Ooops!
And my brilliant plan for yesterday was to blog the day's events at the end of the day.
Ya.
Challenging!
I met with my lovely natural hormone therapy doctor yesterday to go over my latest blood work. Much improvement and several areas that are being stubborn. What I do know to be different is when I went to him last year I was having
But that stubborn Vit D is still in the crapper and my DHEA is still low.
So a continued plan for those deficiencies and reevaluate in six months.
My doc was telling me something fascinating that might be common knowledge. Higher levels of vitamin D correlate with less multiple sclerosis disease activity and progression.
He said when he found out about the study he got "pissed" that this wasn't HUGE news. It was out there here and there with a google search (of course), but mainstream media let it lie. No attention to something that should have the biggest spotlight on it. (Here is an article about it I just found with a quick search.)
We have MS in our family on an in-law side and I asked Pup to speak to his BIL about his Vit D levels.
My doctor brought it up during a conversation he and I were having about Big Pharma.
He is a physician and is hesitant to say that doctors are in the pockets of BP, but did say that the system does not reward prevention by route of behavior changing diagnosis. Most doctors throw prescriptions at their patients rather than go with a try this or try that approach.
I kinda love this guy.
My prescriptions from him are definitely not tied with Big Pharma. The biggest clue is their cost. Without insurance my two bio-identical prescriptions cost around $30. One monthly and the other one about two to two and a half months between refills. Ya. No co-pay required.
I'm kinda all over the place with this post, but he said another amazing thing to me while we were discussing how to get my Vit D levels UP (gah!!). I mentioned getting in the sun as much as possible during the day and should I be using my tanning bed (we have one, but don't use it too much - last year doc suggested I use it a couple of minutes a day to dissuade Seasonal Affect Disorder).
He told me that as we age and our hormones get so messed up with the aging process, nutritional deficiencies, free-radical crap, etc. we are less able to effectively absorb Vit D from the sun. He told a story of a fellow doctor friend of his that lives in Arizona, golfs every day, has a bald head, wears no sunscreen or hat. I was expecting a lecture about sun screen (he actually thinks we don't need it as much as we need a good Vit D level), but he went on to finish the story by telling me that despite all of that, his doctor friend's levels were 7! A good level is 50. Mine are crappy and they're 23!
These are the things that are making us sad and fat and depressed and out of balance.
He also said Vit D is a balance with DHEA levels as well. A low level of DHEA will not allow proper Vit D absorption.
So complicated.
I wish I had taken thorough notes yesterday. I wish I played golf with my doctor! Imagine the stuff I'd learn!
7 comments:
Magnesium is essential for you to get the benefits of Vitamin D. If you increase your magnesium, your D should come up.
http://www.nutraceuticalsworld.com/contents/view_breaking-news/2013-03-07/association-magnesium-essential-to-absorption-of-vitamin-d-calcium/
Oooh, so good, this read. Glad your RT is working for you -- mostly. You're fortunate to have a doc nearby who specializes in bio.
I wish I knew what my D levels were. I take D supps and I take DHEA supps. Do you? Is it supposed to help or is it hit-n-miss with the absorption?
So what was his response on the tanning bed approach?
That huge reduction in hot flashes -- that alone is newsworthy. Makes me want to clap and shout and dance and sing. They're such torture!
Ms A - that is a wonderful thing to know! I wonder if he mentioned it? I have some magnesium (chelated) on my nightstand that I haven't in quite a while. I was taking it at night for insomnia.
tPretty - he said the tanning bed wouldn't be helpful for low levels of D at all. He has told me in the past that because of the darkness in my part of the country during the winter that a few minutes once a day could be very beneficial for SAD.
I take 5k of D3 and a supplement by the name 7-Keto DHEA 100 mg in the mornings 5 days a week M-F. I am continuing with this with more diligence on my part. Then we'll evaluate in six months.
Oh and T - when you get your yearly blood work drawn they would have Vit D in the results. I found out about my low D a few years ago from my regular yearly exam and blood work results.
I'm very yappy right now apparently - he didn't give the low D to me as an excuse, but did mention that this is one of the reasons I have trouble losing weight and some of my (sometimes more than) binging behaviors. Gah!
DHEA in the a.m.here too
And I just read that stress and depression causes us to burn fewer calories, slows our metabolism, which sort of goes along with that D deficiency thing you speak of, yeah?
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