I just got my vitamin D test results back today. I'm alarmed that I test 125 ng/ml. Does anyone know what the correlation between herbs and this test might be? In filling out the questionaire that came with the test it asked me to list any herbs I was taking. I use the Schulze Super Food so I listed the ingredients in that but I forgot that I should have listed the herbs in the colon cleanse that I was using too. I started the nine step protocol for osteoporosis on May 22 and sent the vitamin D test in after 4 weeks. What do I do now??? Of course I'll quit supplementing with the D and I guess I should avoid the sun............Is there any chance that the herbs threw off the test and maybe my levels aren't really that high? (I'm grasping at straws because I'm worried). I'd sure appreciate any input you guys have. I'd like to get my level down to the 50-70 ng/ml range. Thanks!

First, I am curious who did the test? Was it done by a local lab or was it done by Quest?

Optimal D level would be about 80, depending on many factors, however 125 is not critically high, if indeed the numbers are correct.

I would not suggest that you avoid the sun.

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The test was done by ZRT Laboratory. The box that containted the blood spot card says Vitamin D Council. Why not avoid the sun? Wouldn't I just be adding yet more vit D to my already overloaded body? Do you think too much is just as bad as too little??

No telling what herbs may do to create a false reading as they are often very different than the common foods. Next time you test stop all those kind of things for about three days before the anticipated test but continue with the supplements you are testing for that you anticipate to be your daily dose...perhaps you can figure it out then...but not likely.

I have tested as high as 130 for vitamin D. Do not worry about it. It was actually at 130 that a good portion of my psoriasis disappeared. You will drop down quickly when you reduce supplementation. To date no adverse effects have been seen with levels up to 200 and I have not heard that there are adverse effects above that. They may just not know. If you are only at 125 don't sweat it. If it were me I would continue at 5,000 IU a day and you will gradually taper down in two to three weeks while your body reaps the benefits of cellular repair for a while.

I personally am aiming for a level around 80 to 90....and I also would not avoid the sun. Just avoid burning.

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That made me feel a little less anxious. I did 50,000 IU 2 X a day for one week, the second week I took 50,000 once a day and the third week I took it one time a week(50,000) and that is what I had continued doing. I always thought it was rather hard to raise your vit D levels----but like you say hard telling what the herbs' effects were. I think the next time I test it will be through grassrootshealth----$40, compared to the vitamin d council, $70. I think they use the same lab---ZRT....!

I found out that it can be hard to raise your levels if you use 1,000 or 2,000 IU. I just couldn't do it. My doctor usually prescribes 5,000 these days, and 10,000 if they are in a hurry. She was quite surprised when I told her what I had done but she did admit that researchers are not finding any difficulty with levels at 130.

What gave me courage to do it was learning about the injections they routinely give in India once a year to patients in nursing homes.

I have just completed a burst at high dosage to try to eliminate the remaining psoriasis but it is not working this time and I just dont understand why. Back to the drawing board. When I am not doing really high dosage I take 50,000 IU once every two weeks and 5,000 on all other days. If I think I may be getting sick I take 50,000 3 x day for 2 to 3 days. I think I have done that twice. I never did get sick.

You can't overdose on D from the sun. At some point, the body will stop making/converting it.

The half life of D3 once in the body is around 3 weeks so it naturally depletes at 50% every 21 days so if you don't supplement or lay naked in the sun for the next 3 weeks you'll be pretty near 70ng.

The usual way to correct insufficiency is ONE X 50,000iu/D3 every WEEK for 8 weeks then 5000iu/daily. But as you have found using more speeds the job up and it takes an awful lot of D3 to get into the danger zone.

Indeed in this trial they used 3200iu/daily/d3 and only managed to raise status 55nmol/l roughly 20ng. The levels they achieved were just short of 40ng so still no where near the 60~70ng Dr Davis Heartscanblog suggests is optimal for those trying to reduce heart disease risk factors.

While the "official" guidance is that each 1000iu/daily/D3 will raise status 10ng 25nmol/l in practice if you have a current inflammatory condition (ie you are overweight, diabetic, or have another inflammatory driven condition) then I think you are better advised to use 2000iu/d extra for each 10ng 25nmol/l you need to raise to reach 60ng 150nmol/l.

The Grassrootshealth D Action campaign are doing the same ZRT test a bit cheaper than The Vitamin d Council.but as it's part of a trial you have to spend a few minutes answering questions about your medical history so they can plot disease incidence, hospitalizations, against 25(OH)D status over time.

Do try to persuade others that checking their D3 status may be a good idea.

UVGUIDE Vitamin D and Ultraviolet Light - a remarkable process this explains what is happening for those who find these processes interesting.

