• Guest - w'd love to know what you think about the forum! Take the 2025 Survey »

Vitamin D (sucrose free) ?

dingdong

Active Member
Messages
42
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Hello,
Recently I have been put back onto Vit D. On testing I found my BG level had doubled from 5.5 to 11.5. The only difference in my routine was the Vit D tablets. On inspection it says that one of the ingredients is sucrose.
Foolishly I Googled myself stupid and found that not only is V5 recommended for diabetes treatment but that the Govt is handing them out for free to certain groups due to the claim that it will help with Covid.
Googling madness however did not come up with a sucrose free alternative, and in fact came up with a list of ingredients with dodgy side affects.
Soooo, any one have any info on this please?
 

I use these: https://solgar.co.uk/products/solgar-vitamin-d3-cholecalciferol-4000-iu-100-vegetable-capsules
 
Thank you for the replies,
My word, £96 or £6.99 a year, what's that all about ?
I note the Amazon have silica in them which isn't supposed to be good.
I guess the free Govt ones aren't the Solgar ones.
Still find it a mystery why Vit D is being widely recommended for the treatment of diabetes if they have sucrose, which in my case, spiked my BG level.
Think I'll stop until next GP call
Appreciate your help
 
a years supply, so £6.99 for the year, which sounds pretty good to me but I'm not sure I would get ones such high strength. I’ve got some 2000iu as also have cod liver oil

have to say am slightly confused by the sucrose causing that much of an impact, surely the level in a pill is tiny? Am curious
 
Check also that the NHS ones havent got E133 and E321 in them. Are they the blue ones? some people have reactions to them.
 
? They are £6.99 for 400 tablets which is over a years supply. Just ordered some for myself.
 
I found some gel ones too but they had rapeseed oil in them which I don't want to put in my body so thought the pills would be better. Will let you know if any adverse effects..
 
bulkbiker said:
? They are £6.99 for 400 tablets which is over a years supply. Just ordered some for myself.
Click to expand...

Hadn’t noticed the number of pills. I’ll be switching brands - thanks!
Andydragon said:
but I'm not sure I would get ones such high strength
Click to expand...

Not disputing, but I’ve been supplementing 4,000 iu a day (plus K2 to aid with absorption) for a couple of years at least, plus having extended spells in the sun (literally several hours a day most days when the weather isn’t freezing). In September as part of a private blood panel, my Vit D levels came back over the top of the range (160 nmol on a range of 50-120) so I stopped supplementing. About 10 days ago my GP ordered a full blood panel which included Vit D and it had dropped to 104 over those few months. Am right back on the supplements now!
 

some brands have a markup due to reputation and quality of ingredients. Also dosage.

I tend to look at Solgar as a good standard, and the cost reflects that. They use brown glass bottles, the ingredients list is always clear. The doseage too.

When choosing any supplement I want it clearly stated on the packaging what form the ingredients are. In the case of Vitamin D3 that means cholecalciferol.

Vit D comes in a variety of different units and sizes of doses, so navigating that can be tricky... . Also comes in oil drops, oil capsules and powder capsules and solid tablets. Various different brands claim that the vitamin in oil is better absorbed, while the powders are least effective. As mentioned above, some people avoid the oils. I found a brand once that used olive oil, but the drops tasted vile. It is quite the rabbit hole!

interestingly, I have tried cheap supplements in the past and discovered that they can be of little value to my body.

I’ve been taking this brand for a while, and am due a vit d blood test (private) to test my levels. Going to be interesting to see if the same dose of this has been as effective as the drops I was taking before that.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0778NHCGW?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title
I bought them because I know to always take vitamin K2 with D3, because it helps the body to utilise the D properly.
So it saves me taking another tablet of K2.
The best form of K2 is Mk-7, and that is far more expensive than Vit D3... as I said, a minefield!
 
I have Vitamin D3 tablets from Vitabiontics. Each tablet weighs 0.1g so even if they were entirely sugar it would hardly be a problem. I expect other makes would be similar. I take 1000 IU per day which is claimed to be the optimum amount. 4000IU is the upper safe limit for adults.
 

most packaging states that 4000IU is the max recommended amount (bearing in mind that these are over the counter).

