Vitamin D Deficiency, Causes, Symptoms, and Side Effects!deficiency

What is Vitamin D Deficiency?

Vitamin D deficiency means that you are not getting enough vitamin D to stay healthy. Vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium. Calcium is one of the main building blocks of bone. Vitamin D also has a role in your nervous, muscle, and immune systems. deficiency

Vitamin D is very important to the body and there are many foods that you can eat for your daily vitamin needs. This particular vitamin is important because it is needed for the intestines to absorb phosphate and calcium. These substances are then needed for strong teeth and bones. Additionally, it can help to reduce inflammation and boost your immune system.

If you don’t get enough Vitamin D then you can develop osteoporosis and have problems with your muscles and nerves. If children suffer from a deficiency from this particular vitamin, then they can develop rickets, and adults can have weak bones and suffer from many broken bones and fractures.

You can get vitamin D in three ways:

• Through your skin,
• From your diet,
• And from supplements.
• Your body forms vitamin D naturally after exposure to sunlight.

 

But too much sun exposure can lead to skin aging and skin cancer, so many people try to get their vitamin D from other sources.

2. Vitamin D and What Does it Do?

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that is naturally present in very few foods, added to others, and available as a dietary supplement. It is also produced endogenously when ultraviolet rays from sunlight strike the skin and trigger vitamin D synthesis.

Vitamin D Plays an Important Role in,

Protecting your bones and your body requires it to absorb calcium. Children need vitamin D to build strong bones, and adults need it to keep their bones strong and healthy. If you don’t get enough vitamin D, you may lose bone, have lower bone density, and are more likely to break bones as you age.

Vitamin D obtained from sun exposure, food, and supplements are biologically inert and must undergo two hydroxylations in the body for activation.

First,

• This occurs in the liver and converts vitamin D to 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D], also known as calcidiol.

Second,

• This occurs primarily in the kidney and forms the physiologically active 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D [1,25(OH)2D], also known as calcitriol.

 

Vitamin D has other roles in the body, including modulation of cell growth, neuromuscular and immune function, and reduction of inflammation. Many genes encoding proteins that regulate cell proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis are modulated in part by vitamin D. Many cells have vitamin D receptors, and some convert 25(OH)D to 1,25(OH)2D.

3. How Much Vitamin D Do You Need?

The amount of  Vitamin D you need every day depends on your age and sex.

Men And Women:

• Underage 50 (400 – 800) international units (IU) daily.
• Age 50 and older – (800 -1,000) IU daily.

 

Different organizations recommend different daily intakes. Here are the recommendations from some organizations in the United States: Recommended daily intakes from various organizations:

	Vitamin D Council	Endocrine Society	Food and Nutrition Board
Infants	1,000 IU/day	400-1,000 IU/day	400 IU/day
Children	1,000 IU/day per 25lbs of body weight	600-1,000 IU/day	600 IU/day
Adults	5,000 IU/day	1,500-2,000 IU/day	600 IU/day, 800 IU/day for seniors

4. Sources of Vitamin D:

Some people need more vitamin D. According to the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the safe upper limit of vitamin D is 4,000 IU per day for most adults. 

There are three ways to get vitamin D:

• Sunlight.
• Food.
• Supplements.

 

I. Sunlight:

• Your skin makes vitamin D from the ultra-violet light (UVB rays) in sunlight.
• Your body is able to store the vitamin and use it later.
• The amount of vitamin D your skin makes depends on the time of day, season, latitude, skin pigmentation, and other factors.
• Depending on where you live, vitamin D production may decrease or be completely absent during the winter.

Because of,

Concerns about skin cancer many people stay out of the sun, cover up with clothing and use either sunscreen or sunblock to protect their skin. The use of sunscreen or sunblock is probably the most important factor that limits the ability of the skin to make vitamin D.

