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Tegretol may cause low folic acid and vitamin D

I was on tegretol for nine months last year. I've been completely exhausted since then. I recently had blood work done that showed I have chronic or recurrent mono. The blood work also showed my folic acid and vitamin D was low. Through my own research I have found that this is a side effect of tegretol. It sure would have been nice if one of my many doctors had had that knowledge and shared it with me. Anyway, I wanted all of you to know. If you're taking tegretol please be sure to take folic acid and vitamin D supplements.

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Permalink Reply by vesper venustas on June 4, 2011 at 1:18am

vitamin D toxicity is very rare. a person is at a greater risk for vitamin D deficiency than overdose. one would need to ingest an extraordinarily large amount of vitamin D per day (40,000 units or above) to have cause for concern.

i take 50,000 units of vitamin D a week.

vesper

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Permalink Reply by Min on July 11, 2011 at 11:25am

how much should I take??

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Permalink Reply by Cathy Collum on July 12, 2011 at 9:11am

I wonder if Gabapentin does the same. My vitamin D is low and I am taking supplements.

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Permalink Reply by Deb on March 23, 2012 at 9:35am

Hi Jamie

Thanks for this post. Makes me realize how little benefit I'm getting by way of total medical advice from my Neuro. Never once have I received any advice or warnings for this. My GP tests me regularly but I've found recently that his concern for the high tegratol level in my blood (60-65) as well as the lab who called him at 2:am to report it did not match the neuro. The GP called the Neuro and she told him she was not concerned. Now what!?

Deborah

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Permalink Reply by Richard A. "Red" Lawhern on March 23, 2012 at 10:09am

If you can do so, then finding a new neuro seems advised, Jamie. I'll also bet that you haven't been having blood tests which include a liver panel every 90 days -- which you need to, if your Tegretol dose is high (say over 600 mg per day). This med is effective for many patients, but it is not without risk. Your neuro should know that and take prudent steps to ensure that you are not being subjected to toxic side effects.

Regards, Red

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Permalink Reply by jamie leigh on March 23, 2012 at 12:03pm

I wrote this post almost a year ago. Since then I've continued to struggle with illness. I'm now in the process of working with a doctor who does more in depth testing to see why my immune system isn't working properly. I'm being tested (through special testing [Igenex]) for lyme disease. Of course I'd been tested through the normal blood work your PC would do already for this but come to find out it doesn't show up in most blood work. TN happens to be one of the symptoms of lyme disease. Your PC is probably unaware of this. If any of you have TN/ATN and have also been diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, POTS, chronic epstein barr, etc. then you might want to take a look at this website:

http://www.prohealth.com/library/showarticle.cfm?libid=8441