Signs of Vitamin D Deficiency.

Astonishingly most adults – estimated at between 40-80% – are believed to be deficient in vitamin D. I’ll explain in this post the many reasons why this may be a huge problem. I’ll also look into how you can top up your levels if you think you may be deficient (hint: it’s very likely you will be during the winter months) and what dose to use. Read on to discover what the far reaching signs of vitamin D deficiency are.

Vitamin D deficiency – some people are more susceptible

• The darker your skin, the harder it is for you to absorb vitamin D from the sun
• If you live in the Northern Hemisphere
• People who spend a lot of time indoors, or live in a care home
• If you use sunscreen when the weather is sunny
• If you typically tend to cover up most of your skin

Spending time in the sun, without sunscreen, is the BEST way to ensure you’re getting enough vitamin D throughout the summer months. Your body will naturally regulate your levels too, so you’ll never make too much.

As long as you don’t burn you can be confident you’re not doing any harm to your skin.

Vitamin D deficiency – some foods may help

As far as food sources go, there are some, but the levels of vitamin D they contain are negligible so barely worth mentioning – that said, oily fish, eggs and certain mushrooms are among the best food sources.

Essentially, once you haven’t seen the sun for a while, you’ll definitely need to supplement – more on that in a second.

If you’re worried your diet is impacting your gut health, I’d highly recommend downloading my online course The Ultimate Gut Health Programme to help support both your digestive sysem and hormone health, whilst avoiding triggering symptoms.

It’d be impossible to include all you need to know in one blog, but the programme will have all you need to know to ensure you’re soothing your digestive system, whilst eating delicious and filling foods.

What does Vitamin D actually do?

Vitamin D is actually a hormone, not a vitamin, and nearly every cell in your body has a receptor for it. More and more evidence is now demonstrating that its role in the body is much wider than just protecting your bones.

The many roles of vitamin D –

• Contributes to bone health by aiding calcium absorption into the bones.
• Supports the immune system and may help prevent prolonged or excessive inflammatory responses.
• Provides protection against autoimmune conditions

and also  –

• Boosts your energy levels.
• Protects against autoimmune conditions
  Vital for heart health.
• Helps to protect against skin issues such as psoriasis and eczema.

So if you’re affected by any of those things on an ongoing basis, I’d definitely recommend getting your vitamin D levels tested. You may be very low and this could be a major contributing factor to your symptoms.

If you want to get tested you can order here – use code LIZDAVIS10 at the checkout for a 10% discount.  

Preventing a Vitamin D deficiency

When you sit in the sun with your arms and legs exposed, without sunscreen for roughly 10 minutes, you’ll be likely to absorb about 10,000 units of natural vitamin D. However, keep in mind that this amount differs from person to person, depending on your skin tone – the fairer your skin, the more easily you can make it.

So how much should you supplement?

The NHS recommends a minimum of 400 IUs for adults, and not more than 4000 IUs per day.

Well, considering you’d make about 10,000 IUs in about 10 minutes if you sat in the sun I’d suggest more like a minimum of 2000 IUs each day would be about right for most people.
So providing you have no other health conditions which could be exacerbated by low vitamin D, supplementing between 2000 IUs and 4000 IUs per day should be about right.

For school age kids about 2000 IUs per day should be adequate.

What type of Vitamin D should you look for?

You want a D3 supplement with added K2.

The K2 acts as a co-factor and works with the vitamin D to get calcium into your bones.

Testing will tell you for sure how low your levels are and how much you need to supplement – you may need much higher levels than that.