Even an SPF (sun protection factor) of 8 reduces the production of vitamin D by 95 percent. Because of the cancer risk from the sun, most people need to get vitamin D from other sources, including eating foods rich in vitamin D and taking vitamin D supplements.

how many minutes of sunshine would you need during a summer day around noon?

There are a number of factors that affect how much vitamin D your body produces when your skin is exposed to sunlight.  These include the time of year and time of day, where you live in the world, and the type of skin you have.

The amount of vitamin D you get from exposing your bare skin to the sun depends on:

• The time of day – your skin produces more vitamin D if you expose it during the middle of the day.
• Where you live – the closer to the equator you live, the easier it is for you to produce vitamin D from sunlight all year round.
• The color of your skin – pale skin makes vitamin D more quickly than darker skin.
• The amount of skin you expose – the more skin you expose the more vitamin D your body will produce.

The time of year and time of day,

When the sun’s rays enter the Earth’s atmosphere at too much of an angle, the atmosphere blocks the UVB part of the rays, so your skin can’t produce vitamin D. This happens during the early and later parts of the day and during most of the day during the winter season.

The closer to midday you expose your skin,

the better this angle and the more vitamin D is produced. A good rule of thumb is if your shadow is longer than you are tall, you’re not making much vitamin D. In winter, you’ll notice that your shadow is longer than you for most of the day, while in summer, your shadow is much shorter for a good part of the middle of the day.

II. Foods: 

Vitamin D is naturally available in only a few foods, including fatty fish like wild-caught mackerel, salmon, and tuna. Vitamin D is also added to milk and to some brands of other dairy products, orange juice, soymilk, and cereals.

Check the food label to see if vitamin D has been added to a particular product. One eight-ounce serving of milk usually has 25% of the daily value (DV) of vitamin D.

The DV is based on a total daily intake of 400 IU of vitamin D. So, a serving of milk with 25% of the DV of vitamin D contains 100 IU of the vitamin. It is very difficult to get all the vitamin D you need from food alone. Most people need to take vitamin D supplements to get enough of the nutrient needed for bone health.

III. Supplements:

If you aren’t getting enough vitamin D from sunlight and food, consider taking a supplement. But, before adding a vitamin D supplement, check to see if any of the other supplements, multivitamins or medications you take contain vitamin D. Many calcium supplements also contain vitamin D.

There are two types of vitamin D supplements: 

• They are vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) and vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol). Both types are good for bone health.
• Vitamin D supplements can be taken with or without food.
• While your body needs vitamin D to absorb calcium, you do not need to take vitamin D at the same time as a calcium supplement.
• If you need help choosing a vitamin D supplement, ask your healthcare provider or pharmacist to recommend one.

5. How Much Vitamin D Should You Supplement?

To figure out how much vitamin D you need from a supplement, subtract the total amount of vitamin D you get each day from the recommended total daily amount for your age.

For example:

a 55-year-old woman who gets 400 IU of vitamin D from her calcium supplement should take between 400 and 600 additional IU of vitamin D to meet the 800 – 1,000 IU recommended for her age.

VITAMIN D DOSE RECOMMENDATIONS 

AGE		DOSAGE
Below 5		35 Units per pound per day
Age 5-10		2500 Units
Adults		5000 Units
Pregnant Women		5000 Units
Warning: There’s no way to know if the above recommendations are correct. The ONLY WAY to know to test your blood. you might need a significantly higher amount than what is recommended above. Ideally, your blood level of 25 OH  D should be 50 – 60 ng/ml.

Causes of  Vitamin D Deficiency:

There are so many reasons why an individual does not have a sufficient amount of Vitamin D in the body.

I. If you have been following a strict vegetarian diet,

there is a big chance that you will not have enough Vitamin D unless you take capsules or tablets along with your diet. Natural sources of sunshine vitamins are often based on animal products such as beef liver, fish, cheese, and fish oil.

