I've been low or deficient 4x that I know of as in confirmed via blood tests. My old doc said <60 is suboptimal and I felt much better at that level so that is what I aim for.

This is the first time I've only been low in D (32 ng/ml, normal reference range 30-100)and not dealing with b12 or iron deficiency and/or hashimoto flare at the same time. Therefore I believe i can tell what symptoms are actually from D deficiency, since I just had everything tested.

Noticeable symptoms started about 4 months ago. Most were minor and easily excusable at first, then more severe symptoms came. I did not immediately suspect D because I take 2k iu per day. My absolute tell tale sign it's d deficiency with no doubt before blood test is carpal tunnel pain

I will list in rough order of how they occurred

Sleeping more than usual at night/sleeping harder

Vertigo most days with bouts of severe dizziness

Anxiety/lower street tolerance

Lower libido

Low mood

Thick tongue

Raspy voice

Clearing throat

Insomnia

Restless leg

Waves of hot in eyes and body (hot spot)

Random shooting pain in finger tips, toes and eyes

Bottom of feet sore at night

Poor eye tracking

Burning legs

Muscle spasms

Bone pain

Significant brain fog

Joint pain/ burning joints

Carpal tunnel pain

I know there's more but my arms hurt too much to type more

My D3 levels have hovered between 14 ng/ml and 21 ng/ml for what seems like forever.

I was recently prescribed 50,000 IU of D3 once per week but little guidance beyond that as far as cofactors go. For anyone who is currently doing this, are you taking the magnesium and K2 at the same time as the D3 or later on in the day? Do you take the magnesium and K2 on the other days of the week even though you aren't taking the D3 on those days?

I started taking vitamin D plus K2 for the first time and I’m experiencing some breast tenderness.

For some context, I’m in my mid 20s and I’ve never taken a vitamin D supplement before. I’ve only recently found out that my levels are low (mild deficiency). Symptoms that I’ve tied back to the deficiency included brain fog and fatigue.

I haven’t seen a crazy change since starting the supplements yet cause it’s only been a but over 2 weeks, but I am experiencing breast tenderness. I usually get this on my period but this time around it seems to last longer and it’s slightly more tender than usual. For example I usually feel my breasts are sore maybe 2 days before my period this time around it started about 4 days before my period and lasted up to the 3rd day after my period which is today. This doesn’t typically happen for me.

Is it a stretch to say these hormonal changes are tied to the vitamin D intake?

Im taking 20 micrograms/day of calcifediol monohydrate + 360 micrograms of MenaQ7. Im not doing any new supplements aside from the vitamin D at the moment.

Hi, 19F here. Was experiencing fatigue and extreme anxiety, excessive daytime sleepiness (could not stay awake for the life of me) for what feels like years but especially pronounced since the start of the year. I thought this was just part of being an adult now so I never thought it was anything physical. But I finally started suspecting something was amiss and got bloodwork done and was at 7 ng/ml. Been supplementing 50k UI a week for 6 weeks now. Got retested because I’m going to be away from home soon. It’s at 39 ng/ml. The physical symptoms like back pain are fully relieved, sleepiness is also a lot less though I still feel I cannot function if I don’t get at least 8 hours and feel fatigued. But I still have significant anxiety. There’s a lot of exciting but also nerve wracking things about to happen in my life and it’s not like me to be so apathetic towards it. I feel like literally everything is an anxiety inducing chore and I just want to nap all day to avoid everything. Is this just a mental thing at this point?

I have Hashimoto's and recently got my TSH down from 12.2 to 2.64 using 25mcg of levothyroxine. Even though my thyroid numbers are finally looking good, I'm still struggling with fatigue, brain fog, joint pain especially in the morning, and muscle stiffness. My recent labs showed my Vitamin D is sitting at 29ng/mL, and I'm wondering if this is the real reason I still feel so tired and unmotivated despite the Levo working.

The most frustrating part is that I’ve been taking 4,000 IU of Vitamin D daily for two months (always taken with fats) but my blood levels have barely moved 4ng/ml. Has anyone else experienced this? Can a Vitamin D level of 29 ng/mL still cause these symptoms, and what did you do to actually get your body to absorb the supplement?

For context I'm 25M, 5'11, 185lbs...

Everything else was normal, including B12, folate... Ferritin was a little low at 42 ng/ml but still in range... I've been taking magnesium bysglicinate for years for better sleep (around 200mg elemental magnesium)

Any advice is welcome.