I just had a test for vitamin D3, 25-Hydroxy on 6/23/09 and the result was 110 ng/mL. They say it's high but I'm pretty happy to keep it right where it is. For several weeks I had been alternating with two days at 50,000 IU and two days at 10,000 IU, then for about two weeks before the test I stayed at 10,000. So, I think I will leave it at 10,000 IU for a while since I have inflammation on my feet from psoriasis and thickened cracked skin. My CRP is out of sight at 4.07!! The normal range is 0.00 to 3.00 mg/L. My fibrinogen is very high still at 437 mg/dL when normal is 150 to 400. I ran out of nattokinase a couple of months ago and I've been putting off paying $63 for another bottle of something that hasn't cured me in over 5 or 6 years. I've spent a lot of money on it in that many years!

A big thanks for all the replies! I have no major health concerns but I know that my frame is small and the two times I've had my heal scanned it showed osteopenia and a reminder to make an app. with the doc. I'm just not interested in a prescription for Fosamax. My mother became quite bent over as did her sisters and I've always been aware of my posture and tried to avoid slumping. In the last couple of years I've had bone (?) pain in my upper back (in the T6 area) and I suppose have had a minor fracture. So I just decided that bone health was going to be a real priority! When the result came back I had visions of damaged kidneys and all this excess D forever in my fat cells!!! Okay, I've calmed down considerably, ha. Many knowledgeable people on the forum and I thank you all for letting me pick your brains!

Nightowl,

thats a good level of vitamin D for you I think...and I don't doubt you know.

Now Ive never had a fibrogen test done. Is that the result you got on natto? this is from HealthSalon

Fibrinogen-Lowering Supplements
Low-dose aspirin and certain nutrients can provide partial protection against abnormal blood clots, but if you have high fibrinogen levels, additional measures should be taken to prevent heart attack and stroke. Platelet-aggregation inhibitors reduce the risk of fibrinogen causing an abnormal blood clot. Some effective nonprescription platelet-aggregation inhibitors include low-dose aspirin, green tea, ginkgo biloba, garlic, and vitamin E.
High vitamin A and beta-carotene serum levels have been reported to reduce fibrinogen levels in humans. For example, animals fed a vitamin A-deficient diet have an impaired ability to break down fibrinogen, but when they are injected with vitamin A, they produce tissue plasminogen activators that break down fibrinogen (Kooistra et al. 1991). A study in the October 1997 Diabetes Care Journal indicates that no one antioxidant may be effective and that total antioxidant capacity is important in reducing the risk associated with fibrinogen and cardiovascular disease (Ceriello et al. 1997).
Additionally, both fish and olive oil have been shown to lower fibrinogen in women with elevated fibrinogen levels (Oosthuizen et al. 1994). The minimum daily amount of fish oil required to produce a fibrinogen-lowering effect is 6 grams. In study results reported in the July 1997 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers at Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge) indicated, based on two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel studies conducted in human subjects, that increasing the amount of fish oil consumed to 15 grams a day “decreased fibrinogen concentrations” (Hwang et al. 1997).


Garlic
Garlic is a well-known herb that is of great benefit in decreasing the risk of arteriosclerosis. It has been shown to decrease total and LDL-cholesterol; increase HDL-cholesterol; reduce serum triglyceride and fibrinogen concentration; lower arterial blood pressure and promote organ perfusion; enhance fibrinolysis; inhibit platelet aggregation; and lower plasma viscosity.
https://www.healthsalon.org/239/cereb...isease-part-b/




and what were you taking to bring your CRP down?

this is from the same page above:
Fibrinogen-Lowering Supplements
Low-dose aspirin and certain nutrients can provide partial protection against abnormal blood clots, but if you have high fibrinogen levels, additional measures should be taken to prevent heart attack and stroke. Platelet-aggregation inhibitors reduce the risk of fibrinogen causing an abnormal blood clot. Some effective nonprescription platelet-aggregation inhibitors include low-dose aspirin, green tea, ginkgo biloba, garlic, and vitamin E.



High vitamin A and beta-carotene serum levels have been reported to reduce fibrinogen levels in humans. For example, animals fed a vitamin A-deficient diet have an impaired ability to break down fibrinogen, but when they are injected with vitamin A, they produce tissue plasminogen activators that break down fibrinogen (Kooistra et al. 1991). A study in the October 1997 Diabetes Care Journal indicates that no one antioxidant may be effective and that total antioxidant capacity is important in reducing the risk associated with fibrinogen and cardiovascular disease (Ceriello et al. 1997).