II. It is also likely that you do not have enough sunlight exposure:

which causes your lack of vitamin D. Every time you are exposed to sunlight, your body will automatically create that much-needed vitamin D. Therefore, you should always take time to expose your skin at least once a week to gather enough natural vitamin D needed by your body.

III. People who have dark skin are also at risk of vitamin D deficiency.

Their skin’s pigment melanin restricts the amount of vitamin D that is absorbed by the body. According to the researches, adults who have darker skin have higher chances of getting this deficiency.

IV. Aging,

Aging can also be a factor that would contribute to the lack of Vitamin D in the body the kidneys can no longer function properly which would convert the said vitamin to the active form.

The older they get, the less capable their kidneys are in converting vitamin D to active form. Aside from the kidney, the digestive tract cannot also absorb vitamin D properly due to aging. But other than aging,

V. Health Conditions,

Other health conditions can also affect the ability of the digestive tract to absorb vitamin D from natural sources. These medical conditions include cystic fibrosis, Crohn’s disease, and celiac disease.

Let’s Recap,

You can become deficient in vitamin D for different reasons:

Don’t:

• Get enough vitamin D in your diet.
• Absorb enough vitamin D from food (a malabsorption problem).
• Get enough exposure to sunlight.
• Your liver or kidneys cannot convert vitamin D to its active form in the body.
• You take medicines that interfere with your body’s ability to convert or absorb vitamin D.

Symptoms of Vitamin D Deficiency:

Symptoms of vitamin D deficiency may include:

• Getting sick or infected more often.
• Fatigue.
• Painful bones and back.
• Depressed mood.
• Impaired wound healing.
• Hair loss.
• Muscle pain.
• Obesity.
• Diabetes.
• Hypertension.
• Depression.
• Fibromyalgia.
• Chronic fatigue syndrome.
• Osteoporosis.
• Neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease.

 

Who is at The Risk of Vitamin D Deficiency?

Vitamin D deficiency occurs when you are not getting the recommended level of vitamin D over time. Certain people are at higher risk for vitamin D deficiency, including:

People:

• Who spend little time in the sun or those who regularly cover up when outdoors.
• Living in nursing homes or other institutions or who are homebound.
• People taking medicines that affect vitamin D levels such as certain anti-seizure medicines.
• Obese or very overweight people.
• People who have had gastric bypass surgery.

 

People With:

• Certain medical conditions such as Celiac disease and inflammatory bowel disease.
• Very dark skin.
• Osteoporosis.
• Chronic kidney or liver disease.
• Hyperparathyroidism (too much of a hormone that controls the body’s calcium level).
• Sarcoidosis, tuberculosis, histoplasmosis, or another granulomatous disease (a disease with granulomas, collections of cells caused by chronic inflammation)
• Some lymphomas, a type of cancer.
• Breastfed infants, because human milk is a poor source of vitamin D.
• If you are breastfeeding, give your infant a supplement of 400 IU of vitamin D every day.
• and Older adults with certain risk factors.

 

Vitamin D Deficiency Side Effects:

Vitamin D deficiency can lead to a loss of bone density, which can contribute to osteoporosis and fractures. Severe vitamin D deficiency can also lead to other diseases.

Children,

it can cause rickets. Rickets is a rare disease that causes the bones to become soft and bend. African American infants and children are at higher risk of getting rickets.

Adults,

• Severe vitamin D deficiency leads to osteomalacia.
• Osteomalacia causes weak bones, bone pain, and muscle weakness.

 

Researchers are studying vitamin D for its possible connections to several medical conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, and autoimmune conditions such as multiple sclerosis. They need to do more research before they can understand the effects of vitamin D on these conditions.

How Can You Get More Vitamin D:

If you find this article useful, don’t forget to share it with your friends and family, as you might help someone in need. Thanks.

Disclaimer: “Nothing in this article makes any claim to offer cures or treatment for any disease or illness. If you are sick please consult with your doctor.”

References

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