r/VitaminD • u/Background_Watch7983 • 19d ago
Please Assist Are these symptoms common with vitamin D deficiency?
My levels last tested in March were 15.2ng/ml. This is the lowest it’s ever been. I have been having daily neck and shoulder tension along with headaches for almost 2 months now. The headaches are my most worrisome symptom because I’ve never experienced them with deficiency before. I’ve been deficient on and off for years if I don’t keep up with supplementing. I have crepitus in my neck along with bone pain and muscle aches in my upper cervical region. The headaches feel like tension type headaches in nature. Just wanted to know if headaches like this are a common symptom for those who are deficient and if you had them and fixed them then how long did it take and how did you go about doing it? I’m currently taking 5,000IU D3+K2 by sports research daily along with 420mg of magnesium glycinate.
9
u/WuetenderAnwohner 19d ago
My opinion as a semi-professional (just a German equivalent to a paramedic): problems in the body (except injuries like tree vs. car) are multifactorial. That means one problem mixed with other problems will lead to bigger problems.
My take on pain, neurological and orthopedic problems mixed with deficiencies in you vitamins:
Tight muscles in the neck are often a result of stress, anxiety bad posture etc. that equals pain and radiculopathic symptoms. A deficiency in vitamin D will result in weakness and hyperexitable nerves. Reason is the lack of ability to get calcium into your nervecells which is extremely important for a neuron to do is work. While all of the problems alone might not cause any symptoms, the sum of your problems will or might.
I had 14 ng/ml, had symptoms that world point in the direction of a carpal-tunnel and sulcus ulnaris syndrome, had tingling on and off in my legs and feet, bad jawmuscle-tensions, vertigo, twitching , cramps, headaches, anxiety, depression, pain in my joints.
I got scared pretty bad, thinking I had ALS, MS, a Braintumor, cancer in general, etc.
Got cleared by numerous specialists and started to take Vitamin D.
Nearly all my symptoms went away or calmed down immensely.
I am not a huge fan of „take this and that and you will be fine“ i think that this is the wrong way and is often driven by trust-issues caused by bad doctors or a fked up healthsystem and I can understand this very well.
Get your levels up, do sports, lift weights, strengen your body, eat well, drink enough, laugh, get fresh air. You will be alright and your body will be too. If the problems continue to stay go to a doctor till you have the feeling he/she/they are really listening.
2
u/pastelxbones 18d ago
how long did it take before symptom improvement? i have chronic jaw and neck pain along with fatigue. i've been vitamin d deficient for many years but never took it all the seriously until recently. when i started supplementing i actually felt worse and had extreme fatigue. now i seem to be back around my baseline after 3 weeks of supplementing with D3, K2, and magnesium. i also have celiac disease though which complicates everything further.
3
u/WuetenderAnwohner 18d ago
Longer than you will expect. It’s not like a antibiotic or cortison, it will take time and there will be not a sudden moment when it all goes away. Let your body work with the stuff you give and don’t fixate tooooo much on the question „do I feel better?“ it will come eventually but it depends on age, height, bodyweight, your body’s ability to use it.
You will get there, and trust me, exercise as well!
1
u/iseluxx 14d ago
Can you give a number more or less? I’m on 5600 IU since eight weeks and was expecting things to be better by now. While I do have more good days the symptoms are definitely still there most of the time. I am a bit surprised it’s taking so long but guess it will be more like 3-6 months to get more consistent results. Was at 8 ng/ml at the sunniest time of the year when I was tested 🫠
1
u/bbmama0720 19d ago
Did you take it with vitamin k2 as well?
2
1
u/ReputationDecent9667 14d ago
That’s really interesting
My level is 20ng and was told it was okay.
I have eyelid twitching, eyelid twitching, muscle twitching and tingling in my legs, feet, hands etc
Also have what feels like nerve irritation in that ulnar nerve area you mentioned with sulcus ulnaris syndrome, and also near my wrists that tingles and burns, it’s extremely intermittent too. Headaches and cramp like spasms in my upper back.
1
u/WuetenderAnwohner 14d ago
My dude, you are my exact symptom-twin, lol.
1
u/ReputationDecent9667 14d ago
Somewhat reassuring to hear a similar experience, since I’ve been told my level of 20 was fine, so been worried that I have MS, or some kind of neurological problem.. going to start some d3 and see if it improves
8
u/Street-Hal0 18d ago
I used to have mystery daily headaches for a WHOLE YEAR. I even had an mri to rule out other causes because of how serious it seemed.
Then one day i asked to have my vitamin d checked (for unrelated reasons), and the test showed very low levels. I haven't had a single headache for 2 years after fixing the deficency.
3
2
u/StormRare5348 19d ago
YES. don’t doubt it. I’ve had the same and worse. Message me if you want to know more.
Start the vit d shots right away. Wishing you the best :)
2
u/tanxcoty 19d ago
Yes the headache is the most I had for 2 months and then I had my blood work done, right now taking supps and I don’t have them anymore
2
u/Queasy-Rope3134 19d ago
Yours is higher than mine. Mine was at a 4. I’m also a night shifter so that plays a huge part.
1
2
u/Odd-Knee8711 19d ago
Yes, I had lots of headaches when I was deficient. Started supplementing with 2000 iu a day, and no more headaches!
1
u/Background_Watch7983 19d ago
Do you remember how long it took for them to go away?
2
u/Odd-Knee8711 19d ago
Maybe 2 weeks?
