Could low Vitamin D be affecting your immunity, joint and hormone health.

ImmunityVitamin DFunctional testingTeenage health

Dec 13

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I’m writing this on a cold, rain and grey December day and whilst I do love a cosy day at home I prefer a bright and sunny winter day so I get a boost of sunshine. But it’s not for the Vitamin D I love the winter sun. The UK sun only allows us to manufacture Vitamin D between May and September. I make sure that I test myself and my kids either in Spring or Autumn so I can see where I’m at. This is especially important if you are going through the menopause and if you are a growing child or teen.

1 in six of us in the UK are estimated to have insufficient blood levels of Vitamin D for good health. We simply cannot produce enough of it from sunshine alone. Shelf life for Vitamin D is also only 3-6 weeks so even if you gather stores during the summer months, they decline as we get into the deeper winter month.

We used to think its main job was to help the body absorb calcium from the intestines but since it’s been discovered that it supports multiple roles in health. It’s probably easier to say what Vitamin D doesn’t do than what it does.

Why do you need Vitamin D

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that plays a critical role in many functioning of our bodies and helps against several chronic conditions and a deficiency has been linked to conditions such as Multiple sclerosis, Parkinsons disease and heart disease and bone loss and depression. Cancer is also one condition where Vitamin D low status plays a role and research has shown that increasing levels have promising benefits for people with cancer. 1

Vitamin D is also an essential nutrient for developing teens. It’s very common with low levels in adolescent, and this is a concern as their skeleton grows at a very rapid rate. “Not getting enough Vitamin D can have serious consequences, including increased rates of bone loss or even osteomalacia ('soft bones') in adults and rickets (a deforming bone disorder) in children,” says Yale Medicine endocrinologist Karl Insogna, MD, director of the Yale Medicine’s Bone Center.

If you have a deficiency, it might not show up for several years but some of the areas where adequate levels of Vitamin D is really important are;

Immune system – to help you fight colds, flu virus and especially respiratory conditions - 2.

Nervous system – to regulate your mood and reduce risk for depression.

Endocrine system - to help you loose weight and lower your risk of type 2 diabetes.

Musculoskeletal system – to improve your bone and muscle health, especially back pain. 3

Cardiovascular system – to help reduce blood pressure and reduce your heart attack risk.

It’s also linked to fatigue in adults, especially in older adults. 4

Eat your Vitamin D

As a nutritionist I practice a food first principle and I love getting all that I need from food but with Vitamin D this is not possible. Only about 10 percent can be achieved via diet, so Vitamin D rich foods you should include weekly, especially in winter are oily fish, egg yolks, liver (D3) as well as fortified foods are the main food sources we have. Cod liver oil is also a good source but quality is very important. Yet, they don’t contain enough vitamin D for us to maintain adequate levels without help from the summer sunshine – especially if you are avoiding animal products.

Furthermore, only fats coming from animals raised on the pasture with access to sunlight will actually contain Vitamin D. Vitamin D is a hormone synthesized and stored in the fats of animals from the absorption of UVB light through the skin. So it’s worth seeking out grassfed dairy and meat.

Annimal foods are important, especially for Vitamin D absorption because all the fat-soluble vitamins play together and balance each other in the body. Vitamin A and D require a 10 to 1 ratio, so if you are taking isolated Vitamin D supplement without knowing your levels, you could be throwing off your Vitamin A levels. Vitamin K2 is also required in this balance of fat-soluble vitamins.

Cholesterol is essential for the absorption of Vitamin D so it’s key to have adequate intake of good fats such as butter, ghee, liver, beef.

When your skin is exposed to sunlight, it manufactures Vitamin D. The sun's Ultraviolet B (UVB) rays interact with a protein called 7-DHC in the skin, converting it into Vitamin D3, the active form of Vitamin D. “We each have vitamin D receptor cells that, through a chain of reactions starting with conversion of cholesterol in the skin, produce vitamin D3 when they’re exposed to ultraviolet B (UVB) from the sun,” says Yale Medicine dermatologist David J. Leffell, MD, chief of Dermatologic Surgery.

There is a real wisdom to traditional and ancestral cuisine.

K Eggs and butter, liver fried in butter, lard, butter or beef tallow with fish and meats, etc. This is to combine nutrients together, so we have a perfect balance of the fat-soluble vitamin ratios. Most nutrients work together so its important to take a wholefood approach first, this way you make sure you have all the co-factors. 5

More is not better

Like all nutrients in the body, there is a balance between having enough and not having too much. If you over-supplement, you can reach toxic levels which is dangerous.

Vitamin D is stored in fat. So, if you’re a small person and getting large doses, you have less available storage, which means vitamin D goes into your blood and you may absorb too much calcium, creating a toxic situation. And it’s unclear how long you have until you exceed the upper limits of vitamin D intake before it becomes dangerous. (Modest increases above the RDA are not likely to cause harm)

When shopping for supplements, always look for ones that offer the daily recommended allowance (RDA) you need for your age bracket: For most healthy people, it’s 400 IU per day. Some may need more as we age as for example post menopausal women, in particular, as they less efficiently synthesize vitamin D and absorb calcium.

Equally, you can supplement with a poor form and without the correct nutrients to support it doing all those vital jobs so you don’t get the full benefit and you are wasting your money.

Testing your levels

The usual lab test is a simple fingerpick test. It checks the stored Vitamin D – 25OHD /hydroxycholecalciferol. D3 cholecalciferol is what you supplement with.

High stored Vitamin D = lower activation of Vitamin D. You don’t want high activation as that only happens when calcium is low. Stored Vitamin D helps to absorb more calcium from the diet. The activation of Vitamin D is controlled via a feedback manner between the kidneys, liver and the parathyroid. Once calcium goes low, the parathyroid releases a hormone that tells the kidneys to make more active Vitamin D. This increases the osteoclast synthesis and degrades bones to release more calcium in the blood to compensate for low blood calcium levels. This is why it’s so important to not just supplement randomly without knowing your levels and what co-factors you need. The old saying that ‘milk gives you strong bones’ starts to make more sense.

If you are very low, a Vitamin D supplement can help but you need to know how much to supplement with otherwise you might do more harm than good especially if you don’t have the co-factors and research showed that high supplementation, 4000iu and above, resulted in lower bone mineral density. 6 ‘High-dose vitamin D without extra calcium supplementation has been associated with increased levels of the active vitamin D metabolite 1, 25(OH)2 vitamin D (calcitriol), and an increase in CTx’.

Vitamin D doesn’t act in isolation but need other nutrients to work. By getting adequate vitamin D, calcium and vitamin K which helps produce osteoblast (building bone) your parathyorid and kidneys will be happy. Net effect is strong bones, less inflammation and a stronger immune system. 5 And by testing, we can work out if you might be deficient in other minerals and vitamins.

Your requirements for this Vitamin D is unique to you and you may need more or less than you think. Find out your needs and receive a personalised recommendation in less than 7 days so you can supplement with confidence this year instead of guessing and hoping.

I have helped people who had supplemented for a few years and yet their levels were still low, and others who have supplemented every winter and their levels were too high.