Vitamin D

I thought I would post the following two articles. I was sitting in the doctors office one day, which I am sure we all do way to much of, and came across and article about vitamin D deficiency. It got me thinking. I have worked night shift for almost 20 years. Either 4 pm to midnight or 6 pm to 6 am. I have never been a morning person. Even after almost a year of not working, I still can't switch back and be on a "normal" persons schedule. I don't think anyone with FMS actually has much of a normal schedule. You sleep when you can, are up when you can't, basics huh. Well vitamin D, as many of us know is received from sunlight, as well as some other sources of food and such. Being inside most of my daytime hours, I rarely made it out into the sun. Often referring to ourselves as the vampires, us nightshifters much enjoyed the moonlight almost like people enjoy the sunlight. We would sit outside on our breaks and eat our dinners outside, but when the sun was coming up, we were going to sleep. We lost out on the time needed to be outside and getting the time in to retrieve the much needed vitamin from the sunshine. I, myself, am also not a huge fan of food items that you would get this vitamin from such as milk, salmon, cod oil and other fish. So once again where do you get it. Next option is to take a vitamin, well ya, we should all take a vitamin everyday, right. Well I take so much other stuff, and suck at remembering all of it, that adding just one more thing will just make things that much more crazy, but I started. I added a multivitamin. Of course I had to get one used for seniors even though I am only 39 because I can not take anything with iron in because it makes me very ill. READ YOUR LABELS IT IS IMPORTANT!!!! Everything else is about the same. I also now take a fish oil supplement, extra vitamin D and extra vitamin C. I decided to do all this on my own. We will see how the neurologist feels about it when I see her on Wednesday. That may all change. I would suggest always talking to your doctor first before taking anything extra, I however never listen to myself, lol. I am anxious to know if the vitamin D will help. I am sure I got sunlight when I was driving to work, sitting on my front porch, or out on my days off, but was it enough. Do I have a deficiency? Is it something we should be asking our doctors to check us out for. If getting some pain relief is as easy as taking a supplement with no drug I am all for it. I don't believe in any way that the lack of vitamin D is responsible, but there are so many co-morbid issue with fibro this might just be another. We need to be advocates for ourselves. All it takes is a blood test to find out. I am not a doctor, and I don't have a medical degree, but I do suffer just like you. All I know is I just want answers and pain relief, without grogginess and added chemicals in my body. If some of the pain can be taken away by sitting in the sun reading a magazine, then let's do it. Ask your doctor, see what they say. I know on Wednesday, I will be.