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Get your vitamin D levels checked!

Suggsey

Suggsey

Newbie
Messages
4
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
I should introduce myself as a type 2, diagnosed at the age of 39,a very active sportsman all my life, even since diagnosis.
I recently swapped surgeries and medical team for a number of reasons, some to do with their attention to detail and their management and assistance with my condition.
What a revelation a new smaller practice has been and a fresh approach from an enthusiastic supportive Nurse. Well to cut a long story short, despite being an outdoors active person with a good diet high in it, I was found to be low in Vitamin D!
Within two days of being on the D3 supplement my bloods which were already in good control (but I have other longstanding issues) suddenly dropped and put me into hypos 2 hrs before my next meal......really caught me out.
Anyway on the back of the rapid onset hypos, I stopped taking the Glicazide which I knew was the primary cause and did some reading to find that in some.....not all by any means......type 2 diabetics that it was found that those that were vitamin D deficient when put on supplements of D3 found that their insulin sensitivity was increased and therefore generally lower blood sugar levels obtained.
I went back to the doctor to briefly discuss this and withdrawal of glicazide as my blood sugars have been so much more stable within a week, no sudden drops, no having to resort to those "couple of biscuits" to get me through until lunch or dinner was made....I'm sure it wasn't just me that had to do this and he was very happy with me managing my condition and was very encouraging that my sensitivity will get even better as May some if my other issues that may be purely down to the Original vitamin D deficiency.
Anyway that's it for now and I know not everyone is as lucky as me to have got in a surgery with a fresh, enthusiastic, supportive approach but if you are unhappy with your current medical teams consider changing practice but also check and see if you can have your vitamin D levels checked on your next blood tests.
 
Cheers, I never for a moment suspected I would be one of the UK's 50% of the population that's vitamin D deficient and the links with insulin sensitivity and actually seeing it happen for me, I just hope that even if one other person has the same benefits in improvement of their health it's worth sharing.
 
Suggsey said:
I should introduce myself as a type 2, diagnosed at the age of 39,a very active sportsman all my life, even since diagnosis.
I recently swapped surgeries and medical team for a number of reasons, some to do with their attention to detail and their management and assistance with my condition.
What a revelation a new smaller practice has been and a fresh approach from an enthusiastic supportive Nurse. Well to cut a long story short, despite being an outdoors active person with a good diet high in it, I was found to be low in Vitamin D!
Within two days of being on the D3 supplement my bloods which were already in good control (but I have other longstanding issues) suddenly dropped and put me into hypos 2 hrs before my next meal......really caught me out.
Anyway on the back of the rapid onset hypos, I stopped taking the Glicazide which I knew was the primary cause and did some reading to find that in some.....not all by any means......type 2 diabetics that it was found that those that were vitamin D deficient when put on supplements of D3 found that their insulin sensitivity was increased and therefore generally lower blood sugar levels obtained.
I went back to the doctor to briefly discuss this and withdrawal of glicazide as my blood sugars have been so much more stable within a week, no sudden drops, no having to resort to those "couple of biscuits" to get me through until lunch or dinner was made....I'm sure it wasn't just me that had to do this and he was very happy with me managing my condition and was very encouraging that my sensitivity will get even better as May some if my other issues that may be purely down to the Original vitamin D deficiency.
Anyway that's it for now and I know not everyone is as lucky as me to have got in a surgery with a fresh, enthusiastic, supportive approach but if you are unhappy with your current medical teams consider changing practice but also check and see if you can have your vitamin D levels checked on your next blood tests.
Click to expand...

Thank you.

I have vit d3 supplements sitting beside me as I write.
Your post is a timely reminder to actually take the things!
 
beardie said:
how low were you?
Click to expand...

I have plenty of symptoms, but never been tested.
Never even asked to be tested.

I couldn't see the point of yet another battle with the doctor.
He hasn't been particularly helpful in the past. Massive understatement.

But I do feel better when I remember to take them consistently for a while. And even with day time dog walking at the weekend, this time of year, working in an office, I don't see direct daylight from Sunday afternoon until Saturday morning. Weather permitting.

I think everyone should supplement, in those circumstances.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Low levels for me for both B12 and D3 made me feel like ****.

B12 now off the roof despite the injections stopped, and D3 good. I am outdoors at least 4-8 hours each day, but was still low. I have full maximum dosage of D3 everyday but also take vit k to go with it....
 
I was not massively low but low enough for it to be affecting me massively.....I am 6'01" and a big muscular build......which is another cause of low levels...tends to happen in big muscular males. Since being on them I also haven't had any feelings of fatigue or muscle weakness. It's believed that a lot of muscle weakness and aches from statins are actually caused by vitamin d deficiency. Don't forget our bodies are very complex as my doc explained one nano molecule of something produced from a pituitary gland can have a massive effect on the rest of the bodies systems. Our diabetic medications can sometimes be a rather large hammer to crack a smal nut is how he put it!
 
"tends to happen in big muscular males" Do you have a source for this? Might help me with the doctor.
 
I was told about Vit D by a specialist weight management team. I had my levels checked and they were extremely low so
I was prescribed 20k iu to be taken three times a week for 10 weeks. At the time I wasn't checking my BG so
I don't know if it had any effect in that respect. I had bloods repeated recently and was told they were back to normal. The weight man team said they had some really good results with Vit D, but I can't say the same has happened for me.
 
I did a Google search simply vitamin d deficiency and type 2 diabetics and read several studies which were from America primarily but they're all recent and some of the studies were of large groups of individuals. If you google vitamin d deficiency and read through some of the articles you will find it mentioned. I'm sorry I didn't bookmark articles or pages.
I would have got a similar negative response at my old doctors practice, I'm afraid they were more concerned with meeting the targets to achieve practice funding than actually any interest in long term conditions in my opinion.
Another plus seems to have been a steady weight loss kick started again after plateauing for about two years...only a couple of pounds but every bit of fat attached to my organs burning away helps with all the other systems healing.
 
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