This subject along with many others are quite common.
Side Effects
Alfacalcidol is usually taken with food. Follow all directions on the product package. If your doctor has prescribed this medication, take as directed by your doctor.
Your dosage is based on your medical condition, amount of sun exposure, diet, age, and response to treatment. Do not use a household spoon because you may not get the correct dose. If you are taking the chewable tablet or wafers, chew the medication thoroughly before swallowing.
Do not swallow whole wafers. If you are taking the rapidly-dissolving tablets, dry your hands before handling the medication. Place each dose on the tongue, allow it to dissolve completely, and then swallow it with saliva or water.
You do not need to take this medication with water. Certain medications (bile acid sequestrants such as cholestyramine/colestipol, mineral oil, orlistat) can decrease the absorption of vitamin D. Take your doses of these medications as far as possible from your doses of vitamin D (at least 2 hours apart, longer if possible). It may be easiest to take vitamin D at bedtime if you are also taking these other medications.
Take this medication regularly to get the most benefit from it. It may help to mark your calendar with a reminder. If you think you may have a serious medical problem, get medical help right awa.
Interactions
by mouth as directed. Follow all directions on the product package. If you have any questions, ask your doctor or pharmacist.
If your doctor has prescribed this medication, take as directed by your doctor. Your dosage is based on your medical condition, amount of sun exposure, diet, age, and response to treatment. If you are taking the chewable tablet or wafers, chew the medication thoroughly before swallowing.
Place each dose on the tongue, allow it to dissolve completely, and then swallow it with saliva or water. Certain medications (bile acid sequestrants such as cholestyramine/colestipol, mineral oil, orlistat) can decrease the absorption of vitamin D. Take your doses of these medications as far as possible from your doses of vitamin D (at least 2 hours apart, longer if possible). It may be easiest to take vitamin D at bedtime if you are also taking these other medications.
If you are taking this medication only once a week, remember to take it on the same day each week. It may help to mark your calendar with a reminder. Do not take other supplements/vitamins unless ordered by your doctor.
Abstract
An open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms. Vitamin D3 therapy (50,000-100,000 IU/week) was safe and effective when given for 12 months to reverse statin intolerance in patients with vitamin D deficiency. On mean (66,600 IU) and median (50,000 IU) of vitamin D3/week in 282 patients at 6 months, serum vitamin D rose from pretreatment (21—median) to 46 ng/mL (P < 0.0001), and became high (>100 ng/mL) but not toxic (>150 ng/mL) in 4 patients (1.4%).
On vitamin D3 71,700 (mean) and 50,000 IU/week (median) at 12 months in 112 patients, serum vitamin D rose from pretreatment (21—median) to 51 ng/mL (P < 0.0001), and became high (>100 but <150 ng/mL) in 1 (0.9%) at 12 months. Vitamin D deficiency (<32 ng/mL) is a reversible cause of statin-intolerance, usually requiring vitamin D3 (50,000-100,000 IU/week) to normalize serum D, allowing reinstitution of statins.
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Ne produced in the skin in amounts estimated up to 25,000 international units (IUs) a day by the action of UVB radiation on 7-dehydrocholesterol.
Vitamin D deficiency is common due to both lack of adequate sun exposure to the skin, and because vitamin D is present in very few food sources. Deficiency is strongly linked to increased risk for a multitude of diseases, several of which have historically been shown to improve dramatically with either adequate UVB exposure to the skin, or to oral or topical supplementation with vitamin D. These diseases include asthma, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, rickets and tuberculosis. All patients in our hospital have been routinely screened on admission for vitamin D deficiency since July 2011, and offered supplementation to either correct or prevent deficiency.
During this time, we have admitted over 4700 patients, the vast majority of whom agreed to supplementation with either 5000 or 10,000 IUs/day. In summary, long-term supplementation with vitamin D3 in doses ranging from 5000 to 50,000 IUs/day appears to be saf.