Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin. Getting enough vitamin D is necessary for your body to operate.
Your body naturally produces vitamin D from sun exposure and a few foods, but if you have a deficiency, vitamin D can be hard to generate naturally.
Vitamin D is an essential nutrient that your body uses in every system. If you don’t get enough vitamin D, you will likely see at least one sign of vitamin D deficiency.
Unlike other vitamin deficienciesy, vitamin D deficiency may affect almost every area of your life, including mental health, bone health, and your immune system.
If you suspect you have insufficient vitamin D, talk to your healthcare provider. A blood test is enough for your healthcare provider to diagnose a vitamin D deficiency.to have a Vitamin D deficiency diagnosed by your healthcare provider.
Normal Vitamin D levels vary based on age. According to the National Institute of Health’s Office of Dietary Supplements (https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminD-Consumer/), these are the minimum amounts of vitamin D by age:
These adequate vitamin D amounts stay consistent if you are pregnant or breastfeeding.
There are three levels of vitamin D deficiency: mild, moderate, and severe. Through each level, the signs of vitamin D deficiency stay the same, but each level has increasingly severe symptoms.
Vitamin D levels are measured in ng (one billionth of a gram) per milliliter (mL) of blood, or ng/mL.
Recommended vitamin D levels are between 20-50 ng/mL. Anything less than 20 ng/mL is considered low vitamin D levels.
10-20 ng/mL is considered a mild vitamin D deficiency.
5-10 ng/mL is considered a moderate vitamin D deficiency.
Less than five ng/mL is a severe vitamin D deficiency.
There are 14 signs of vitamin D deficiency to look for. If you experience any of these 14 signs of vitamin D deficiency, speak with your doctor.
Consistent muscle pain or muscle weakness is one of the earliest signs of vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D contributes to keeping muscles healthy, so if you have a vitamin D insufficiency, you will have muscle weakness and even persistent muscle pain.
Vitamin D helps your bones absorb calcium, keeping your bones healthy. It’s important to maintain healthy levels of vitamin D for bone health.
If you feel bone pain on a daily basis, it is likely a sign of vitamin D deficiency, causing low blood calcium levels. Bone pain is one of the clearest signs of vitamin D deficiency.
Low levels of vitamin D can lead to high levels of fatigue. Without enough vitamin D, your body has a difficult time maintaining energy.
This is why; if you tell your doctor you have extreme fatigue, they are likely to recommend a blood test and look for vitamin D deficiency.
Beyond general fatigue, Vitamin D helps you maintain energy for a longer period in states of either extremely high or extremely low physical activity.
A vitamin D deficiency will make it harder to keep up your energy when doing prolonged activities, whether that activity is sitting at your desk or running a marathon. Low endurance makes it even harder to keep your body healthy.
Vitamin D assists mental health by helping to stabilize moods.
This is one reason why people suffer Seasonal Affective Disorder. Less sun exposure during the winter months puts people at higher risk of low levels of vitamin D, resulting in lower moods and greater mood swings.
The direct symptoms of vitamin D deficiency may make it difficult to sleep well. Muscle and bone pain can make it challenging to sleep.
Additionally, your levels of vitamin D directly affect your energy. If you don’t have proper energy levels during the day, you’ll find it more difficult to sleep well at night.
One of the clearest signs of vitamin D deficiency is an unusually sweaty head. This is because vitamin D helps to regulate your body temperature and keep you cool.
Vitamin D deficiency may lead to increased internal body temperature, which leads to additional sweat.
Vitamin D is one of the vital nutrients keeping your hair and nails healthy. A vitamin D deficiency may lead to hair weakening. It will become more thin and brittle, often leading to hair loss.
Hair loss can negatively affect your self-image, possibly additionally impacting moods.
Vitamin D helps keep bones, muscles, and even skin healthy. It does this by keeping your immune system healthy.
Low vitamin D levels will affect your immune health, making it harder for your body to repair itself or fight off illnesses. A vitamin D deficiency will lead to slow wound healing. This will also increase recovery time from things like weight loss surgeries or other operations.
Vitamin D plays a neurological task as well. Vitamin D helps to control your balance.
A vitamin D deficiency will make balancing more difficult, making nearly all tasks harder, whether sitting or walking.
Vitamin D helps keep blood vessels healthy and helps maintain healthy blood pressure. A vitamin D deficiency can lead to an increase in blood pressure.
Vitamin D is also an essential nutrient for the heart itself. Vitamin D deficiency puts you at greater risk of developing heart disease.
Vitamin D helps keep your metabolism stable. Vitamin D deficiency can lead to weight gain due to a destabilization of your metabolism.
If you are trying to lose weight, talk to your healthcare provider. They may recommend vitamin D supplements as well as fortified foods to help.
Vitamin D helps keep your immune system running properly. Without it, your body has more difficulty fighting infection.
Vitamin D deficiency puts you at increased risk of infection, and it will make recovering from an infection more difficult and lengthy.
Vitamin D is important for keeping your brain healthy. It helps regulate mood and generate healthy brain tissue.
Vitamin D deficiency will make it harder to perform important brain functions, like memory and decision-making.
We’ve seen what happens if you don’t get enough vitamin D, but what if your low vitamin D levels are severe? Can vitamin D deficiency be fatal?
It is unlikely that you will die as a direct result of vitamin D deficiency. However, the side effects of vitamin D deficiency can be extremely dangerous.
Severe symptoms include bone pain, muscle fatigue, and even depression. Vitamin D deficiency also puts you at increased risk of dangerous conditions like osteoporosis and heart disease.
There are two primary options for treating vitamin D deficiency if your body does not produce vitamin D in high enough amounts naturally: vitamin D supplement or foods with high vitamin D levels.
Your body creates vitamin D when exposed to sunlight, but increasing sun exposure is not recommended if you are looking for more vitamin D. The absorption level is not predictable, and increased sun leads to a higher risk of skin cancer.
Vitamin D supplements are taken orally. A vitamin D supplement contains much more vitamin D than your body would produce naturally.
You can take magnesium supplements, which helps activate vitamin D, or you can take a vitamin D3 supplement directly. You can also take natural supplements, like cod liver oil.
In extreme cases, a doctor will advise vitamin D injections, but usually, a vitamin D supplement will be enough.
You can eat foods rich in vitamin D3 to help with a vitamin D deficiency, such as:
Any of these foods will help with low vitamin D levels.
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