Hey Ian,

Sorry you're having such a rough time...  There are a couple things to try with your oxygen therapy if you've not already given them a go.

Ventilating the lungs deeply enough with hyperventilation to cast off CO2 faster than the body generates it is an important part of oxygen therapy as an abortive for CH. 

As you're limited by an oxygen flow rate of 15 liters/minute, make up the difference by taking two breaths of room air using the forced vital capacity breathing technique with an abdominal crunch on exhalation after the lungs feel empty until your exhaled breath makes a wheezing sound for a couple seconds...    Then take a lung full of oxygen and use the same exhalation breathing technique.  Keep repeating this sequence...

3 to 4 breathing sequences like this and you should be feeling the symptoms of paresthesia with a slight tingling or prickling of the fingertips, lips or back of the neck.  You may even feel a little dizzy. 

The symptoms of paresthesia are the best indication you're getting the fastest abort of your CH as possible

The other option is to build yourself a redneck oxygen reservoir bag out of a 40 gal trash bag or 55 gal, drum liner and hyperventilate with the same forced vital capacity breathing technique.

I posted the DIY instructions and the hyperventilation breathing techniques at the following link, reply #4:

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Regarding your 25(OH)D serum concentration...  153 nmol/L, (62 ng/mL), is just barely into the lower threshold of the green zone for a favorable CH therapeutic response to 25(OH)D and well below the lower threshold for vitamin D3 intoxication at 500 nmol/L, (200 ng/mL). 

The "Green Zone" terminology may be confusing to some.  The green zone represents a range of 25(OH)D serum concentrations reported by CH'ers who have gone pain free while using this regimen. 

Some went PF as low as a 25(OH)D serum concentration of 60 ng/mL (150 nmol/L) and some went PF as high as 110 ng/mL, (275 nmol/L)...  The rest went PF somewhere in between. 

Accordingly, if you're looking for a target 25(OH)D serum concentration to shoot for and maintain in order to stay safely in the green zone and CH PF, use 95 ng/mL, (237.5 nmol/L).  It's well below the lower threshold for vitamin D3 intoxication and well above the lower threshold of the CH therapeutic green zone... 

Having a 25(OH)D serum concentration this high means there's no worry if you miss or skip a daily dose of vitamin D3 as you should have a week or so reserves of 25(OH)D at that concentration.

As you can see in the chart below developed by Dr. Robert Heaney, MD, the 25(OH)D response over time to a vitamin D3 dose of 10,000 IU/day reaches equilibrium around 95 ng/mL., (237.5 nmol/L).

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That makes a dose of 10,000 IU/day vitamin D3 a good therapeutic dose to get you pain free and also a good maintenance dose to keep you pain free.

For the CH'ers using higher vitamin D3 doses with a weekly loading dose to go pain free faster... 

Try to get tested for 25(OH)D as soon as possible after going PF then throttle back to 15,000 or 10,000 IU.day. 

After that, try to get tested for 25(OH)D at least once every six months to make sure your 25(OH)D levels are stable.

Obviously, if your CH return at a dose of 10,000 IU/day, you'll likely need a higher maintenance dose of vitamin D3...  Try 15,000 IU/day for starters.

If your neurologist is unwilling to order the 25(OH)D lab test or flies off the handle when you bring up a possible vitamin D3 deficiency or endocrine imbalance (some do...), see your PCP.  If the clue bird hasn't made a low pas on this individual, try to find an Integrative/Homeopathic physician or an endocrinologist... 

These last two types of physicians are generally well suited and experienced in treating vitamin deficiencies...  An endocrinologist is also the go to physician if you think you may have an endocrine imbalance.

Take care and please keep us posted.

V/R, Batch

Hey Tammy,

Thanks for the wonderful update...  I suspect the shadows will depart in another few days...

Brian,

You're looking good to go with your present dosing schedule... Your intake of calcium and the cofactors are spot on...

20,000 IU/day vitamin D3 should be sufficient...  Having said that, if you don't experience a favorable response after a week to 10 days at your present dosing schedule, bump your total vitamin D3 intake up to 50,000 IU one day a week as a loading dose... but maintain your present dosing schedule for the rest of the week. 

That should bring your weekly intake of vitamin D3 to 190,000 IU.  That's well below the upper safe three month limit taking 280,000 IU/week.

We've had several CH'ers use the loading dose strategy to speed up the increase in their 25(OH)D reserves with good success...

I worked my way through school at the University of Washington so I recall what life as a student was like... 10 lb bags of rice and beans at bulk prices made ends meet... but they got real old after a while... 

The only thing that made it worth while besides a degree in Chemistry was the 5 gal crock of home brew I kept bubbling away in the basement kitchen of my off-campus boarding house.

If you can spare $65...  You can get the lab test for 25(OH)D from ZRT labs without a prescription...  The link to their web site follows:

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You can also order the $65 blood spot test kit by calling them at (866) 600-1636.  The web site has a video that will walk you through the collection procedure...  I keep two of the ZRT blood spot test kits on hand...

Take care and please keep us posted.

V/R, Batch

Rune,

I was waiting for someone to post info on this Danish study...  It turns out there was a similar study, also a meta analysis (analysis of medical database information using statistical methods), that had a similar reversed J- or U-shaped mortality curve with respect to serum concentrations of 25(OH)D. It too suggested a possible upper limit to 25(OH)D concentrations and that higher serum concentrations of 25(OH)D were associated with increased mortality...

I must admit that caught my attention, so I did as you did and started looking further for peer reviews...

Fortunately, I found just such a peer review by Dr. Cannell, M.D., who had already run the trap line on these two studies... He too had trouble accepting the conclusions and here is what he found among other peer reviews:

(1) According to a Cochrane review, vitamin A, as in cod liver oil, is associated with excess mortality. "How do I know they were taking cod liver oil to get higher vitamin D levels?" Because, consumption of cod liver oil in Norway is about 44% by females, and females tended to have the highest 25(OH)D levels in the above Danish study.

(2) There were no less than eight (8) similar meta-studies done in non-Scandinavian, (non-cod liver oil) countries where people with higher serum concentrations of 25(OH)D actually lived longer.

(3) The weight of medical evidence assigned to studies like this is low...  primarily because it's a meta-analysis of medical data collected for many reasons in general and not from a "Controlled" study designed specifically to test any particular hypothesis by controlling other possible variables... 

As these two meta-analysis studies were unable to establish any causal relationship between vitamin D3 dose and mortality, it is entirely possible the increased mortality rates were caused by too much vitamin A...

Finally, to my way of thinking...  Experts in forensic paleontology generally agree the earliest australopithecines (paleo-man), very likely evolved 5 million years ago or shortly thereafter.  Paleo-man also ran around as hunter-gatherers in East Africa wearing essentially nothing... so likely achieved very high 25(OH)D levels due to constant sun exposure even with dark skin. 

Accordingly, if increased serum concentrations of 25(OH)D was responsible for increased mortality as the Danish study concludes...  paleo-man would have gone extinct long before he completed the migration to the Northern latitudes and the geographic area now known as Scandinavia...

To quote Dr. Connell, "I doubt it. I doubt Mother Nature is that dumb."

All this puts me completely at ease and feeling very comfortable having 25(OH)D concentrations much higher than 50 ng/mL...  Mine is likely twice that on a frequent if not constant basis...

Take care,

V/R, Batch