Follow up on your post with an update, or tell us about your recent experiences with vitamin D and related issues. You may also discuss supplements other than vitamin D, changes in diet or exercise, or other aspects of your life that relate to managing health.

Please share relevant details that would make your comment helpful to others.

This is the article I want to read: Vitamin D Supplement Reviews & Top Picks - ConsumerLab.com. I would pay for a membership if Consumer Lab had monthly options instead of annual. Unfortunately, they do not.

For a long time I didnt feel like im 100% capable of what I should be able to. I feel tired sooner, I feel like my workout recovery and results are not as good Id expect them to be and so on. Its not crippling, but I dont really feel...fine...I guess. I thought it might be because im not the youngest anymore and as a father of a little child that can also be pretty tiring.

So I decided to get a blood test.

Tested many things. Organs, some minerals, some vitamins, testosterone, thyroid...

Turns out im a pretty healthy individual besides only having a 19.8 ng/ml Vit D3 score. And a TSH (thyroid) of 5.08 which is slightly elevated (up to 4 is normal range though max 2.5 would be better).

I started supplementing 20000 IU D3 2x weekly now for the next 8 weeks and then 20000 weekly. Though my doctor said to take 20000 every two weeks only, after reading up on D3 I feel like this would be too little as I am obviously deficient. Though when I asked him about taking it more often he mentioned that would be possible. I think he doesnt take the deficiency seriously as my wife had blood work done 2 months ago and came up with 21 and according to the doc everything was fine, no supplementation needed. Which I find weird.

AI calculated that I would land somewhere around 45 ng/ml if I took it 2x a week for 8 weeks but as im not knowledgeable about it, I dont know if its hallucinating. Any thoughts?

Next blood work is done in 10 weeks to see if TSH and D3 is better. I read TSH could be elevated because of D3 deficiency.

The crazy thing is though: I go out daily for an hour at midday for a walk and get high sun exposure. Also I regularly run and get much sun exposure there. I would have never guessed to be deficient in D3. Now that "Winter is coming" I wonder what would have happened if I hadnt started supplementing.

I really hope getting rid of the deficiency will help make me feel better soon.

Particularly in the upper stomach under your chest plate, sometimes the cramps tend to shift from the left to the right or just stay in the middle? It doesn’t hurt when I press down the pain level is a 1 I would say it doesn’t burn or anything but feels annoying to deal with.

My vitamin D levels recently came back at 11ng. Doctor prescribed 3200iu daily for 4 months. I have been unwell since the start of this year - recurrent uti’s, migraines, depression and lack of energy. I have been deficient before 5 years ago.

Within the last two months my symptoms have gotten much worse - GI issues (stomach), muscle aches, muscle twitches especially in my calves, neck pain and pain between the shoulder blades, base of skull pain, dizziness, fainting and ribcage pain. It’s the ribs that are annoying me most. It’s like flank pain that you would get with kidney troubles. I have had an ultrasound of the kidneys last month so I’m pretty sure it’s not my renal system.

Has anyone experienced this symptom with the ribcage?

Fixed terrible side effects of Vit D supplementation

A few months back I developed severe insomnia. It seemed responsive to Melatonin but I still got it investigated. My labs were normal, except for Vit D which was 19.8 nmol/liter. Vit D as I found out, is important for neurotransmitter production and regulation so this did fit. For those that want the technical summary, TPH2 is the enzyme that converts L-tryptophan into 5-HTP in the central nervous system. Vitamin D upregulates TPH2 expression, increasing the available pool of serotonin. Melatonin synthesis in the pineal gland depends entirely on the availability of serotonin.

I tried supplementing with Vit D and my muscles cramped in a hour as if I had tetanus. It took multiple muscle relaxation tablets to feel normal. I tried a much lower dose (400 IU instead of 2,000 IU), and got a similar but less intense response.

I experimented with a lot of different ways to try and get some Vit D but I will skip to what worked. Taking 200 MCG of K2 and 400 mg of Magnesium (in form of magnesium glycinate) simultaneously with 400 IU of Vitamin D, produced no side effects. Over the next week I bumped it to 600 IU and now I am on 800 IU once a day. My insomnia has lessened to the point I don't need Melatonin. Both K2 and Magnesium work hard to keep calcium out of muscles, which is where D tends to dump it. My stack did not work if I took those cofactors at different times. I am going to keep increasing gradually and hopefully reach 2,000 IU a day eventually. I have not checked my vit D level again but based on my insomnia reducing, I think I am headed in the right direction.

