Hi! I just wanted to capture this here for anybody searching reddit or otherwise interested in what D supplementation can do for them.

Quick Backstory

29, male, have lived in Spain for a long time and am no stranger to sun. In fact, I'm the most tanned out of all of my friend group/acquaintances. I spend impractical amounts of time in the sun. Especially in Spain, during the hottest periods or harshest sun, I'd stay and soak it in on my terrace or so, without any sunscreen. Needless to say my Caucasian-ish skin would tan very fast. (I'm from the Balkans, we seem to tan well)

In November 2024 I had my first Vitamin D test done of my life - it came out at 34.7 ng/ml. This was a week back in the balkans after being in Spain, where I would still tan wholeheartedly in the still-harsh sun. It was in range so I never thought anything of it.

It is very weird why my body wouldn't respond better to so much sun. I am now of the theory that I was relatively magnesium deficient (I've had small cramps and muscle twitches sometimes), and that bottlenecked my body's ability to produce D.

Fast-forward to June 2026 and I've moved back to the balkans. I test my D and it comes out at 30 ng/ml. I notice it's right at the bottom of the optimal range my lab shares (30-150ng/ml) and I go on a journey to get it up.

Raising the D

Having dived deep right into the D rabbit hole, including finishing the Miracle Cure book, I figured I'd max my dose as soon as possible. I took:

- 4k IU a day between June 13-21
- avg of 25.3k IU per day between June 22-27;
- ~4-6k IU a day from June 28 to now.

In this time, I raised my Vitamin D from 30 ng/ml (tested June 13th) to 80 ng/ml (tested June 29th).

Around the time I started the high dose D (June 22-27), I noticed a few things:

- good: my energy lifted massively. While I always used to drink two double espressos a day (one in the morning and one around lunch), I've cut that down to just one now. I'm not even sure I need the first one either, but I'm addicted to caffeine all things considered so haven't thought about stopping it. Keep in mind, I was never a low-energy person to begin with. If you asked me two weeks ago, I would say I'm a pretty high energy individual and people/friends sometimes struggle to keep up.

- good: my mood has noticeably improved. While I wasn't depressed or anything, we all have down moments throughout the day or months when we just feel a bit more down than usual. This has gone away. I feel positive and optimistic throughout the whole day, even if faced with some negativity. This was a noticeable improvement and has directly made me happier as a result. Biggest reason to take D imo.

- bad: my sleep worsened. Around June 24ish when I started upping the dose I noticed that I would go to sleep slower. i.e I felt energized in bed and felt my heart racing (even though it was a normal, healthy beat appropriate for bed). Basically I felt a bit amped up. On June 27th, I had trouble sleeping and only did ~5 hours. A mosquito bite woke me up in the middle of the night too (3AM) and couldn't fall asleep for 1-2 hours later. I just felt amped up.. I was still drinking two espressos at that time fwiw.

Here are the exact high dose days.

• June 22: 14,000 IU
• June 23: 24,000 IU
• June 24: 40,000 IU — noticed it was a bit harder to fall asleep
• June 25: 40,000 IU
• June 26: 16,000 IU — slept worse; suspected the D might be involved, decided to ramp down more slowly and increase magnesium
• June 27: 18,000 IU — slept okay but still slower to fall asleep; had a headache all day
• June 28: 0 IU — sleep was disrupted by a mosquito bite, but overall sleep felt like it had been getting worse; decided to drop back down and reduce coffees

Worthy of note is that I again spent considerable amount of time in the sun during those days, averaging about 1-2 hours of "tanning" in those days (basically laying with just shorts in the sun, during peak-ish hours (12-6pm))

I have been taking magnesium and K2 throughout. I have since changed my magnesium ingestion to be powdered magnesium dissolved in 1L of water sipped throughout the day. I find that helps absorb it a bit better (all feelings-based, no real blood test can show u accurate results tbh)

I'm excited to see where this D journey leads me. I definitely feel better, and want to consistently stay at a higher level with a highish (by mainstream standards) dose. I am doing this responsibly, by testing PTH, a few calcium markers (including 24hr urine calcium) and D frequently enough. Most important of all, I listen to my body's subtle cues and am not trying to overdo something for the sake of it.

What got me into D is hair loss. I am fighting balding and have been on a journey to figure out what can help me with it. Curious to see how my hair changes with proper D supplementation.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

EDIT (July 1): I'm an idiot. I probably dosed much more than what I shared. I have three D oil droppers:

1. one that's 1k per drop (I used it from June 13-21),
2. one that's 10k per drop
3. one that's 2k per drop (I used it on June 22, 23, 26, 27)

When I did days like 14k, I used the 10k dropper for 10k and the 2k one later for the 4k. Turns out I used the 2k dropper completely wrong - 2k is apparently a very small drop out of it, and I would squeeze hard enough on it that perhaps I was taking closer to 8-10k per "2k" rather than the 2k.

I have no real way of measuring it as I was dropping it in my mouth directly, but I know that I sometimes emptied HALF the pipette, and when I now carefully drop just one small little drop, the liquid pipette doesn't even seen to move 💀

In practice, my June 22/23/26/27 days were probably much larger doses. I have no good way to estimate them, other than perhaps thinking it's +- 10-20k...

LESSON: Measure your drops VERY carefully if the dropper/pipette isn't good. My 10k dropper is a very different design than the other and is very easy to have just one drop come out. My 1k one is easy to measure too. My 2k one with the pipette is much harder to control and easier to overdose on...