Nicknamed the sunshine vitamin, Vitamin D is a key player in maintaining the body healthy. With an incredible ability to be absorbed by our bodies via sunlight, Vitamin D is responsible for supporting bone growth by promoting calcium absorption. This powerful vitamin is also entrusted with another important role – that of getting rid of mature bone tissue so new bone tissue can be formed (aka bone remodeling). So, obviously, a lack of vitamin D can lead to misshapen, brittle, or thin bones. Ensuring you get enough vitamin D in your daily diet, on the other hand, allows you to enjoy the many health benefits associated with vitamin D intake. On the other hand, getting too much vitamin D can also be harmful. Here are the benefits and dangers of vitamin D.
Vitamin D Benefits
Some of the mental and physical health qualities tied to vitamin D are as follows. Vitamin D:
- Strengthens the bones – It helps build, grow, and strengthen the bones while promoting the absorption of calcium in the gut (calcium needs vitamin D to do its job). This, in turn, enables the normal bone mineralization, which can help prevent osteoporosis (when the bone quality and density diminishes).
- Strengthens the muscles – Vitamin D deficiency can increase the risk of experiencing muscle weakness, which raises the risk of falls. This is particularly vital for people of older age and may even lead to death or substantial disability.
- Supports the immune system – It can help you build immunity by enabling the immune system to combat viruses and harmful bacteria. This is critical since preventing infections is a major health concern. Vitamin D may also be effective when used to fight off viral infections, such as coronavirus and influenza. Several randomized control trials have shown that vitamin D can lower the risk of acute respiratory infection when taken daily.
- Improves oral health – With the aid of vitamin D, the body is able to absorb calcium more efficiently. This lowers the risk of gum disease and tooth decay according to research. This is attributed to the fact that vitamin D has a powerful effect on bone metabolism while also acting as an inflammatory agent that can boost the production of peptides bearing anti-microbial qualities.
- Helps prevent Type 2 Diabetes – It may reduce the risk of excess amounts of glucose in the blood, especially when combined with a daily intake of calcium, says a study published in the Diabetes Care journal.
- Helps treat hypertension – A 2019 review has evidenced that vitamin D can help lower high blood pressure, which is a key marker of heart disease. This helps prevent organ damage related to hypertension and, of course, a malfunction/disease of the cardiovascular system.
- Contributes to weight loss – Vitamin D may play a role in shedding pounds and prevent or fight obesity, especially when paired with calcium.
- Battles depression – A 2017 review article claims that vitamin D can brighten up the mood and help combat depression.
- Reduces the risk of certain cancers – Various studies have shown that vitamin D may come loaded with cancer-fighting attributes. The particular vitamin seems to have activities that may prevent or slow the development of tumors and cancer cells, including reducing tumor blood vessel formation, stimulating cell death, reducing cancer cell growth, and promoting cellular differentiation. The most human data is for pancreatic, prostate, breast, and colorectal cancers, though.
Good Sources of Vitamin D
Although sunlight is a major vitamin D booster, many Americans do not receive adequate amounts of sunshine (hence, vitamin D). The same applies to individuals that get vitamin D from foods and supplementation, who, it seems, are not getting enough vitamin D to cover the needs of their body. To ensure you get your daily dosage of vitamin D, you can consider the following:
- Going for brisk walks or exposing yourself to sunlight for around 20 minutes several times a week. Just remember to wear sunscreen.
- Add vitamin D-rich fatty fish to your diet (i.e., sardines, mackerel, tuna, and salmon).
- Eat more mushrooms, red meat, egg yolks, and liver.
- Consume vitamin D-fortified foods, such as milk, cereals, yogurt, and orange juice.
- Supplement, if needed, in the form of vitamin D3. The recommended daily dose is 1000-2000 IU of D3.
The Effects of Vitamin D Deficiency
As already mentioned above, vitamin D comes packed with several health benefits. Insufficient amounts of vitamin D in the human body can, therefore, lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, immune system disorders, infections, and falls in the elderly. Also, it may raise the risk of some cancer types while also creating fertile ground for multiple sclerosis to manifest itself.
