September 21, 2019
Mega doses of vitamin d3 and K2 have nearly eliminated all of my pain after only 1 1/2 weeks.I know reddit tends to be skeptical and quickly disregard solutions that appear out of the ordinary, a magic bullet fix or potentially dangerous. I just wanted to share what has helped me after months of chronic pain.
Symptoms started showing up around beginning of last July. Not long before then, I recently went vegan and did my best to eat only plant based foods. At first, I figured i was missing something important like calcium from my diet so i started supplementing with that and it did not help. I later tried tumeric, ginger, and many other natural anti-inflammatory supplements with no alleviation of pain. I refused to believe there wasnt a fix for this and I was determined to find a solution. I later tried different stretches and a anti inflammatory diet but was still having the same problems.
I then stumbled onto a random study from 2012 that connected many people with costo to be vitamin d deficient. I began reading a book called the “THE MIRACULOUS RESULTS OF EXTREMELY HIGH DOSES OF THE SUNSHINE HORMONE VITAMIN D3 MY EXPERIMENT WITH HUGE DOSES OF D3 FROM 25,000 to 50,000 to 100,000 IU A Day OVER A 1 YEAR PERIOD” by Jeff Bowles. The structure of the book is pretty loose and was far from professional but everything he said made sense. Before I went vegan, I used to take large amounts of cod liver oil daily which is naturally high in vitamin d3. I also began working longer hours because of a promotion and was getting little to no exposure to sunshine. I began supplementing with 50,000ius of vitamin d3 along with a lot of vitamin k2 (very important to take with large doses of D3) and noticed my pain began alleviating after only the second day. Yesterday after only a week and half of taking this daily dosage, I was able to do pushups with no pain at all and dips with only a little pain. Previously, I could only do 2-3 pushups before my costo would flair and couldnt even attempt a dip without a lot of pain.
Knock on wood, I think I found the solution I desperately seeked.
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level 1
Octagon_Time_Machine 5 points 11 months ago
This is really awesome. Thanks for sharing!
Had you tried adding just the K2 to your regular diet first?
It might be good to narrow it down to whether either of these would have done the same thing on its own.
I would also HIGHLY recommend trying much smaller doses to see if you get the same effect.
Last thing, it would be very interesting to see if the pain came back a month or whatever after ceasing to take the k2.
level 2
django811 1 point 11 months ago
I didn’t but I would be curious if that is what helped it. I know K2 is said to be a miracle vitamin itself.
The author recommends getting your blood tested for Vitamin D levels regularly to determine what dose is keeping you at a good amount. I plan on keeping up this regiment for the next couple of months and then slowly dropping to see what works.
I also should note that costo wasn’t the only problem I was having. I was getting random aches in my joints, muscles were tight and it just felt like my body was slowly falling apart. Since starting this regiment, all of that has been mostly cured.
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level 1
Elyons83 2 points 11 months ago
Something to think about; my costochondritis was caused by having previously undiagnosed Celiac disease. With Celiac, vitamins and nutrients aren’t being normally absorbed in the stomach lining.
level 2
maaaze 2 points 11 months ago
Has the costo alleviated itself after going gluten free?
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TeenyBeans1013 2 points 7 months ago
It can be hard on your kidneys to take mega doses long term, so definitely get for levels checked and see how much you can drop the dose and still feel good. (I read the same or a similar book so looked into it and tried it for a while. It didn’t help my pain, but I’ll explain that in a sec)
Also, it’s best taken with a fatty food or meal (relatively, you don’t need, like, fried chicken every day. Avocado, peanut butter, something with umami yk) for absorption and buffering any potential stomach issues.
And op, it’s worth checking into something called Ehlers Danlos Syndrome. It’s a collagen disorder that causes the same symptoms you’ve mentioned (and others), and I have a friend who was misdiagnosed with costo/neuralgia and required morphine and vicodin for her pain until she upped her Vit D and felt much, much better. I also have it but unfortunately the Vit D didn’t help me, so it’s Vitamin P(ercocet) for me. (EDS tends to be more symptomatic and so more often diagnosed in women due to our hormones, but men can def have it. It takes an average of something like 8.5 years and up to a dozen doctors to get a correct diagnosis because it’s much more common than they’re taught in med school.).
I just bring it up because it took me and pretty much everyone I know who has it an outrageous amount of time to get diagnosed when we could have been taking preventative steps against deterioration and getting appropriate care. There are several types of EDS and some are quite serious, generally related to problems with the heart or brain due to defective collagen.
Anyhow, sorry to be so long winded, I’ll leave a link and go ?
https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/diseases/6322/ehlers-danlos-syndromes
level 1
cherbabe78 2 points 7 months ago
I just started vitamin D3/K2 myself. Previously getting large dises if vitamins D would make my pain worse at first and never fight through it. But I’m starting low and slow this time and hope to bring my levels up
level 1
cherbabe78 2 points 7 months ago
Is it safe to take a lot of K2?
level 1
BlueBombers 1 point 11 months ago
How do you take this much daily? Do you buy it in powdered form or something like that?
level 2
django811 1 point 11 months ago
I take 50,000iu of Life Extension Vitamin D3 pills and 5 pills of the Life Extension Vitamin K2. I’m sure the other brands are fine, I just simply went with the brand the author I reference used.
If you decide to try this protocol, it would be great to hear back from you and how it is working.
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level 1
hawtdumplings 1 point 11 months ago
Thanks for sharing. I went out and bought some Vitamin D3 from Costco. I haven’t had the chance to get much sun with long work hours. Hoping this works out.
level 2
django811 1 point 11 months ago
Remember to get vitamin K2 if you do high doses of vitamin d3.
Keep me updated on how it works out.
Good luck!
level 2
head_bussin 1 point 9 months ago
did it work?
level 1
Genghiskahn1981 1 point 6 months ago
The D3 helps your blood absorb calcium and the K2 puts that calcium into your bones, etc instead of in your blood vessels and kidneys. Causes Atherosclerosis and Kidney Stones, Cardiovascular disease. Oh, and make sure you take highly absorbed Magnesium supplements with your D3 or you won’t be getting much absorbed. D3, K2, and Magnesium work in unison. Make sure to get K2 as MK-7 as it has a longer half life than MK-4 and also pulls any calcium out of your vessels and into your bones
level 2
django811 1 point 6 months ago
I made the mistake of stopping magnesium while still taking d3 and k2. Noticed pains started coming back. Critical to take all 3 together.
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level 1
django811 1 point 6 months ago
Well there is still some pain in my elbow that has been an issue. I lowered my vitamin d to 10000ius now. Hopefully over time it gets better.