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One morning I made a pot of coffee as usual and went up to the study to use my computer while it was brewing. When the percolation had finished I went downstairs to pour a mugful. I had just finished making myself a mug of instant coffee when I saw the percolator still plugged in and realised my mistake. Since this event I have been taking two tablets before going to bed then one twelve and eighteen hours later.
A few weeks later I was looking at the almost disappeared scabs on the back of my hand where I had dug out the white patches. I remembered that I used to get these before I began treating myself with vitamin D. I also had one appear during the Oct/Nov 2017 episode. My mother also had several of these patches removed from her face with dry ice when she was starting to exhibit symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. I searched online and discovered the condition is called idiopathic guttate hypomelanosis. The word ‘idiopathic’ means ‘of unknown cause.’ The fact that these patches stopped appearing each time I increased the vitamin D dose strongly suggests that low vitamin D is their cause.
I used to experience tinnitus regularly in the year before I started taking vitamin D and it also occurred during the Oct/Nov 2017 underdose episode. Although tinnitus may have other causes it seems that low vitamin D can lead to it too.
The first time that I left the house after I overcame my depression back in Nov 2014 I noticed that exhaust fumes had an unusually strong sulphurous smell. After I increased by dosage in Nov 2017 I again noticed this smell coming from traffic. After increasing my dosage again in 2019 I went for a walk along Pasteur Road and Gapton Hall Road. These roads have a high volume of traffic. As I approached the A47, I started to notice a strong smell of burning tyres. I looked around to see if there was a fire somewhere. There was a pall of smoke but it was too far away to be producing the intense smell that I was experiencing. I went for the same walk the next day and noticed the same smell. After that things returned to normal. I realised that this oversensitivity to exhaust fumes was being produced by the sudden elevation of vitamin D.
The smell of exhaust fumes has special significance from childhood. The flat that we lived in when I was a child was just two rows of houses away from the open countryside in Gorleston, Norfolk. The air was thus very clean. When I was around seven or eight years old (1969/70) we went on a shopping trip to Norwich. I remember the smell of traffic fumes, particularly the diesel fumes from the numerous buses. I remember blowing my nose the next day and seeing the blackened mucus on the handkerchief. Because of this I have never had any desire to live in a city.
© Copyright 2020 Andrew Jarvis.