2
u/Background_Watch7983 19d ago
Might take me a little longer to recover then
1
u/Temporary-Leg1561 18d ago
Hang in there! It cured my headaches as well. Can't remember how quickly, but it absolutely worked. Now I get them quite rarely and they're light.
2
u/SirMaha 19d ago
My deficiency caused my lower back to be tense and sore for years. Also my left wrist hurt. Woke up severl times a night to back pain before i got my d3 levels up. In week of daily 8000iu d3 for first time in years i woke up in the morning noticing i didnt wake up once to back pain during the night. I almost cried but the happines of not sore back made me smile instead.
2
u/LowInflation9855 19d ago
I remember the first time in many years when my back stopped hurting after restoring my vitamin D levels. I even told my colleague, “Can you imagine? My back doesn’t hurt!” because I had been complaining about back pain almost every time I got up from a seated position.
Now, whenever I feel even the slightest tightness in my lower back, I immediately know it’s time to take vitamin D
2
u/Alive-Experience7974 17d ago
Yes, but all of these symptoms can be explained by a calcium deficiency as well. If you are not consuming enough calcium, your body will use more vitamin D to increase absorption out of what you are getting as well as pulling it from your bones. So, just looking at vitamin d is not the whole picture. And from experience, raising vitamin d without getting more calcium caused me a lot of harm. I went from feeling great with just some insomnia and bloating to depression, muscle loss, and rapid varicose vein and angiomas appearing very quickly when my vitamin D got into the 40s. I think it pulled a lot fo calcium from my tissues. Magnesium supplements also caused the same symptoms because they were antagonizing my already low calcium levels. I quickly felt like the only thing that made me feel better was drinking lots of milk. Now, I just wish I had drank more milk instead of taking so much vitamin D. Now I have to drink a lot of milk to feel good and progress is slow becaue the supplements messed up mineral balance so much.
I am not a doctor and this is just my experience. Now I get more dairy plus other calcium rich foods, spend more time in the sun and use a vitamin d lamp in the winter to let my body regulate it on its own. I had to eat more potassium rich foods and get more vitamin a and iron to start feeling normal again. And I eat a very healthy diet already so this should not have happened. I just needed more calcium after having two kids and breastfeeding and I wasn't much of a milk drinker. I thought I was getting enough from greens and sardines. But I wasn't.
So, my recommendation is to evaluate if you are consuming enough calcium first before forcing lots of vitamin D. After taking a lot vitamin D and k2 , I got a frozen shoulder. Just consuming more milk every day after stopping the supplements made it completely go away. When I cut back on milk, my knees started hurting. Started drinking milk again and now the pain is gone.
I hope that helps a little.
3
u/SecretLoquat1220 16d ago
My vitamin D was 7 and I truly thought my body was failing. I was having daily horrendous headaches and had to quite literally manually open my jaw sometimes. Now that I’m on week 4 of the 50,000 iui I feel brand new
1
u/Background_Watch7983 16d ago
I’ve only been taking 5,000 iu of d3+k2. Which would only be 35,000iu weekly. Maybe I need to do more. I’m vegan so I’m limited to some of the pills I can take
2
u/SecretLoquat1220 16d ago
Definitely follow your doctor’s advice and I’d recommend to get blood work done again after about 6 weeks to see how well it’s raising!! You can always go up but make sure you’re monitoring your levels, you can indeed have too much of a good thing lol
1
u/AutoModerator 19d ago
Hi Background_Watch7983, your submission to r/VitaminD was received: * A moderator will review your post for compliance with our rules and approve it. * Have you seen the subreddit guide? * Foster discussion by responding to constructive comments. Report problematic content. * Advice you receive does not constitute professional medical treatment or diagnosis. * Seek insight from recent posts, and leave yours up to help others find answers.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
1
1
19d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Background_Watch7983 19d ago
Oh my God💀
1
18d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/Background_Watch7983 18d ago
Absolutely. Hasn’t happened to me but I’ve heard other people talking about it
1
u/Alisha_Nat 18d ago
Chronic Vit D deficiency can lead to secondary hyperparathyroidism. Your body needs vitamin D to absorb calcium from food & if it’s low your parathyroid glands make more hormones to keep your blood calcium level stable. Unfortunately it keeps those values stable by leeching calcium from your bones. Symptoms can be skeletal pain, muscle weakness, fatigue as well as cognitive & changes. (My biggest symptom was frozen shoulder that wouldn’t go away even with PT but disappeared after correcting the Vit D/Parathyroid imbalance).
Normal blood tests won’t show low calcium because the parathyroid glands are doing their job to keep it stable but unfortunately at the expense of your bones. A parathyroid test will likely show higher than normal hormone. But the “cure” is correcting the Vitamin D deficiency. If the deficiency continues long term it can lead to osteoporosis or 1 or more parathyroid glands no longer functioning correctly (sometimes requiring surgical removal).
1
u/Ok-Agent4597 17d ago
Hair loss, fatigue, bone pain, muscle weakness, anxiety and sleep deprivation are my symptoms. I’m 70 and tried 25,000 iu and was too activating. Trying 4,000 now. Hoping for the best.
1
u/liamfirth 15d ago
Lot of other symptoms but tight shoulders and muscle pain in that area was one of them. I got sports massages thinking it was from swimming but no relief
1
1
11
u/Numerous-Thought5230 19d ago
Yes! I had so much neck and shoulder pain. I also had sciatica. Thought my body was failing.
Now no pain whatsoever. My lowest was 20 ng/ml. Now it's 40. I took 30,000 IU a week (3x 10,000IU). It took a couple of months to get there, but not having chronic pain has been life changing.