A couple of years ago I got tested for D. To my surprise it was super low, well below the 30 to 100 range the test form said I should be in.
Being vegetarian/vegan/plant based (yes, I go back and forth in that range). I went looking for a vegan or vegetarian supplement, to start taking while I waited to see my main doctor again to get prescribed the D.
In the mean time conversations with my daughter informed me that my grand daughter also had low D levels and that her doctor had prescribed 10,000 iu per day and even 50,000 iu per week doses to take.
Armed with that information I got a vegan D supplement at wholefoods. the price was close to $1 per capsule. My Dr, for what ever reason, chose to not believe that the test accurately reflected my D levels, and refused to prescribe the D! Well I was upset but then it turns out there are no vegan or vegetarian D’s that he could have prescribed.
A year later I got retested, and low and behold, after a year of truly expensive Vegan D, my levels had moved up, just a tiny bit, and I was still below the 30-100 range ! I poured into more research and discovered that the Vegan D I was taking was D2 (Ergocalciferol), and that the non-vegan D was D3 . The supposed vegan D3 from Lichen was really D2 with only trace amounts, if any ,of D3.
Well I needed D3 not D2.
I settled on the Solgar D3 made from the oil on wool (yes, sheep) in a vegetable capsule. I have been using supplements, many times in extremely high doses, following the work done by Durke Pearson and Sandy Shaw from their book “Life Extension: A Practical Scientific Approach”. Going back to the 1990’s, Solgar has been one of the few companies that offered vegetarian formulations that I have relied on for supplementation. I should have taken a hint hint when Solgar did not offer a Vegetarian form of D.
Not long after I started taking the Solgar D3 I was in an accident. During the hospital stay my D levels where tested. To my surprise I was now at the low end of the 30-100 range that I had been trying to get to for over a year!
I continue to take the Solgar D3 ( 5000iu capsules 2x a day ) as I want to reach the high end of the acceptable range.
It also seems that I am getting some extra benefits because at this particular point in history, taking D3 can help my body with the Coronavirus.
Yes, getting outdoors into some sunlight is great, but I am home bound these days in chronic pain. Getting around is just not as easy, but sunny or not, I am giving my body the D3 it needs.
Evelyn Rosa 