Vitamin D very low

Medical Q&A [Moderated]
1

Dr. Feigenbaum and Dr. Baraki,

I recently had a blood panel and received the following results for vitamin D (below). I am a 32 year old Male, 155lbs, 5’8, exercise 3-4 times a week, dont smoke, dont drink, dont eat red meat (most months), dont eat fish, very Mediterranean diet overall. Mother was recently at risk for osteoporosis and put on medication. I have never received low vitamin D results during routine check ups and the doctor recommended a weekly booster of 50000IU vitamin D for 12 weeks followed by 2000IU supplements thereafter plus some calcium supplements. His recommendation sounds serious but I’m curious if you think this may be cyclical due to the winter season and my lack of vitamin D rich diet, or likely genetic?

Of course, I will speak with my doctor but he is not available for a month and I am wondering if this can be something that can be improved with my diet and in the next few months plus more sunlight ( I have been busy with work and MCAT studying in addition to winter weather) or likely genetic and I should be on supplements for vitamin D immediately and for the rest of my life?

Hope to hear your thoughts.

(I don’t want my bones to explode when I go for a 315 squat PR next month.)

Thanks

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2

VD,

Thanks for the message and I hope you have a good holiday. While I’m unable to comment specifically on your lab result and what you should do about it- not wanting to act as your physician without all the pertinent info and what not- I can tell you that testing vitamin D is not part of a routine check-up. Supplementing vitamin D is also not beneficial outside of relatively rare cases. We talk extensively about this here:

-Jordan

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I’m also deficient in vitamin D because I spend a lot of time on time tracker software and have little exposure to the sun.​