"There's a myth that anyone who has a liver problem has brought it on themselves" This quote is from a Crohn's disease patient living with a blocked portal vein hoping for a liver transplant (Independent 31st Oct 2010)

Sunday 18 December 2011

For those who understand Vitamin D3!

I've had a second set of Vitamin D3 results back.
We're supposed to get enough Vitamin D3 from the sun each day. But after a lifetime of northern hemisphere climate, and no vitamin supplements, my first test in April 2011 was 21ug/L (or 21mcg/L). This is right down at the bottom of 'normal' lab ranges, and within the cancer and hepatitis communities is considered below normal.
My second test in November after 7 months of supplements was 81.4 nmol/L.
Two different laboratories using different values - aargh!
I got some help from the liver forum to convert the mcg/L to nmol/L in order to compare, and it seems the first test of 21 = 53nmol/L.
I'd been prescribed the recommenced daily allowance of 600IU per day of Vit D3 as Ad-cal, but this amount wasn't enough to raise the levels, so switched to purchasing my own Solgar product taken at a daily dose of 2,500IU per day.
Even at this level of well over the RDA my level of 81.4 is still below the suggested range of Vit D3 within the cancer and hepatitis communities, which is 100-150nmol/L, so I have increased to 5,000IU per day for a further 4 months to get within this band.
Gives some idea of how likely it is that most of us don't get enough Vit D3 from the sun, and that supplements do work!

Future scans

After a bit of two-ing and fro-ing between the 3 doctors involved, it seems they have settled on 6-monthly MRI scans as my cancer monitoring for the future. First one probably around May 2012.