So you have COPD.
What's your 25(OH)D?
Have all the medical experts you've seen checked your 25(OH)D and raised it to 55ng?
I'm sure they are all aware that low vitamin D status is twice as bad for your pulmonary function as smoking is?

I am a member of the Life Extension Foundation. I became curious about my 25(OH)D level when I heard about people taking large doses with good results, and no ill effects, on this forum, and there was plenty about the benefits of vitamin D3 in the LEF magazine also. I ordered tests through LEF and had them done at LabCorp. I was aware that it was commonly found to be deficient in people with COPD and autoimmune disease, which includes my thyroid disorder, now under control. I have the lab results but I'm in the process of moving and have not unpacked everything yet, so I looked up old posts from this forum to find my results.

This next paragraph is a quote from my post on 8-30-2008:

"Well, I thought I'd give you an update on tests I had done on 8/18/2008. I took 50,000 IU Vitamin D3 once a day for 20 days, stopping the high dose on 8/04/2008 and switched to 5,000 IU once a day. My Vit. D3 result was up from last April when it was 46.8 ng/mL to 88.4. The reference range is 32.0 to 100.0. So I almost doubled my numbers, but my N.D.doctor wasn't at all happy about me taking such high doses...he said it's toxic. I'm not convinced that it's toxic."

I believe I had one test prior to that date that had a result of 23 ng/mL that sent up the red flag. Here is a post, I believe it was from 1-22-2009:

"The test result done 1-14-09 was 144.0 ng/mL, which is very high. I had been alternating, taking 50,000 IU for two days, 5,000 IU for two days and then back to 50,000 IU again, alternating like that for the past few weeks. I will back down to 5,000 IU for a few days and then see how I do on the current recommended dose of 2,000 IU."

I waited till this move was over to order another test, which I will have within the next two weeks. So I guess the medical expert I saw was myself with a little bit of help from my friends. I sent my sister the videos you posted and convinced her that her healthy food and sunshine might still leave her deficient in vitamin D, so she was going ask her doctor to check it during her check-up yesterday....Thank you!

I'm not convinced there is any benefit in megadosing except as a loading dose to raise status as fast as possible or possibly short term for STOSS therapy.

The safe upper limit is considered to be 10,000iu as that allows for extra from sunlight.

You were taking 27,500iu/d on average but I doubt you were doing yourself any harm, apart from financially, by wasting money.

I think keeping my level around 50~70ng is probably best and that generally requires around 5000~6000iu/daily given latitude/sun exposure/skin colour. The half life of D3 is about 3 weeks. Stored D3 in muscle fat depletes therefore at roughly 17% a week, so laying off the supplements for a few weeks soon has you back into the range associated with least chronic disease incidence.

I had started alternating every two days with 5,000 IU and 50,000 IU a while back when the psoriasis on my hands flared up and was pretty painful, with cracked skin, like paper cuts...because I realized that it had improved while taking high doses before. I'm still fighting it, although I believe it did help some. It became worse the past week when faced with moving, while so short of breath that just to think about it made me exhausted. My family did the most of the moving, but only I could get rid of my old paperwork and such, and I copy everything worth noting on the internet because it's quickly disappearing.

I'm fairly sure that it will take more than the new normal dose of 2,000 to 4,000 IU to keep my numbers up in the high-normal range. I think I would rather stay in the 80 to 100 ng/mL range. I'm going to reduce my intake to 10,000 IU until I test again. I think I may need that since I seldom get out in the sunshine. We have a nice private back yard and nice deck at our new home, so I hope to grow some tomatoes and sunbathe more. I live in western Washington state and we don't get intense sunshine here.

I agree that mega-dosing over a long period of time is probably not a good idea.

Carbohydrate Restriction May Slow Prostate Tumor Growth
While I do go on about the importance of Vitamin D3 I also think we have to consider cancer in relation to diet. In the same way our DNA evolved in high 25(OH)D status body's (living outdoors naked or nearly so) so those hunter gatherers would have had access to neither refined carbs or omega 6 vegetable oils.

Ted,
Not to dwell on the subject, but I just realized that I deleted a few lines that described the fact that I have what my doctor calls severe COPD and only mentioned it briefly. Also the link to research on low vitamin D and pulmonary function was very interesting.