Low vitamin D blood levels and dememtia

Low vitamin D, 25 hydroxy, not calcium. My bad..

A high dose like that is safe for short periods of time. I was once on that myself because my D level was so low and I already had osteopenia. I researched it at the time and found it’s rare to overdose on vitamin D—unless someone is on prescription level doses for too long. One reference I saw said one study showed it took 60000 IUs for several months to reach toxic levels.

Also, the normal range for D levels is broad, so if your wife is in the normal range, but on the low end of it, that’s not good. The middle or even the high end is probably what the doctor is aiming for. Women’s bone density really drops off after menopause and neither of you need to deal with a broken hip on top of everything else.

I still take 5000 IUs of D a day (and have for years) and have started giving it to my husband who has vascular dementia. It’s especially important in the winter or if she fails to get much sun even in warm seasons.

The doc should recheck her level after she’s on it for however long the doc thinks is right and you can get copies of any tests or check them online. And question the heck out of the doctor about it. She or he should be willing to explain reasoning and how long the high doses will be given.

Thank you for your comments. Yeh, we're going ot follow the doctors recommendation. I just thought it was high and that a possible side effect was constipation, which we already are dealing with. My daughter, a family practice doc, said maybe 1 a week instead of two maybe. But we will do two. I shouldn't be second guessing my wifes primary care doc. My daughter says there is not much clinical evidence that a higher vitamin d level matters. We stopped using the daily womens vitamin because she was having problems swallowing it. I switched to gummies and will stay on them after the 90 days of high dose.
Is it the caregivers fault when things don't go right with her health or care? I have a tendancy to blame myself for things I probably can't control.

I've only recently heard about D's possible positive effect on dementia. I doubt it will help my husband any since his dementia is the result of at least seven TIAs and one bigger stroke (none of which left him with any physical issues but did cause the mental one).

You blaming yourself is because you care, but you don't deserve the blame. It sounds like you are dedicated to caring for your wife and are doing everything possible. I was a registered nurse, and if you'd asked me years ago if I thought I could handle caring for a loved one with dementia, I'd have said it would be no problem. Well, I'm finding out differently now! It's a lot different caring for someone 24/7 than it was caring for them for 8 or 12 hour shifts and then going home.

What has struck me the most, though, is that when I cared for someone with dementia in a hospital setting, that was the only way I knew them. It's very different when you've known someone BEFORE the dementia set in. I wish I had understood back then just what their family and friends were going through as they watched the person they'd known gradually disappear right in front of them. I call it a slow death—not the physical death, but the death of what made the person who they were. And it's heartbreaking.

But don't blame yourself. You definitely sound like you are doing everything you can, and you are right in that you can't control a lot of things.