Additionally, both fish and olive oil have been shown to lower fibrinogen in women with elevated fibrinogen levels (Oosthuizen et al. 1994). The minimum daily amount of fish oil required to produce a fibrinogen-lowering effect is 6 grams. In study results reported in the July 1997 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers at Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge) indicated, based on two randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel studies conducted in human subjects, that increasing the amount of fish oil consumed to 15 grams a day “decreased fibrinogen concentrations” (Hwang et al. 1997).



Elevated homocysteine levels have been shown to block the natural breakdown of fibrinogen by inhibiting the production of tissue plasminogen activators (Midorikawa et al. 2000). Folic acid, trimethylglycine (TMG), and vitamins B12 and B6 significantly reduce elevated homocysteine levels.



The therapeutic benefits of vitamins B6 and B12 were discussed in a 1998 Cardiovascular Reviews and Reports (United States), reinforcing the use of these vitamins as part of an integrated therapy or disease prevention approach. Another study in 1998, based on data from 80 clinical and epidemiological studies that included more than 10,000 patients, suggested that supplementation with B vitamins, in particular with folic acid, is an efficient, safe, and inexpensive means to reduce the elevated homocysteine levels implicated in cardiovascular risk and disease (Refsum et al. 1998).



Since the 1980s, vitamin C has been studied and found beneficial in the reduction of fibrinogen levels. In a report in the journal Atherosclerosis, heart disease patients were given either 1000 or 2000 mg a day of vitamin C to assess its effect on the breakdown of fibrinogen. At 1000 mg a day, there was no detectable change in fibrinolytic activity (fibrinogen breakdown) or cholesterol. At 2000 mg a day of vitamin C, however, there was a 27% decrease in the platelet-aggregation index, a 12% reduction in total cholesterol, and a 45% decrease in fibrinolytic activity (Bordia 1980).



For additional fibrinogen-lowering effect, the proteolytic enzyme bromelain derived from the pineapple plant may also be effective for coagulation inhibition (Lotz-Winter 1990).
For those seeking to lower elevated fibrinogen levels and inhibit coagulation, 2-6 capsules a day of a supplement called Herbal Cardiovascular Formula containing a standardized bromelain concentrate should be considered.
Low-dose niacin was reported effective in reducing plasma fibrinogen in a 1998 American Journal of Cardiology study that “demonstrated that niacin supplementation decreases plasma fibrinogen and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in subjects with peripheral vascular disease.” The researchers reported further that those changes in fibrinogen levels are highly correlated with changes in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in subjects taking niacin (Philipp et al. 1998).
While niacin is considered relatively safe, like cholesterol-lowering prescription drugs, it can cause liver toxicity when taken in high doses. Monitoring liver enzymes every 6 months is important when taking more than 1000 mg of niacin a day. Those with hepatitis should avoid niacin to avoid complications.


Where you live you could be eating a lot of nice fish, salmon and trout!

Thanks Arrow, that's a lot of information to get in my sleepy head this morning, so I'll print it and go over it later today. I do have some bromelain and my naturopathic doctor said that was his second choice next to nattokinase. I didn't know that vitamin A and beta-carotine were so important. I think I'm going to have to break down and start buying LEF vitamins because they have just about everything you could want. My homocystein was 9.1 and the range is 0.0 to 15.0 umol/L so it's in the range, but on the high end. vitamin B12 was 273 and the range is 211 to 911 pg/mL...in the range, but low, so I will start taking that sublingually. Folic acid is fairly high at 14.1 and the range is >5.4 ng/mL, especially in relation to vitamin B12. The last couple of times I've tested high in phosphorus and I'm not sure what that means. It is 4.9 and the range is 2.5 to 4.5 mg/dL.

Another test result that's low is LDH at 74 and the range is 100 to 250 IU/L...is that to do with the kidneys? I have had very sharp, hard pains in my left kidney area several times that comes and goes, and I've wondered if it could be from all the clobetisol I've used for my psoriasis for so long. I try to alternate it so I don't use it every night. Now my doctor wants me to also put it on my feet! Then my pulmonary doctor prescribed pulmicort steroid to use in my nebulizer! I haven't used it much.

Thanks for all your help!

The test for LDH is a test for tissue damage. High levels indicate tissue damage, low levels usually mean high blood levels of Vitamin C.

https://www.labtestsonline.org.uk/und.../ldh/test.html

Marilyn - 50,000 of Vit D3 on a daily basis sounds high to me. Perhaps you could try a 5,000
dosage on a daily basis to see if that works out better for you. Especially If you are also getting natural Vit D from the Sun.
When I am able to get Vit D from the Sun, several times a week, I don't take any Vit D3 supplement. If I can't get it from Sun for Several days, only then do I take one 5,000. I only supplement w/Vit D3 daily during the times of the yr when I can't get it from the Sun.

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