Vitamin D tests soar as deficiency diseases linked | Arthritis Information
Testing for vitamin D levels, once uncommon, has skyrocketed as medical studies raise awareness about vitamin D deficiencies, according to three of the USA's largest medical diagnostic labs. Physicians agree that they're increasingly using the blood test to find out whether their patients are low on the vital vitamin.
Richard Reitz, a medical director with Quest Diagnostics of Madison, N.J., says tests ordered for vitamin D grew by about 80% from May 2007 to May 2008.
Burlington, N.C.-based Lab Corp. of America witnessed a 90% leap in D test requests from 2007 to 2008, says Eric Lindblom, the company's senior vice president of investor and media relations. Neither company would release the actual numbers for competitive reasons.
The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., another of the country's largest diagnostic labs, processed 424,582 tests in 2007, up 74% from 2006. Ravinder Singh, co-director for the endocrine lab at Mayo, expects that the clinic will tally more than 500,000 tests by the end of 2008.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-07-13-vitamin-d-tests_N.htm
But UCLA's Pregler says the million-dollar question remains: "Will supplementing D-deficient patients prevent disease?"
(the last sentence of the article)
Hmm...I wonder why they are asking this? I mean...I'm taking 2400 IU a day. Is it just a waste of my time possibly?
lorster2008-07-15 22:33:05There is a school of thought that says D is bad for you, especially if you have an auto-immune disease. D in the body acts as a steroid, not a vitamin. For more information, visit
www.marshallprotocol.comLorster,
I can only relate my expereince and my familiies. I was so vitamin D deficient that I was having constant muscle pain and weakness, The weakness was making it difficult to walk, climb stairs, etc. RD said that my Vitamin D levels were nonexsistant....he had never seen anyone with them that low.
It started taking the Vitamin and slowly, but surely my levels started to rise and I felt better. I don't supplement in the spring and summer months as I am able to get enough Vitamin D the natural way. My levels are checked every couple of months and so far, they have been good. When fall and winter arrive, I will start using the supplements again, because I can't get enough sunshine where I live.
My youngest daughter choses to supplement because she has already had one bout with cancer. She and my oldest were the ones who got me started on the whole Vitamin D research thing. I think the evidence is growing that Vitamin D is very important. I also believe the literature that says Vitamin D helps prevent autoimmune diseases......
[QUOTE=Joe M]There is a school of thought that says D is bad for you, especially if you have an auto-immune disease. D in the body acts as a steroid, not a vitamin. For more information, visit
www.marshallprotocol.com[/QUOTE]
ok
I skimmed through this site... Dr. Marshall says that vit D is immunosuppressive... how is that bad for us??
Joe is talking about AP'er who believes that RA is caused by infection...therefore by suppressing the immune system you are in fact allowing the disease to progess
buckeye2008-07-16 05:23:27My little one just had labs, and they saw they are checking her D this time. I'm interested to see how they come back.
Marshal Protocol - my limited understanding - there is something more to that than just D being immune-suppressing. It has to do with how your body converts the D - there is more than one kind, so you can look low if they test just one kind, but your body is just converting it to another kind. I think they recommend testing all kinds before you supplement? I'm not clear on all of it, guess I'll have to be if my daughter comes up low!
I'm exhausted....not just because I just got off 3, 12's in a row but because just when I think I'm doing the right thing to try to fix this failing body, I have to question what I'm doing and I worry that I have just made the wrong decision....I guess..welcome to this disease. I'm going to go look at that site and try to figure this whole mess out and find out exactly how much D I need to take since my doctor does not seem to have a clue. Thanks for all your hard work in this area. I've read the MP site, read all of the other sites and the research and I still failed to reach a decision so I took the unscientific approach. My RD said to begin 3000 units and I decided to 1/2 that. I take 1500 units. Like I said not real scientific but there's so much rhetoric about D and disagreements that I thought that I'd be safe in taking 1500 U. Lindy
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