One morning in early June, I put my feet on the ground to get out of bed and it felt like I was walking on broken glass. I panicked. I sat back on the bed and thought…what in the fresh hell is this?

Everyone loves a “hack,” right? We all want a workaround or clever shortcut that saves time and solves a problem. But what happens when hacks meet chronic illness?

Vitamin D isn’t a vitamin, it’s part of the steroid hormone axis alongside cortisol, estrogen, testosterone, and DHEA. This distinction is important because when you supplement with a steroid hormone, you don’t simply raise a level, you introduce a signal into a tightly controlled feedback system that’s designed to regulate itself.