Causes of Vitamin D Deficiency
Besides not getting adequate exposure to sunlight, which will enable the body (the skin, to be precise) to convert sunshine into vitamin D, vitamin D deficiency is also attributed to specific medical conditions. Some of the most common ones are:
- Celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, and cystic fibrosis – All these diseases have one thing in common – they do not let the gut and intestines absorb the full amount of vitamin D possible that comes through supplements.
- Weight loss surgeries – These types of surgeries either bypass part of the small intestines or reduce the size of the stomach (could be both, though), which makes it particularly difficult for sufficient quantities of vitamin D (along with other minerals and nutrients) to be consumed and passed to the bloodstream. This condition will probably require vitamin D supplementation for the rest of your life.
- Obesity – An over 30 BMI (body mass index) has been linked with reduced levels of vitamin D in the body. This happens because fat cells get to hold most of the vitamin for themselves and do not release it to the bloodstream so that it delivers its health benefits to the rest of the organs and systems. Studies have evidenced that this is more likely to occur in obese individuals.
- Kidney and liver diseases – Both diseases lower the quantities of an enzyme that is required to transform vitamin D into a form that the body can use. When this enzyme is absent or in reduced amounts, the body cannot use adequate levels of active vitamin D.
Other factors that may also play a crucial role in vitamin D deficiency are:
- Age – The older we get, the less powerful the skin is to make vitamin D from sunshine.
- Mobility – the bodies of individuals that rarely go outside (i.e., people in facilities like nursing homes) or those that are homebound cannot produce vitamin D from sun exposure.
- The color of the skin – Light-colored skin is more able to make vitamin D than those with dark-colored skin.
Medications That May Cause Vitamin D Deficiency
Some medications can lower vitamin D. Some of these drugs are laxatives and prednisone, among other steroids. Also, colestipol, cholestyramine, and medicines taken by people with high cholesterol levels can have the same effect on vitamin D levels. Finally, seizure-control drugs (i.e., phenytoin and phenobarbital), orlistat (a weight loss medication), and rifampin (a tuberculosis drug) also influence the amounts of vitamin D in the body, which may cause vitamin D deficiency.
Signs of Vitamin D Deficiency
When the body lacks vitamin D (severe cases), the body may exhibit this vitamin D deficiency as rickets. In children, this may show up in a number of ways, including (but not limited to):
- Deformities in the joints
- Pain in the bones
- Weakness in the muscles
- Incorrect growth patterns.
In extremely rare cases, vitamin D deficient children may also experience painful muscles and muscle weakness. Things change quite a lot in adults as vitamin D deficiency is not as obvious. Symptoms and signs of this condition in adults include mood swings (i.e., depression), muscle cramps, muscle aches, muscle weakness, bone pain, and fatigue. Always consult your healthcare practitioner before taking any vitamin D supplements or herbs to improve your health.
The Danger of Taking Too Much Vitamin D
Taking too much of something can lead to toxicity. In the case of vitamin D toxicity, the term used is hypervitaminosis and occurs when the body receives excessive amounts of the vitamin. Although a rare condition, it can still happen from either consuming too much vitamin D from your diet (the rarest of the two cases) or taking larger-than-required doses of vitamin D supplements. The good news is that you have nothing to fear if you spend too much time outside in the sunshine because the body is able to regulate the amount of vitamin D that is produced when we expose ourselves to sunlight.
It all happens because the body experiences calcium buildup (hypercalcemia), which is the most fundamental consequence of vitamin D toxicity. As a result, you may exhibit the following symptoms: frequent urination, weakness, vomiting, and nausea. Also worth noting is that vitamin D toxicity can progress to more severe health conditions, such as kidney problems (the formation of calcium stones) and bone pain.
Besides vitamin D toxicity, though, vitamin D deficiency (when your body has too little vitamin D) is also a major concern that can lead to serious complications and health problems.
