Thanks for your reply, Johnny.
I personally think that there is some reason to believe that any therapeutic benefits that might arise from vitamin D3 supplementation are likely to take a long time (possibly six months or longer) to set in. Not only do some anecdotal reports suggest that the benefits of vitamin D3 supplementation begin to surface after several months of use, but there is some scientific evidence that seems to suggest the same thing. In a study that examined the biochemical and well-being differences between high-dose vitamin D3 and low-dose D3, Vieth et al. (2004) found that the "greatest biochemical responses" to D3 supplementation occurred after six months. Having read the study as someone who's not a scientist, it's my impression that the biochemical responses that the researchers were referring to were vitamin D3 plasma level and parathyroid hormone suppression. Another more recent study that I think is worth mentioning is one by Mocanu & Vieth (2013) that found that vitamin D3 seems to have a longer half-life in the body than what many sources still suggest. For the study, nursing-home residents were fed bread fortified with 5,000 IU of vitamin D3 on a daily basis for a year. Before the nursing-home residents began participating in the study, they had a mean vitamin D serum level of 29.8 nmol/l. After consuming the vitamin D3-fortified bread for a year, the mean vitamin D serum level of these participants rose to 127.3 nmol/l. Another year later (after the participants in the nursing home stopped consuming the fortified bread), the participants' serum vitamin D levels were measured again, and the mean value was 64.9 nmol/l (Mocanu & Vieth, 2013). This suggests that vitamin D levels don't drop to their baseline level even a year after supplementation with D3 has been discontinued. Three years after the nursing home residents stopped consuming the fortified bread, their mean vitamin D level finally fell to 28.0 nmol/l, a level that was around their baseline level (Mocanu & Vieth, 2013).
So, as I said, I think that there's some reason to believe that getting results from vitamin D3 supplementation can take a long time, and that's one reason why I decided about 1.5 months ago to start supplementing with the vitamin again after having previously cut my trials with vitamin D3 short. I think that I'm noticing some benefits from vitamin D3 supplementation presently, but I have a feeling that I'm not going to know what the long-term effect of the vitamin on my well being will be until at least a few more months down the line. Hopefully the long-term effect of supplementation will be positive both for me and for you too, if you end up going ahead with the vitamin D3. So, good luck to you with adding vitamin D3 to your regimen of supplements, assuming that you do end up adding the D3. Take care, and be well.
Tomatheus
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REFERENCES
Mocanu, V., & Vieth, R. (2013). Three-year follow-up of serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, parathyroid hormone, and bone mineral density in nursing home residents who had received 12 months of daily bread fortification with 125 micograms of vitamin D3. Nutrition Journal, 12, 137. Article: http://www.nutritionj.com/content/12/1/137
Vieth, R., Kimball, S., Hu, A., & Walfish, P.G. (2004). Randomized comparison of the effects of the vitamin D3 adequate intake versus 100 mcg (4000 IU) per day on biochemical responses and the wellbeing of patients. Nutrition Journal, 3, 8. Article: http://www.nutritionj.com/content/3/1/8
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this signature | Show by default | Change to hide (next time)Has schizophrenia with strong negative and cognitive symptoms
Taking Abilify, niacin, & vit. D3