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.
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.
Vitamin D deficiency — when the level of vitamin D in your body is too low — can cause your bones to become thin, brittle or misshapen. Vitamin D also appears to play a role in insulin production and immune function — and how this relates to chronic disease prevention and cancer — but this is still being investigated.
Not getting enough vitamin D may raise your risk for other diseases and conditions — some of them life-threatening.
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.
Most people with vitamin D deficiency are asymptomatic. However, if you're exhausted, your bones hurt, you have muscle weakness or mood changes, that's an indication that something may be abnormal with your body. Symptoms of vitamin D deficiency may include: Fatigue.
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].
“Adding an over-the-counter vitamin D supplement can make improvements in just three to four months time. Vitamin D with a strength of 1000-2000 international units daily is the recommended dose for most adults,” Dr.
[9,10] Low vitamin D leads to bone abnormalities (e.g., osteomalacia, osteopenia, and osteoporosis) and worsens muscle strength. [11] In otherwise healthy individuals, fatigue can be a manifestation of low vitamin D levels and its impact on reduced maximum functioning of skeletal muscles via vitamin D receptors.
Cholestyramine -- This cholesterol-lowering medication, known as a bile acid sequestrant, interferes with the absorption of vitamin D (as well as other fat-soluble vitamins). Phenobarbital, phenytoin, and other anticonvulsant medications -- These medications may accelerate the body's use of vitamin D.
Vitamin D insufficiency may relate to higher levels of anxiety and depression, in turn contributing to the elevated risk of psychosis in this population.
The best food sources of vitamin D are oily fish, including salmon, mackerel, and sardines. Other sources include egg yolks, red meat, and liver. Vitamin D is added to some foods too, including breakfast cereals, plant milks and fat spreads.
Furthermore, Vitamin D deficiency leads to dysbiosis of gut microbiome and reported to cause severe colitis.
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.
If you've been prescribed high-dose vitamin D, work closely with your doctor to monitor your blood levels. It can take three months or more to bring them back up, but once they're good, you can stop the high doses and return to a lower vitamin D supplement for maintenance.
Use the CVS Health At Home Vitamin D Test Kit to get accurate and comprehensive results in the privacy and comfort of your own home. Simply collect your blood sample using this convenient kit, mail it to the lab, and receive your results through a secure online portal in just a few days.
Vitamin D and sleep: The surprising connection
Early research suggests it is inversely related to melatonin, your sleep hormone. Increasing vitamin D levels may suppress melatonin levels. So, it makes sense that taking it at night could disrupt your sleep.
"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.
Can vitamin D give you more energy? Low energy or fatigue is a common symptom of vitamin D deficiency. That's because vitamin D seems to help mitochondria—the part of a cell that generates energy—use oxygen and power various parts of the body, including muscles.
Many studies show that overweight and obese people have low vitamin D levels when compared to their slimmer counterparts. And some studies link increased belly fat to vitamin D deficiency. In fact, according to a Medical News Today article, an increase in overall body fat and low vitamin D seem to go hand in hand.
Besides boosting mood and promoting calcium absorption, recent studies have shown that vitamin D may also aid in weight loss. For people with extra belly fat, a vitamin D supplement may be beneficial.
Vitamin D stimulates hair follicles to grow, and so when the body does not have enough, the hair may be affected. A vitamin D deficiency may also be linked to alopecia areata, an autoimmune condition that causes patchy hair loss.