hi mark, i have heard a lot about the benifits of vitemin D for diabetic pain my mother usd it and swore by it. hope this helps! wishing you pain free days or at least pain free moments.

thanks for the reply well thats good to know, just now to decide whats the best and cheapest way to get it

Mark, Does you bloodwork show you are deficient in Vitamin D? Because that's a big dose if you're not extremely deficient.

I buy my Vit.D over the counter which is a lot cheaper and take 3000u/day. I was on prescription dose years ago but haven't had my level checked lately.

Vit.D has been shown to help neuropathic pain but it takes longer than a month of therapy. Plus, getting out in the sun and drinking milk/dairy products are another way to get adequate Vit.D. along with calcium to keep your bones strong.

I'm just curious if your doc checked your level or just wrote a script for Vit.D. You may not need such a high dose but keeping your Vit.D level high-normal has been shown to help. you can overdose on Vit.D. I did know the symptoms but have since forgotten them. YOu can google Vitamin D and find it easily though.

Best of luck.
Sandy

For those of us who have a severe Vit.D deficiency 50,000 I.U. is not an unusual dose. I know it's been said a couple times lately that, this is a high or unsafe dose...but it's not, it's the standard treatment for Vit. D deficient individuals. A normal adult Vit. D panel should be around 50...mine stays between 4 and 7. For some reason, and Dr.'s don't know why, (not because they're bad Dr.'s, just because my body is weird), my body does not take Vit. D and Vit. B12 from natural sources like food, sun and plants anymore. So I have to take mega doses via supplements. I take the 50,000 I.U. dose the 1st week of each month, then each day of every other week that month I take 6,000 I.U. per day. I also take 2 ml Vit. B12 injections every day. I've never had any kind of reaction from these Vitamin regimens, not so much as a tummy ache or headache.

Replenishing your Vit. D is not something your going to see a big difference after 1 dose, you have to keep doing it to let it build back up in your system. And if it's only $15 bucks, that's cheap. OTC vitamin D supplements, typical 2000 I.U., 100 ct. pills run about $8 bucks a bottle....so you can see the difference here, your getting off pretty cheap. Give it some time and see if it's working. Generally you wait 3 months on the supplement dosage and then have your blood draws and see if your Vit.D level is up to where it should be.

I also take folic acid but that's part of my BiPolar treatment. I can say that the extra Vit. D and Folic acid won't hurt the depression your struggling with from all the stress that's going on in your life.

Hang in there Mark, sometimes you have to give these modalities a chance to work, it's not always "right away."

Mark here is an article I found that also explains the thinking on adding Vit.D for Diabetic Neuropathy:

Vitamin D supplementation is an effective treatment of neuropathic pain in Type 2 diabetes patients, new Australian research suggests.

Previous research has found that vitamin D deficiency is common in patients with Type 2 diabetes, but its effect on neuropathic pain has not previously been tested, say study authors Drs Paul Lee and Roger Chen from Concord Repatriation General Hospital.

Their study, published in todays Archives of Internal Medicine (168:771-772) involved 51 patients with Type 2 diabetes and typical neuropathic pain. All patients were vitamin D deficient with a mean serum 25D concentration of 18 ng/mL.

After three months, vitamin D repletion with cholecalciferol (vitamin D3) tablets resulted in a significant reduction in pain scores using two separate assessments, one suggesting the pain severity was reduced by 40% the other suggesting pain severity had been halved.

How vitamin D reduces the severity of diabetic neuropathic pain is uncertain, but the researchers suggest that vitamin D insufficiency may potentiate diabetic nerve damage and impair nociceptor function. The results could not be explained by a decrease in parathyroid hormone as testing did not show any statistically significant difference in hormone level following the vitamin D repletion, they say.

Vitamin D is known to have a role in the prevention of osteoporosis. It is also increasingly being recognised for its ability to improve glycaemic control, the endocrinologist researchers said. In addition, vitamin D repletion is free of adverse effects.

Therefore, the researchers said they would advocate a trial of vitamin supplementation in vitamin D-deficient patients with neuropathic pain.

It is unlikely to have any harmful effects and may offer not only pain relief but also beneficial effects on bone health and glycaemic control.

Hi Mark,
I am not a diabetic; however, my new rheumatologist checked my vitamin D blood level and it showed that I was severely deficient. So he prescribed me to take 10,000 iu vitamin D3 daily. I buy the 5000 iu capsules otc and take them twice daily. From what I understand, vitamin D deficiency is linked to inflammatory disorders, such as lupus, RA, inflammatory bowel disease, MS, diabetes, even cancer.

I have been taking this dose for about 3 months now. I am starting to notice a decrease in the neuropathy pain in my leg, but I don't know if it's the vit D or a combo of meds, including Plaquenil and Lyrica.

I think it's worth a try, Mark, if your doctor advises it. Good luck!

Hi all no i am not deficient, i just asked him what else we could do like vitamins so he wrote me the script, and i forgot to ask him friday if i am to continue

Getting a Vit D level back up to "where it should be" ( Im rarely even close- according to blood work - every 3 months) can take a year or more. If its something that you plan on trying-- give it quite awhile before you decide that its not helping.

I take 5,000 iu a day, the levels when I started were 23 not they are around 70. This is the level my doctor wants me to be at. It took around 6 months to get the levels up.

Jon,
Just out of curiosity, why does your Dr. want you to be over the standard adult Vit. D level of 50?

Kat

He goes for optimal levels of all the hormones, I didn't ask him why...
70 would be the level of a lifeguard that is getting a lot of sun exposure.

I've been taking 50,000 I.U of Vitamin D twice a week since 2009. My levels are stable at this dose. My endocrinologist draws blood to check every 3 months.

I must say, I have peripheral neuropathy in both feet and never noticed a reduction in pain from taking Vit D.

Didn't help my PN either. Mine was diagnosed as Hereditary Neuropathy, so reincarnation might be the only cure...