Vitamin D is one of the most common deficiencies in blood tests among the patients I follow. One study found that vitamin D levels were inadequate in 36% of healthy adolescents and 57% of adults in the United States. Other studies estimate that one billion people worldwide have inadequate Vitamin D levels.
Vitamin D is important because it plays an important role in many aspects of our health. It contributes to bone strength, heart health and cancer prevention. And it plays a very important role in your immune system and can be a determining factor in whether you develop an autoimmune disease. That's why it's one of the four basic supplements I recommend everyone take.
Causes of Vitamin D Deficiency
Among the reasons why we experience vitamin D deficiency are air pollution, modern diet and lifestyle. Maintaining adequate vitamin D levels is not easy with our lifestyle.
Sun Exposure Is Not Enough
Nicknamed the “sunshine vitamin,” our primary source of vitamin D is sun exposure, which It also triggers a process in your skin that produces vitamin D. However, due to our modern lifestyle we are spending less and less hours outdoors. On top of that, due to our fear of skin cancer, we typically use toxin-filled sunscreen during limited sun exposure, which when applied properly reduces our ability to absorb vitamin D by more than 90%. Living further north, where you receive less direct sunlight or have darker skin that absorbs less sunlight, further reduces your ability to produce Vitamin D.
Vitamin D-Deficient Diet
Many foods are not naturally rich in Vitamin D, and foods containing Vitamin D are not very common in the typical modern diet. These foods include tahini, salmon, cod liver oil, organ meats such as beef liver, and egg yolks. Other foods are artificially fortified with vitamin D; known foods fortified with vitamin D are dairy and breakfast cereals, which contain milk and gluten, which can cause health problems.
Fat Malabsorption
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vit It is amino acid, meaning your intestine must be able to absorb the fat you consume in your diet to absorb vitamin D. If you have a leaky gut due to inflammatory foods like gluten, infections, or toxins, your ability to absorb nutrients and vitamins can be severely compromised.
How Does Vitamin D Affect Your Immune System?
Vitamin D works as a kind of light switch in your body, turning on or off the genes and processes your body needs to maintain health. Active Vitamin D is delivered to many different parts of your body, including your bones, intestines, colon, brain, and immune cells that have Vitamin D receptors. Active vitamin D binds to these receptors and promotes vitamin D-responsive genes, essentially turning them on.
Vitamin D and Protective Immunity
Adequate vitamin D levels enhance immunity. It strengthens your system and reduces your risk of infectious diseases. Vitamin D turns on key peptides that trigger a powerful anti-microbial response in your immune system, allowing you to quickly and effectively fight invaders before they develop into a full-blown infection.
Vitamin D and Autoimmune Disease
Autoimmune diseases occur when your immune system becomes confused or under extreme stress and begins attacking your own tissues instead of external pathogens. Vitamin D prevents this by promoting regulatory T cells, which are responsible for accurately distinguishing between external invaders and “self” cells. When active vitamin D stimulates them, it actually makes your immune system smarter, teaching it not to attack itself and preventing an autoimmune disease from developing.
Research in this area is relatively new, but there are higher rates of autoimmune disease among people with vitamin D deficiency. There are a number of studies showing that diseases progress faster. Studies have linked vitamin D deficiency to Multiple Sclerosis, Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Type I Diabetes.
How to Increase Vitamin D?
Your Vitamin D3 levels are around 60. -It should be 90 ng/mL and your doctor Can be tested from the shelf. If your levels are below the recommended range, we recommend taking 5,000 IU of a high-quality Vitamin D3 / K2 supplement daily for adults and 2,000 IU daily for children.
It is important to take a D3 supplement with a vitamin that also contains Vitamin K2, because vitamin D and vitamin K work together. Your body uses Vitamin D to absorb calcium, but Vitamin K is needed to ensure the calcium stays in your bones instead of your arteries. You should also make sure that the diet contains adequate amounts of vitamin E and vitamin A, as they work synergistically with vitamin D.
If you have been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease or have had gluten sensitivity, Celiac disease, leaky gut, Gallbladder surgery. It reduces your ability to absorb vitamin D.
Because vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, it is stored in our body and can accumulate too much over time. I recommend that you take supplements under the supervision of a doctor and dietitian, and have your blood levels checked every 3-6 months while taking supplements.
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