Posted 3/1/2016 5:52 PM (GMT 0)
I appreciate your honesty and open-mindedness, Traveler. Vitamin D has become a hot topic and I rarely discuss my viewpoints on it, choosing to save my energy for my healing vs playing defense. I personally feel we are just at the baby stages of understanding the complexity of Vitamin D supplementation and we don't know the long term effects yet.
I made my decision based on a lot of countless hours thinking and researching, in addition to my own body's clues, which are of primary importance to me and have not let me down to date. For those who read the studies in the link I provided, one example discusses the ligand and VDR receptor relationship - and curcumin is one of those you can find information about, if anyone chooses to research further.
Back to my body's communication with me, all I can share is that when I would try to take any form of D3 and when I take turmeric (curcumin), my body goes wild (mild/moderate air hunger, clenching teeth, herx like feelings) - which fits like a glove in what you would expect, based on the hypothesis my article link presents. The pieces make sense, in my unique case, when taken in context of the article. Adding D throws gasoline on the fire inside of me, curcumin goes to work on the VDR system. I merely decided to avoid the gasoline effect (no D) while helping the VDR (yes to turmeric). For the record, both my daughter and I get "sun sick" as well - our bodies say no to sitting in the sun, too. My daughter had a panic/anxiety incident last summer when she visited me, after being out in the sun too long. We both have low D3.
We are often our own guinea pigs - and my expectation (hypothesis) is that when I re-check my thyroid levels/antibodies, vitamin/minerals and D status down the road, I will see those numbers drastically reduced because I am reducing the pathogen load and inflammation. Time will tell. I am having a drastic reduction of the symptoms of those deficits, since reducing the pathogen load - if there was no positive change, I would have thrown this guinea pig testing out. I can't stay in the middle on D supplementation. Because even a little can cause problems, as the article discussed. My body, fortunately, is making the decision for me instead of my having to flip a coin. It is unhappy at even the slightest dose. And like the article, I have the low D3 and higher D 1,25....just like they discuss.
In closing, I do recommend, regardless of where you stand on Vitamin D protocols, that you get your D 1,25 checked. It is intimately correlated to immunity, the Vitamin D Receptor (VDR), etc. D3 is only one spoke on the Vitamin D wheel. Especially when taking megadoses of anything, keep an eye on the whole system, not just one part. People focus on only D3 just to see if their levels are getting "up there" - but as the article explained, these levels we are reaching for could be extremely flawed. I won't go into that, the article points this out in detail, if anyone wishes to read about it. It is simply a belief that makes sense to me on my path.
Again, it is nice to be in a forum where all of our research can come together. Because we aren't alike, because our bodies are so different, it is important to present all sides and experiences. I am certainly the minority, and that is ok - but there are others like me out there. I just wanted the opportunity to show that there are other modes of thought where Vitamin D levels and supplementation are concerned. I appreciate your giving me the opportunity to express that here.