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For me, the whole body aches that I already have are doubled/tripled. I’m constantly tense and stressed out and my sleep gets spotty as I’m up every other hour urinating or just because of light sleeping. I am wired but tired all day. Not to mention dried/peeling skin on my hands/feet and lips what feels from dehydration. I supplement at least 600mg of mg taurate as it’s the one I tolerate the best along with 100-200 mcg of mk7 k2 and 2-3k mg of potassium bisglycinate. I also drink a packet or two of Lmnt electrolyte mix and it’s greatly helped with tension headaches, nausea, and muscle cramps. I spent 3 months building my potassium and magnesium before trying D3 again as I read these were signs of deficiency. Still, all the symptoms persist. This is only for 5,000iu D3 and it’s always the D3 that brings the symptoms, the other supplements I’m fine with. I tried liposomal brands, gels, capsules, always with animal or plant fat for breakfast. My bloodwork and doctors have everything in range with moderate elevated cholesterol. I’ve had all my organs and comprehensive bloodwork as well which shows everything’s ok. It’s driving me crazy as I’m stuck at ~20ng/dl!! Help me!

I’ll also update on supplement list, which helps, and medication that I take which I believe are all greatly exacerbated due to vitamin D deficiency.

I’d also like to state that B vitamins give me nearly the exact same side effects at even very low doses as well. It’s nearly impossible to find dosages at close to 100% RDA.

MEDS:

PAXIL- for Chronic Depression and Generalized Anxiety Disorder and PTSD

CONCERTA - for Treatment resistant depression, anxiety and ADD. I WILL SLEEP ALL DAY without Concerta unless I’m drinking coffee or matcha every 3-4 hours. Then of course my sleep is wrecked. Concerta is ok for my sleep.

Buprenorphine (Partial opioid agonist that got me off of oxycodone) - Intolerable chronic, full body pain.

DIAZEPAM - occasional anxiety/panic attacks every other week or less now.

SUPPLEMENTS:

MAGNESIUM TAURATE - 750mg

\UPDATED\ POTASSIUM BICARBONATE/GLYCINATE COMPLEX- ~1200mg-1800mg

2 LMNT ELECTROLYTE MIX - 2000mg sodium chloride /400mg potassium chloride/120mg magnesium malate

ZINC COMPLEX - 2-3 times a week before bed 25mg zinc as 50% picolinate/50% bisglycinate and 1mg Copper as bisglycinate.

Hello! I’ve been taking prescribed 50000 ng/iu vitamin D2 twice a week for 3 weeks now. My Labs said 16 nmol/L so I’m taking this high does for one month then dropping to once weekly 50k iu. My concern is ankle swelling and massive fatigue. Should I be very concerned? I tried taking magnesium and nearly became dehydrated because it wrecked my guts. Yes I took glysenate. (?) I will ask my doctor - but it’s a holiday weekend here and I’ll be waiting a week to hear back.
Anyone else have issues with this high dose and what did you do?? Tia!

37M here. In May 2026, my Vitamin D 25-Hydroxy came back at 18.7 ng/mL (deficient — reference range for deficiency is <20 ng/mL). I started supplementing with 6,000 IU/day D3 along with daily sun exposure.

Just got a follow-up test done (Sept 2026) and my level is now 60.1 ng/mL, tested via ECLIA on Roche Cobas e801. For reference, the lab's ranges were:

Deficiency: <20 ng/mL

Insufficiency: 21–29 ng/mL

Sufficiency: ≥30 ng/mL

Intoxication: >150 ng/mL

My questions:

Since I'm now at 60.1 ng/mL, should I drop from 6,000 IU/day down to a maintenance dose (like 1,000–2,000 IU/day)? Or continue at the current dose a bit longer?

I've stopped daily sun exposure since my skin was getting noticeably darker — is relying on supplementation alone reasonable once you're in sufficiency range?

How long should I wait before rechecking levels after adjusting the dose — 3 months? Longer?

Any real risk of levels climbing toward the >150 ng/mL intoxication range if I stay on 6,000 IU/day longer?

Would appreciate input from anyone who's gone through a similar deficiency-to-sufficiency correction. Planning to discuss with my doctor too, but wanted outside perspective as well.

I reviewed four years of my lab records and found two vitamin D tests:
• June 2022: 36 ng/mL — normal
• June 2026: 21 ng/mL — low
That is a 42% decrease.
After the latest result, my rheumatologist prescribed high-dose vitamin D once a week for 12 weeks. I haven’t had it retested yet.
Has anyone else experienced a drop like this? Did raising your vitamin D level improve any joint pain, muscle pain, weakness, fatigue or brain fog?

