aelephant comments on Public Service Announcement Collection - Less Wrong

37 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 27 June 2013 05:20PM

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Comment author: fubarobfusco 27 June 2013 09:57:51PM -1 points [-]

p/s/a: Vitamin D supplements can take you from depressed zombie to functioning human being in one week.

Anecdote time!

A therapist suggested a few months ago that I get my Vitamin D level checked — citing low levels as a possible cause of low, somewhat depressive moods. I finally got around to doing that. Last week I got the test results; it turns out it's a bit below the normal range. So my doctor advised I should take 1000 IU of Vitamin D3 daily. I'm not sure it's working, but I have generally felt both more cheerful and more productive since.

But don't start taking it without actually testing first. Hypervitaminosis D doesn't sound like any fun at all.

Comment author: aelephant 28 June 2013 12:48:02AM 1 point [-]

You need to take more than 4000 IU/day (probably for quite some time) to have any hope of toxicity. I knew a man who accidentally took 50,000 IU daily for one week (meant to be weekly per his prescription) and suffered no ill effects. Some people may even require doses above 4000 IU/day to get their Vitamin D levels up to target.

Comment author: David_Gerard 28 June 2013 09:32:59AM *  -1 points [-]

I take 10,000 a day. (20,000 is when I start feeling side effects.) It's done wonders for my general mood and energy levels. WARNING: Ramp up and proceed with caution.

Comment author: gwern 28 October 2013 10:21:16PM 1 point [-]

Have you done any blood-work showing 10k IU to put your blood levels in the appropriate ranges?

Comment author: David_Gerard 29 October 2013 08:43:01AM -1 points [-]

Nuh.

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 28 October 2013 08:00:30PM 0 points [-]

How fast did the negative effects appear when you were taking 20k/day? What were they?

And how fast did you notice positive effects as you changed dosage?

Serious negative effects are supposed to take months to appear, even at 100k/day.

Comment author: David_Gerard 29 October 2013 08:42:47AM 0 points [-]

Negative effect: The metallic taste one, that day; I backed right off. Positve effects: within a few days.

Comment author: Douglas_Knight 29 October 2013 03:25:29PM 0 points [-]

Did you ramp up? That is, did you try 5k for weeks before trying 10k? Did you get any blood tests?