Thyroid struggles? Should you take supplemental Vitamin D?

Knowledge is power, so I want to share a little something with you. As I am working with more and more clients, and retesting mineral levels, I am seeing a pattern that has developed over the last several months: tissue calcium jumping and potassium tanking. As you can see in the client graph below, calcium jumped from 62 to 128 and potassium dropped from 7 to 2. Keep in mind, optimal levels of calcium is 42 and potassium is 10. After reviewing what the client has done since the initial test, I learned that they started preventatively supplementing with vitamin D.

Taking vitamin D for preventative measures is kind of like stockpiling toilet paper. It is a REACTION to something, and an attempt at preventing the future loss of something, but it’s done without considering many other factors, including knowing for sure that extra is even needed. I completely understand why many do this, but what most aren’t thinking about is their CURRENT health picture and the long term impacts of isolating one nutrient - it can have the potential to disrupt their internal terrain and balance.

We need to be thinking about how the body creates Vitamin D (from sun exposure), uses it actively, and stores it when necessary. We also can't forget about the other factors that play a role in it's function and use by the human body. Did you know that excessive vitamin D supplementation can contribute to a loss of potassium and suppress thyroid function? This is from doses of several thousand IU, taken over many months to years without adequate testing.  It's also without considering how the body utilizes the supplement form of D, versus how it would make it's own through sun exposure on bare skin. And, without understanding the mineral system, which is where most people are already favoring a high tissue calcium state of biochemistry.

Supplemental vitamin D does several things that change your mineral balance in an unfavorable way. Vitamin D can actually have an antagonizing impact on thyroid function because it can increase the absorption and retention of calcium. This can drive the calcium to rise, but the question is…..can the body utilize all the calcium? What happens in the body when tissue calcium levels rise but the right co-factors aren't on board to move it to where it should be going?

For the very rare person who’s deficient in calcium (most people have plenty), a tiny bit of supplementary vitamin D can be helpful, even though it’s still not preferred to get vitamin D from supplemental sources. Supplementing over the long-term can create chronically high calcium levels, which leads to calcification of your body. Think about things like back pain, joint issues, and osteoporosis. We need calcium in our teeth and bones, but not high amounts in our tissues!

The next thing vitamin D does is reduce potassium levels. This can cause a whole host of symptoms such as: weakness, tiredness, cramping in arm or leg muscles, constipation, depression, nausea or vomiting, edema, fatigue, insomnia, nervousness, mental impairment, abdominal cramping and/or bloating, low blood pressure and heart palpitations.

All of these mineral changes caused by vitamin D supplementation are not exactly favorable. If you’re going to take a supplement, it’s good to not only understand why you’re taking it, but also make sure that it’s going to have a positive effect on your body.

Why should you worry about high calcium and low potassium levels? Because they can make you feel poorly. Low potassium and high calcium levels - an imbalanced thyroid ratio, can lead to a host of other negative side effects. Your thyroid ratio, which compares your calcium to potassium levels, affects how you actually feel. When it’s out of balance, you may experience symptoms like: tendency to gain weight, cold hands and feet, fatigue, dry skin and dry hair, constipation, etc.

One of the ways to assess how a person is feeling is by looking at their thyroid ratio on a hair analysis. The desired ratio is pretty simple; we want it to be around a 4:1. (In the example above, this person’s ratio was 64:1. And, I have seen it as high as 300:1!) So, if you’re taking vitamin D, which raises calcium levels and lowers potassium, you’re moving these minerals in the opposite direction of what supports your thyroid’s health and ability to do its job.

The key to getting results is UNDERSTANDING YOUR BODY!

Vitamin D acts like a hormone. Hormones are chemical messengers or information molecules that communicate messages around your body. If you’re taking a messenger every day in the form of a supplement, be sure you understand the message that it is sending to your body. Now that I understand it, I prefer to let my body control how much of the vitamin D it wants to absorb through sunlight on its own, instead of forcing my body to do certain things with a supplement.

What happens if we take too much supplemental Vitamin D? Cholecalciferol, or activated vitamin D3, when supplemented alone long term can cause a high calcium and phosphorus level in the body, resulting in severe, acute kidney failure, cardiovascular abnormalities, and tissue mineralization. Read more about the dangers of too much vitamin D.

Testing just your storage D [ 25 (OH)D ] is not always enough information to go on, even when it's low. Here's a great article to share with your doctor. This is usually the ONLY marker your doctor will test to assess your vitamin D levels. It's like knowing your savings account is low, but then skipping the tracking of your daily spending, or not knowing how to bring in more money. Just knowing one number of what is stored misses the actual current daily picture of use and function.

If you test your stored vitamin D status, you also need to know your active D level [1,25(OH)2D ]. This is the biologically active form. You also need to know your mineral status (via HTMA) or at the very least an RBC magnesium level. Vitamin D does not work on it's own. It's not a superhero nutrient the way you've heard it talked about in isolation. Vitamin D metabolism doesn't work properly without enough magnesium on board. With a sufficient amount of magnesium, the body will be able to absorb enough natural 'D' from the sun.

Magnesium is required for many steps along the pathway of vitamin D metabolism, including transformation of vitamin D from it's storage form (also the supplement form) to it's active form. That means if you take high doses of supplemental D, you can drive yourself into magnesium deficiency and not know it, because you are not testing RBC magnesium.

Vitamin D grabs calcium and holds on to it, and you can accumulate so much calcium that it overrides your magnesium, and forces it out of your body. When tissue calcium raises, the first response by the body is to find magnesium to keep these two minerals in balance. This can lead to a deficiency in magnesium in proportion to calcium. Additionally, in it's need for more magnesium, the body will suppress adrenal function in order to retain more magnesium to compensate for the high calcium. This adrenal suppression also leads to a continuous loss of sodium and potassium in the urine. This loss of these two key minerals hits the body hard the longer it goes on.

So, is it vitamin D deficiency or magnesium deficiency? Vitamin D needs enough magnesium in order to convert into it's active form for use. It's crucial to focus on restoring magnesium levels FIRST and testing more fully before ever taking a vitamin D supplement.  When taking a Vitamin D supplement, it's so important to TEST, RETEST, and REASSESS in order to get the fuller picture.  This way you can put the right supplements into place and don't imbalance your biochemistry further. Your biochemistry changes - this is why you need to retest. Don't assume that just because you need a certain nutrient today, that you will need that nutrient at that dose forever.

If you’ve been stocking up on vitamin D (or any supplement without proper testing) but you still feel poorly, it’s probably a good time to start understanding your body. Start learning about your body so you can supplement it with the right nutrients, and correct your mineral imbalances. Don’t just follow the latest supplement trend without working with your healthcare professional and monitoring the effects of your supplementation. Hair tissue mineral analysis is my favorite tool to address your mineral deficiencies and excesses. You can learn more about all the other data it gives you on the internal terrain of your body HERE. By testing, we can know exactly what you need to get things back in balance, instead of just playing more of the “guessing game” or following conventional blanket advice.

Healthy Blessings,
Karri, FNTP

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Supplements: FULL SCRIPT.  While my dispensary catalog is open for you to search everything offered from Fullscript, if you go to Favorites from the menu, there are categories within Favorites.  Favorites are my preferred brands - the brands that meet my quality standards.  If you are looking for my preferred magnesium supplements, they are in the Minerals category under Favorites.  There is also an autoship option from the main menu, in case you have certain supplements that you would like delivered at a certain frequency.