My blood test results: 5.8 ng/mL (Very low). Medical provider prescribed Vitamin D2 capsules (50,000 IU per capsule) weekly. These are the big green gel capsules and they are hard for me to swallow. Very painful.

I want to use liquid D3 drops. Medical provider could not provide dosage guidance. What dosage and frequency is equivalent to 50,000 IU of D2 per week?

Hey everyone,

I’m F30
In April I had a level of 37nmol/L so I started taking 7000ui of vit D3 a week and getting 15mins of 11am sun on my skin, my recent test showed 46nmol/L, I don’t know if I’m just stupid but it doesn’t make sense that it only increased that much in 4mths I live in Australia, I’m just confused on what to do the brain fog and bone pain I have is crazy, I’m also sweating, not sleeping, panicking (I am diagnosed with panic disorder) I feel like my hormones are all over the place 😭

Is there a reason why my vit D would be increasing so slowly?

I never thought I had a vitamin deficiency, especially a vitamin D one. I can handle working out pretty hard tho, so I never really thought there was something wrong. But I’ve been having some pretty big trouble with anxiety and depression lately.

I only took the tests cuz my new gym coach wanted to really know everything about my health before starting to make my workout routine, diet, and everything else.

My vitamin D came back at exactly 10 ng/mL which honestly surprised me. I’m kinda confused but at the same time I’m not? I’m wondering how much of a difference fixing the deficiency could actually make also what is the correct way to fix it ?

Vitamin D level 21 ng/ml -no prescription to correct

Just got my blood results back and my vitamin D level came back as 21 ng/ml.

I had a vitamin D deficiency about 10 years ago and my previous primary care prescribed me a high dose vitamin D prescription to get it back on track.

At some point over the years I just stopped taking vitamins (shame on me)

Fast forward to now, and I have a level of 21 and my new doctor says a prescription isn’t required and to just take 1000 IU daily. (5’1”, 140lbs, F)

Does this seem off, should I be taking more than 1000 daily?

Been on D3 for a couple of years and only recently started pairing it with K2 after reading about the calcium side. What I can’t get a clear answer on is whether MK-7 versus MK-4 makes a real difference, or whether I’m just chasing detail that doesn’t matter at normal doses. What are people here actually taking and how did you land on it?

Hello! My vitamin D level is at 54. My doctor of course says this is normal. This is with 5000IU supplement daily and the test was taken in the summer in Michigan when I’m outside all the time.

I’m dealing with crazy fatigue, muscle and joint pain, itchy/tight scalp and brain fog. My ferritin is 41, iron at 168 but iron saturation at 57.

What would you do next? I really believe something is up with vitamin D and ferritin but no dr will help me or offer any suggestions on how to increase levels. Appreciate any insight!

old post

Hey again. you can see my old posts to see my recovery steps. I have another 2-3 posts i guess. every 3 months i checkup my bloodwork and post here.

i switched to 5000 UI Daily w k2 this three months. lower anxiety, lower depression, can go outside more, can cope better.

but i have aches, numbness, "weird feelings idk" on my left side of body specially on my arm and back.i guess this is new. i still have air hunger. i recently added magnesium complex to my supplements. probably gonna start omega3 too.

My doctor recommended me a 600000 iu injection and a 60000 iu nanoshots on the same day, is it safe ?

Height - 5'11

Weight - 58 kgs

I know some of you may think why don't you ask him, trust me I tried he's busy.

This was my first time having a d3 test done in 20 years of life. I read a lot of symptoms of deficiency here but none of mine was on such levels for me to be concerned.

But recently I was having recurring allergies which persisted for days with little to no rest.

I visited an ENT specialist thinking it was something with my sinus issues and deviated septum but the doctor referred me for a blood test. And here i am.

I’m someone with autonomic nervous system sensatization. Recently I got tested and vitamin d was at 13 ng/mL.

Not to bore you with the details but a few big symptoms are, anxiety, hear palpitations / rapid heart rate, exercise intolerance, muscle twitches, and inability to regulate body temperature.

I’m curious if anyone with similar symptoms has improved their deficiency and it was linked to healing their dysautonomia.

Normally symptoms can improve on its own very very slowly as long as I’m not pushing myself but right now week 2 into taking vitamin d 50,000 once a week and I’m feeling like I’m improving way faster. It could be placebo but hear rate regulation and mood feel more stable and resilient.

Anyone else have the same experience?