Vitamin D – My Unbelievable Lab Results

This is a slightly more personal blog post as I’m still a little flustered about it.

I’ve been taking patient’s bloods and interpreting their labs for a long time now. My personal health, alongside my patients, has increased by leaps and bounds (I do take a bit of my own advice!!). I have good hair and glowing, clear skin, good gut and good energy levels. On the whole, I’m in a pretty good place. Recently, I had the opportunity to get my blood drawn and decided to see what my labs look like.

Results came back and most things were as expected, except for my vitamin D which was below normal. This annoyed me that the labs would make a mistake. So we called them up and asked them to retest it. I’d had a vitamin D injection, the whole 300,000 IU of it, just a couple weeks before. The results were clearly a lab error.

They retested it and it came back still in the red – very, very low, but a different number to before. This got me thinking. I’ve been raving about the benefits of vitamin D to all my patients. I’ve asked them all to get an injection as I’d personally seen the benefits in myself and my patients. What was going on?

In 2015/2016, I probably had 4-5 injections of Ergocalciferol, or vitamin D2. Each time 300,000 IU. I haven’t taken any extra supplements at home. I went on a 2 week outdoorsy holiday in July/August and still have the tan from it now (November). The first injection was a life changer. I was extremely hot the night of the injection. Next day, I was bouncing. Similar but not as dramatic improvements with the next few injections. I needed very few clothes compared to others, could handle the cold more than others (no coat in summer and only lightweight coats in autumn versus others who needed much more). In fact, I still go out with bare legs now.

My symptoms which made me think that I may be low in D again:

Energy levels were good but I started to find it slipping
I wasn’t recovering from night outs as well as usual
I also started noticing quite significant hair loss
My skin was simply not as smooth and blemish free as before. It was also duller
More importantly, I felt colder than I thought I should be feeling
I was feeling too hot or too cold suddenly – temperature regulation wasn’t right. his was a classic red flag for my own body and I recognised it

What hits me is that despite doing this for a living, I was oblivious to how low my own levels were. It must have been dangerously low when I first did a vitamin D shot. I come across as being bouncier and more energetic than most people. Even I realise that I’ve higher energy levels than others. So where does that put others? I think personally, because I make sure I’m balanced in other ways, it has not been obvious that I was so deficient. But it’s a cautionary tale nevertheless and I know that I will be making much more effort to get myself tested more regularly and to make sure that I’m optimised nutritionally. Since my body cannot seem to make enough from all the sun I get (more than many others and usually without SPF on my body). I will also look into simpler and more cost effective ways to test for it so that patients can get themselves tested without too much effort. Watch this space…

FYI, we have now introduced many more injectable services like our B cocktail (B12 + B Complex), C, Magnesium, and Glutathione as an injection or an intravenous push (for larger volumes). Do check our website for more info. My patients seem to love it as they keep coming back, despite the slight ouch!

Book your vitamin D shot now by calling us on 020 7096 5475, or emailing us at help@harpalclinic.co.uk.