Tuesday 17 May 2011

D minus

I have found out that I still have a vitamin D deficiency. It is measured on scale where you should have a number between 50-200. This time I have 42, which is not really bad but there is still a lot of room for improvement.

The first time this deficiency was discovered was about 2,5 years ago. I was having problems with my feet and the way I was walking. I was getting bruises on the outside of my heels because I was walking on the side of my heels. I went to a physiotherapist and he said that my pelvis was misaligned. He pulled it straight and I got insoles to correct the way I place my feet when I walk.
After a few months it wasn't getting any better, it was actually getting more painful and I was slightly bitter because I had spent a lot of money trying to make it better but I was in more pain than before. It got so bad that I could only take tiny steps and hardly walk up the stairs.

My doctor did a all around check and found that I was lacking in vitamin D (my number was 21 that time) and that could explain the pain in my bones. I started taking a supplement that is 760% of the daily doses. On the jar it says that it is for people who don't eat a lot and live in retirement home. Yeah, that's me!

I took it for a few months and I started to feel better. I was tested again and I can't remember the number but I was told that I didn't need to take that extreme supplement any longer. This was also around the time I became pregnant. During pregnancy there is a hormone called relaxin that makes your joints softer. For me that meant that my lower back was soft and supple and it wasn't painful anymore. Now, four months after the birth that hormone is all gone and I am getting stiff again. It has begun to hurt as well, so that is why I asked for a check-up.

I don't know why I don't have enough vitamin D but I think it is because I use a lot of sunscreen. I burn easily and I have always smothered myself in sunscreen. I am a vegetarian so I don't eat fish, but as I have understood it, it is not so much what you eat but how much sun you get to activate the vitamin.

So now I am back on the 760% supplement again and when I go for my daily walks I don't put sunscreen on my arms. However, when I have written this it becomes clear to me that I don't really understand what is going on or what the consequences might be.Maybe I should have my bone density examined for example because I don't know for long this went on before I became aware of it.

1 comment:

Duktiga Tjejen said...

Tack för detta inlägg! Eller ja; det är ju inte för mig, men det hjälper mig eftersom jag också har D-vitaminbrist (som du vet). Jag har bara mätt en gång, och då hade jag 14. Läkaren var värdelös och sa att det inte fanns något att göra åt saken, men jag gick till en specialist som gav mig receptbelagt tillskott direkt. Jag har haft ont i mitt skelett så himla länge, i flera flera år. Dessutom tappat hår, varit yr, mått illa, superkänslig osv. Idag ska jag till en ny läkare och be om remiss, för jag vill komma min benmassa. En kompis kompis hade samma värde som jag, 14, och hade redan fått osteoporos. Jag är ju väldigt ung för den sjukdomen, så jag hoppas verkligen att mitt skelett har stått ut (jag är 30, fyller 31 i år). Jag har tränat regelbundet iallafall och använder oftast inte solcreme, är ute i solen så fort det bara går och är semi-veg men äter fisk. Fattar därför inte varför det är såhär? Var bor du nånstans? Jag hoppas att du blir bättre!