Vit D 25 Hydroxy as indicator of Lyme

Lyme/borrelia is a major Vit D receptor blocker, it shuts vit d functionality and innate immune.
Is it true that Vit D 25 Hydroxy levels will not increase if Lyme infection is present?

Does it mean if vit d not increasing even after supplementation indicates the borrelia is still present? and if vit d level are easily coming to normal means borrelia is gone?

Post Edited (newuser22) : 12/29/2022 12:28:15 AM (GMT-8)

i think Marshall of the vitamin d hypothesis fame - referenced papers that showed borrelia suppress vitamin D receptor expression - so that means that borrelia are not so much blocking the receptor - eg with another compound - but suppressing the rate at which cells express receptors in the first place.

that said its quite well known that inflammation of any type tends to suppress the conversion of the vitamin D storage form to the active form - and so i don't think vitamin D can be used as a diagnostic for borrelia infection
many other chronic illnesses - which all tend to be inflammatory in nature - also suppress vitamin D conversion

people with lyme do also get better with therapies that do not target this innate immunity pathway - so i am not sure how much weight we should give Marshall's theories

the other issue is how hard his protocol is for most people to follow - from memory it includes years of discomfort and inconvenience - avoiding all dietary vitamin D and sunlight and taking antibiotics and immune altering compounds that produce herx like reactions

i also found my 25OH vitamin D levels went up with supplementation - despite a positive lyme test from Armin labs ( there is a significant lag as vit D is oil soluble - and all oil soluble vitamins tend to have a significant lag between dosing and body levels rising )

newuser22 said...


I am trying to understand if this is a sign of real improvement/remission.

i would say yes - its definitely a sign that things in the body are working better

but the main signs of remission are always going to be the lack of lyme symptoms

as you know there are no tests that can tell us with certainty that lyme is gone completely

once infected its not known if the organism can ever be totally eradicated from the host body

but then it may not be necessary to eradicate it - as humans live with many different infections present at low levels and held in check by the immune system throughout life - eg many of the viruses we contract in our youth are with us for life at very low levels

other markers that my give some indication of status are - CD57+ count - if it was low during illness - and returns to normal range after treatment - is another good sign

probably things like white blood cell counts and other things on the CBC - often suppressed in chronic illness - if they return to middle of normal range

Great explanation Quinn. I need to write this down this time. I remember you gave me that answer in my vitamin D post a couple months ago.

Even though I live in a northern state my health insurance does not like to test for vitamin D. So I don’t know if they’ll test for both.

I’ll have to do my homework even see if quest or LabCorp have both of these tests.

Supplemental vitamin D has always made me feel a little edgy, with lyme and after lyme , it did not change.

When my vitamin D gets too high, it causes a pretty significant detox reaction where I pee a lot until the 1,25 goes back to normal. You'd have to do the test at the right time to catch it, as the vitamin D will decrease quickly once you start having detox symptoms.

If my 1,25 vitamin D gets too high, I get hot flashes, sweating, pee a lot, and feel nervous (adrenal stress). This is mostly due to CYP3A4. If the vitamin D also affects calcium levels, then I can get excess stomach acid and unstable blood sugar. Those are indirect effects which occur because vitamin D affects calcium uptake, and calcium signaling affects insulin release and stomach acid production.

For how long did it go on?

Quin said...
If my 1,25 vitamin D gets too high, I get hot flashes, sweating, pee a lot, and feel nervous (adrenal stress). This is mostly due to CYP3A4. If the vitamin D also affects calcium levels, then I can get excess stomach acid and unstable blood sugar. Those are indirect effects which occur because vitamin D affects calcium uptake, and calcium signaling affects insulin release and stomach acid production.