This doesn’t mean that 4000IU is the upper safe limit for adults.

If more than 4000IU were unsafe, then the NHS would not be prescribing up to 50,000 IUs (once a week for 6 weeks) to patients with vit D deficiencies.
https://midessexccg.nhs.uk/medicine...nce-for-adults-children-and-in-pregnancy/file
for those unable to take tablets, there is even an injection available that gives 300,000IUs (which even I find incredible).

I do appreciate that excessive levels of Vit D can be harmful, but it can take more than 4,000IU a day to reach adequate levels, let alone excessive levels. Thankfully, even the NHS recognises this.
 
From here: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-d/
Do not take more than 100 micrograms (4,000 IU) of vitamin D a day as it could be harmful.
 
Mr_Pot said:
From here: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-d/
Do not take more than 100 micrograms (4,000 IU) of vitamin D a day as it could be harmful.
Click to expand...

Yes, it could be harmful, if the person taking the dose already has excessively high levels of vitamin D.

That is (as I said above) a very different thing from your statement (also above) that ‘4000IU is the upper safe limit for adults’.

Not only are excessive Vit levels unlikely in places such as the UK, but we can all find out what our own levels of Vit D are, through private or NHS tests.

In my own case, having paid privately (because my doc refused to test), I have discovered that unless I supplement 4,000-8,000 IUs daily, then my vit D levels fall sharply into ‘insufficiency’, and I feel progressively more aches, pains and mild depression. My immune system also dips and I become prone to coughs and colds.

This is why blanket statements implying that one rule fits all, and blindly quoting anything, is unwise.
 
Very interesting reading.
I would prefer to take a liquid based version as I find the large tablets very chalky and I believe not so good for those prone to stones.
Thank you
 
I've been taking D3 for a while on GP's general advice. I've been getting a cheaper brand from Amazon Subscribe & Save which also includes K2 & when I went to confirm its lack of sucrose for @dingdong, I discovered that it's currently unavailable, so because I trust your judgement, I've just now swapped to your recommended but somewhat dearer one instead.
 
You are of course able to self prescribe whatever you like, but for others who are thinking of taking Vitamin D without medical advice then 4000IU per day is considered by the NHS and others to be a "safe upper limit" (their words not mine). This article is worth reading...
https://www.health.harvard.edu/stay...an-cloud-its-benefits-and-create-health-risks
 

That is quite a good article, and it makes clear (as I did above) that checking vitamin D levels is a good idea if there is any doubt, and taking appropriate levels of vitamin D for the individual, is a good idea. My only criticism is that it was written before the recent info from studies on Vit D and Covid immunity, which significantly change the playing field. The RDAs (and Harvard, and the NHS) have yet to catch up (see vid below for refs to the latest research).

I really don’t see why you are continuing to debate this. It is a simple fact that doses of vit D in excess of 4,000IU are not necessarily dangerous, and only become so in certain, rather rare circumstances - circumstances that we can all easily avoid by using common sense, and if that is in doubt, we can get our vit D levels tested.

In fact, I wish we would all do that. I expect a great number of people in the UK would be shocked at the results.
This guy certainly was, and he has been taking 2-3,000 IUs every day since the evidence started to emerge that deficiencies in Vit D negatively affect Covid outcomes.


At this point, I will bow out of the thread, since there is no point flogging dead horses, and those interested in optimum vit D levels can achieve them.
 
dingdong said:
Very interesting reading.
I would prefer to take a liquid based version as I find the large tablets very chalky and I believe not so good for those prone to stones.
Thank you
Click to expand...
I have a liquid one too for ease of absorption.

I take 5000 - 7000IU per day (depending on how trigger happy my finger is on the spray on any particular day) , but do get my levels checked periodically to make sure I don't go over the safe limit. I never have.
 
I too am confused by the sucrose causing that much of an impact. Even if it were pure sugar a tiny tablet once s day shouldn't be an issue. Either way you'll have to find a way around it only you'll have severe problems if your vitd levels get too low. Mine hit 20 once and wiped me out, following my insistence on a blood test, later advised 10 is life threatening. If you don't feel right discuss with your gp or consultant.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Menu
Log in
Register
Cookies are required to use this site. You must accept them to continue using the site. Learn More.…