I was diagnosed with low serum levels of vitamin D so I take daily supplements. The general guidance for my condition is 1000 IU daily.
At one point in time, I discovered I had been taking 5000 IU/day instead of 1000 IU/day for about 180 days because of the bottles being identical except for the dosage printed in Flyspeck Times Roman 4pt. Fortunately, I alerted my doctor and a followup blood test confirmed I was still in normal range. Scary to think how that could have been a much more serious problem if I were more sensitive.
I take 5000 UI D3 daily from October to March and blood test are fine. I wouldn't take it during sunny times if you spend decent amount of time outside.
Yea, the dosage and labeling for sure needs work. I see 2000 IU doses regularly sold in stores and the bottle says you can take 2/day. Obviously no doctor would recommend that for anyone not sick. I also get regular blood tests since, I'd guess most people using supplements do not.
> Yea, the dosage and labeling for sure needs work. I see 2000 IU doses regularly sold in stores and the bottle says you can take 2/day. Obviously no doctor would recommend that for anyone not sick.
That is simply not true. Doctors do recommend 2000-4000 IU for healthy patients all the time.
Concur - I was diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency and my doctor prescribed an initial regimen of prescription tablets at 50,000 IU and then suggested 3,000-5,000 IU daily.
Might also depend where you live. My doctor did as yours, but I live in northern New England where we don't typically expose our skin to the sun for months at a time. Perhaps doctors closer to the tropics assume at least a low level of sun exposure?
I was prescribed 3-5000 iu daily and then I changed doctors. When I asked about continuing the vitamin the new doctors said "I won't recommend doing a test because almost everyone has low vit d levels, even with daily supplements. Just keep taking the pills. As long as its not a very high dose you should be fine".
My wife has a different doctor who does regular vitamin testing, she was prescribed 5000iu and a year and a half later her tests barely read "normal", still being on the borderline.
At one point in time, I discovered I had been taking 5000 IU/day instead of 1000 IU/day for about 180 days because of the bottles being identical except for the dosage printed in Flyspeck Times Roman 4pt. Fortunately, I alerted my doctor and a followup blood test confirmed I was still in normal range. Scary to think how that could have been a much more serious problem if I were more sensitive.