Long story short, I have Reactive Arthirtis which came from food poisoning from a dirty kebab house 6 weeks ago. I'm on 6x 5mg Prednisolone steroids a day to help with the pain and swelling along with 2x 100mg Celebrex inflammatory a day tablets. Now my Dr advise I should be taking 20000units of vitamin D, but the vitamin tablets I have say 5μg. So am I right in thinking I need to take 100 of these tablets a day to achieve this? (So in other word's, the vitamin tablets you buy from a supermarket are weak and not the RDA that they say they are?) Thanks, Simon.
Someone maybe able to confirm this, but i think 5μg would be the equivalent of 5000 of what your DR is calling units. To match what your DR is asking you to take look for vit D containing 20μg
A quick Google later, and I found this on Wikipedia: So, according to that, 20k IUs would indeed be 500μg. I'd ask your doctor to confirm again, and ask him where you can get such high-dose tablets (bearing in mind that for VitD, the RDA is only 600IU). From other articles on the web, the safe upper intake level of VitD is 250 µg (10,000 IU). Beyond that, you start running into risks of side-effects caused by such a massive vitamin overdose, including kidney damage. Are you sure your doctor didn't mean to say 2000 IU instead?
@Corky42 - I asked this as I had different things coming up on Google. One site stated 5μg = 200IU which if International units is = to UK units, that means I need to take 100 of these 5μg tablets a day. @loftie - I would but it's Sunday. The Dr did write this down on my prescription. 20000units = 2000mg I think she said.
All she said was your body can handle up to 40000units a day bearing in mind Atheletes would be on this high of doeses. So I don't know if there is a differences to UK units to IU international Units?
When my Dr said i had to take Vit D, IIRC she also used units instead of μg (micro grams) so i ended up asking her to clarify as i could only find them listed in μg. If she has given you a prescription for it can you not speak to the pharmacist ?
Thanks Mate! This has screwed up everything, as I'm on and off work like a yoyo at the min, which is doing my head in. Let alone not being able to train... No, I only got a prescription for the steroids and anti-inflammatory. She said it was cheaper for me to go to Costco to get these vitamins as she did state the ones you buy in the supermarket are weak.
According to this 10μg is 400 'units'... it also lists what contains Vit D and in what [rough] quantities... short version - take shitloads of cod liver oil...
That's what I take and they are 800 internal units and 20 micro grams. 20000 seems an awful lot, that's virtually a whole packet of mine, I get the feeling the doctor accidentally added an extra 0. Ring the NHS helpline they should be able to help.
Right, my bad, she stated the human body can take up to 40000IU of Vitamin D a 'week' without showing side effects. She wants me to take at least 20000IU of Vitamin D a week. So if I take 3000IU daily, that will be 21000IU a week which = 75μg daily. So on the current supermarket tablets I have, I would need to take 15 of these Daily! Anyway, thanks for the help everyone, much appreciated! Cheers, Simon. EDIT: Looks like I need these bad boys of 3000IU/75μg per capsule.
Here is a link to NHS choices for Vitamin D....http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/vitamins-minerals/Pages/Vitamin-D.aspx I hope it helps and get well soon.
I had a quick read through, and it seems everyone has different opinions on the amount you can take. I've actually order these bad boys of 5000IU as I do train hard when I'm in the gym, plus only £14.99 for 540 capsules seems a good buy to me! And thanks mate, I hope so too, as this Reactive Arthritis can last up to 6 months, which is all I bloody need...
Righto, this is from the BNF (British National Formulary), which is how prescribing is done. 10μg = 400 units However, a pharmacological dose is in tablets of up to 1mg (40,000 units) daily, and can go as high at 2.5mg (100,000 units) daily in cases of hypocalcaemia secondary to hypoparathyroidism. As an important note, pharmacological doses need to have 1-2 weekly calcium levels checked, and N&V are common side effects. So 3,000 units a day isn't approaching pharmacological levels, and is safe.
Thanks for confirming that. Well I have order the tub above which will be here tomorrow. So 5000 units a day is fine.
Yep, definitely have the munchies on those things, which doesn't help at all... But the clip does sum it up! Lol
