Are You Low On Vitamin D? {Video}

Vitamin D deficiency is common, especially for those living in northern states. Find out why you need to get tested, how often you should be tested, and if you should be supplementing for this very important vitamin.

Here’s the transcription:

Hey, Rachel Alvarado here, and today I want to talk about vitamin D. Why? Because it's so important. And now that it's almost winter and daylight savings time has ended, a lot of us are not exposed to enough sunshine to synthesize adequate amounts of vitamin D. So what does this mean? Okay, well first of all, vitamin D was first discovered because inadequate amounts could lead to rickets. So scientists knew that vitamin D was hugely important for bone health, but recently scientists have realized that vitamin D is really important in so many different levels and systems within the body. It can help with gene transcription and blood pressure regulation, cell differentiation, which can help prevent against cancer, and immune system regulation, which can help prevent against autoimmune diseases. So it's super important that we have enough vitamin D.

Now, our skin synthesizes vitamin D from the sun, and so darker days mean we're not getting as much, right? Plus, if you are living above the 40 degree North latitude line, you're not even exposed to enough UVB rays to even make enough vitamin D, even if your skin is exposed and you're out all day. So, that means most of us need to supplement. And what we need to supplement during the summer months and winter months can be hugely different. It's really important that you are getting tested twice a year to make sure that you are within the healthy range.

Now, too much vitamin D is not healthy, so you want to make sure that you're in this ideal range. The blood test is really simple and you can just go to your doctor. It's a 25-hydroxy vitamin D level test, and you want the range to be between 30 to 40 nanograms per milliliter. If you are within that healthy range, that's great. Most of us will be below during the winter months, we have to supplement. Now, how much you need to supplement totally varies on you, your location, and your ability to synthesize vitamin D. So that's really a personalized thing. However, I do find most people generally need to substitute or supplement with about 2000 IUs daily. So go to your doctor, get checked out, your body will thank you. And I hope this helps. See you next time, guys.

References:

Schöttker, B., Haug, U., Schomburg, L., Köhrle, J., Perna, L., Müller, H., … Brenner, H. (2013). Strong associations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations with all-cause, cardiovascular, cancer, and respiratory disease mortality in a large cohort study. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 97(4), 782–793. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.112.047712

Sempos, C. T., Durazo-Arvizu, R. A., Dawson-Hughes, B., Yetley, E. A., Looker, A. C., Schleicher, R. L., … Picciano, M. F. (2013). Is There a Reverse J-Shaped Association Between 25-Hydroxyvitamin D and All-Cause Mortality? Results from the U.S. Nationally Representative NHANES. The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, 98(7), 3001–3009. doi: 10.1210/jc.2013-1333