Vitamin D deficiency can lead to a loss of bone density, which can contribute to osteoporosis and fractures (broken bones). Severe vitamin D deficiency can also lead to other diseases: In children, it can cause rickets. Rickets is a rare disease that causes the bones to become soft and bend.
Not getting enough vitamin D may raise your risk for other diseases and conditions — some of them life-threatening.
Vitamin D deficiencies can also result in bone diseases such as rickets in children and osteomalacia and osteoporosis in adults. But you may not be aware that if you're not getting enough vitamin D, you may also suffer from dizziness, headaches, and yes, low energy and fatigue.
When rickets is very severe, it can cause low levels of calcium in the blood. This can lead to muscle cramps, fits and breathing difficulties. These need urgent hospital treatment. Rarely, an extremely low vitamin D level can cause weakness of the heart muscle (cardiomyopathy).
Having inadequate levels of vitamin D may correlate with unintentional weight gain. A study on women over the age of 65 found that participants with a lower vitamin D level experienced more weight gain. A systematic review of 23 different studies found similar associations between vitamin D deficiency and obesity.
In general, the two main causes of vitamin D deficiency are: Not getting enough vitamin D in your diet and/or through sunlight. Your body isn't properly absorbing or using vitamin D.
Generally, it takes a few weeks of taking daily vitamin D supplements for vitamin D levels in the body to rise. Each 1,000 IU of vitamin D3 taken daily is expected to raise blood levels of 25(OH)D by 10 ng/ml after a few weeks.
Growing evidence has demonstrated that vitamin D has a role in sleep regulation [12]. Specifically, vitamin D deficiency (VDD) can increase risk of sleep disorders and is associated with sleep difficulties, shorter sleep duration, and nocturnal awakenings in children and adults [13,14,15].
Therefore, conditions that affect the gut and digestion, like celiac disease, chronic pancreatitis, Crohn's disease, and cystic fibrosis, can reduce vitamin D absorption.
Recipients of Vitamin D shots have attested to feeling better almost immediately or as soon as the next day. Sunshine will raise levels of active Vitamin D within about 8 hours – depending on the strength of the sun and your level of absorption.
When vitamin D levels are low and the body isn't able to properly absorb calcium and phosphorus, there is an increased risk of bone pain, bone fractures, muscle pain and muscle weakness.
Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency can cause or worsen neck and back pain and muscle spasm.
Oranges may be the closest you'll get to a fruit containing vitamin D.
There's no set time of day that's best to take vitamin D supplements. Some people say taking vitamin D supplements at night is an insomnia risk. There's no research to confirm this, but you might want to take your supplement earlier in the day if you think it's screwing with your sleep.
Vitamin D deficiency is most commonly caused by a lack of exposure to sunlight. Some disorders can also cause the deficiency. The most common cause is lack of exposure to sunlight, usually when the diet is deficient in vitamin D, but certain disorders can also cause the deficiency.
Injections deliver a straight shot of vitamin D3 into the muscle which is then absorbed into the body bloodstream. This makes these shots highly effective for anyone who wants to focus on increasing their vitamin D levels. Both of these options are an improvement upon typical oral supplements.
Vitamin D keeps your immune system strong and can help regulate insulin levels. It keeps your energy levels up and enhances your mood, too.
"Adequate levels of magnesium in the body are essential for the absorption and metabolism not only of vitamin D but of calcium as well," Dean states. "Magnesium converts vitamin D into its active form so that it can help calcium absorption.
Conclusions. There are measurable concentrations of vitamin D metabolites in tear fluid and aqueous and vitreous humor, and oral vitamin D supplementation affects vitamin D metabolite concentrations in the anterior segment of the eye.
Magnesium assists in the activation of vitamin D, which helps regulate calcium and phosphate homeostasis to influence the growth and maintenance of bones. All of the enzymes that metabolize vitamin D seem to require magnesium, which acts as a cofactor in the enzymatic reactions in the liver and kidneys.
Kunutsor et al suggested that supplementation with vitamin D significantly reduced diastolic blood pressure (DBP) by 1.31 mm Hg in participants with preexisting cardiometabolic conditions (16).