I wonder the same thing. Mines always low I take the vit d my doc prescribes on top of what I buy at the store I just can't seem to keep it up.

after my 12 weeks of high does vit. d I now take 1000 mg a day. It does seem to help

Wow, Sherrie. I don't know if it's common or not, but I got my first low vitamin D level with my last yearly physical, timing it right before my (possibly reactive) RA. I don't believe much in coincidence. :\

p.s. I'm taking 2000 IU per day for it per primary.

Hi Sheri,
I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and a few other autoimmune diseases. I am Vitamin D deficient. I take 50,000 I.U.s of it twice a week, and I also take it in a multi-vitamin. So, I do think there is a connection.
Hang in there! Mochalite

same here..I am on prescription strength Vit D for 8 weeks also in order to try to get mine up.Over the counter stuff isn't working so she said maybe after we get it up with the prescription it may stay up with over-the-counter..Didn't have this problem before RA diagnosis.

My D was very low when I was DX with RA as well. One really important thing about keeping our Vit D levels up is that it lessens the amount of pain we feel.

Mine was very low too, but my rhuemy said it was from the mtx. I had to take 5000 for 3 weeks. I take 1000 now, because I'm indoors a lot. In the summer I take less. I'm not taking mtx at this time, so I seem to be back to normal again.

Lin =)

Doing a quick search for RA and Vitamin D gave me a bunch of hits. The current thinking seems to be that Vitamin D deficiency may be correlated with increased risk of developing autoimmune disorders, and may be associated with higher levels of disease activity. Vitamin D deficiency rates may be higher in people with RA than the non-RA population. Vitamin D is associated with a variety of things, including immune function.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3539179/

http://rheumatology.oxfordjournals.org/content/47/11/1617.full

great links! I asked my doc and all he said was it's common for people in my area to have low vitamin d levels because there is hardly any sun....Thanks for the reassurance doc ha the articles were great very informative thanks!

I have a vitamin D deficiency as well. I have read there is a link between RA and low vitamin D.

Sheri, you story sounds a bit like mine. I started having high RA factors 7 years ago. I woke one mornng in extreme pain with my hip. I went to see my first rheumatologist, he told me I looked healthy, so he didnt do any more test. I saw my GP two years later he test my RA factor again, So, I saw a new rheumatologist. This time I was having extreme joint pain all over. This rheumy told me since I didn't have nodules he was not ready to say I have RA, but told me he could not say I would not be hit with it one day. He tried to diagnose me with FM too, I didn't buy that. OK fast forward to February I went to my GP with tummy issues, I thought maybe I had celiac disease because of the joint issues. He tested my RA factor and it was very high and told me to see a rheumatologist as soon as possible. My new rheumy told me I should have been diagnosed five years ago. He told me I either have RA with eye issues, or Sjogrens. My RA factor was high alone with my ANA being + and some other + anti test. I go back today to get my offical diagnosis.

Did they test you for other autoimmue disease, like lupus or sjogrens? They to cause high RA factors.

Sorry for that there long story! :)

It's not just RA- people across the autoimmune spectrum tend towards low Vitamin D levels.

Its really common for areas with long dark cold winters to have lots of people deficient in Vit D. The sun helps your body make its own Vit D and if you dont get a lot of sun exposure the chances are good you will be deficient. The minimum level is 30. I took D3 for years at 2000-3000 units per day and my level would not budge. Then I started the 50000 capsules and got my levels up to normal. Now I can maintain on 2000units a day (plus a little exxtra thats part of my Calcium pills and multivitamin). Truthfully I didn't feel any difference when the levels were good or when they were low.

My family doctor started mentioning low vit D levels a couple of years ago. She told me to take a supplement. Last year I was diagnosed with RA. So the low D came first with me. Well first before my official RA diagnosis. My rheumy now suspects I've had it several years prior to diagnosis. I've been reading about it and low levels do seem to be common with auto immune diseases.
sherrie

Oh, another thing Sheri7, I didn't have red swollen joints on my first rheumy visit and she didn't have a problem diagnosing RA. I did have a high anti-cpp >250 and elevated sed levels and a few other markers but my RF was negative. Sometimes I wonder if Fibro is the fall back diagnosis when they can't find out what is going on. I was diagnosed with fibro several years before the RA. I now know that many of the symptoms that I thought were fibro were actually RA.
sherrie