fact that it backed me up so bad it just wasn’t worth it. The pain, the bloating, the gas, the fact that I desperately wanted to poop but couldn’t, or when I finally did, my back end was … sore.

Thinking I wasn’t getting enough water, I drank more water. Literally, sucked it down like I’d never see it again.

Still constipated, but peeing all the time.

So, I considered that perhaps I needed more fiber. I added more salad, more fiber, more bran, and continued drinking water like a fish.

Now, I was peeing all the time and *really* had to poop…but … couldn’t.

So, I talked to my doctor, who advised me to switch from Calcium Carbonate to Calcium Citrate. “Keep up with the fiber and water,” she said.

No change. Still peeing gallons. And at this point, I’m really reconsidering taking the calcium.

The other day, I actually saw an Oprah which I had tivoed from a week or two before.

The solution, said Dr. Oz, Oprah’s physician: take magnesium with the calcuim.

The good doctor says that calcium is like concrete and the magnesium will loosen things up. (Although, he says you’ll get a ‘little’ constipation with a calcium-only regimen, but I disagree on the ‘little’ part.)

I had my doubts. But after a week, I have to say, this works. I still don’t understand exactly why it works, but it does. And I don’t have to drink gallons of water every day.