Vitamin D acts like a master hormone in the body, helping to control and balance other hormones. It is synthesized by the skin after exposure to sunlight. Many people do not get enough vitamin D, regardless of how much sunlight they are exposed to, and suffer from a variety of problems related to vitamin D deficiency. The University of Minnesota notes that aches and pains similar to those experienced by people suffering from fibromyalgia are common among people with low vitamin D levels.
Increasing your vitamin D and having regular blood tests to check levels is important if you have chronic body pain, especially in the muscles. The recommended daily dose of vitamin D is 600 IU to 800 IU; however, if you experience significant body pain or if your blood levels are low, you may need much higher doses. Do not dose yourself with high quantities of vitamin D except under the supervision of a health care practitioner.This vitamin Known as the sunshine vitamin, vitamin D is produced by the body in response to skin being exposed to sunlight. It is also occurs naturally in a few foods -- including some fish, fish liver oils, and egg yolks -- and in fortified dairy and grain products.Vitamin D is essential for strong bones, because it helps the body use calcium from the diet.research is revealing the importance of vitamin D in protecting against a host of health problems.
Signs that you may have vitamin D deficiency
The only way to know for sure if you're vitamin D deficient is via blood testing. However, there are some signs and symptoms to be aware of as well. If any of the following apply to you, you should get your vitamin D levels tested sooner rather than later.
1. You Have Darker Skin African Americans are at greater risk of vitamin D deficiency, because if you have dark skin, you may need as much as 10 times more sun exposure to produce the same amount of vitamin D as a person with pale skin!As Dr. Holick explained, your skin pigment acts as a natural sunscreen, so the more pigment you have, the more time you'll need to spend in the sun to make adequate amounts of vitamin D.
2. You Feel "Blue"Serotonin, the brain hormone associated with mood elevation, rises with exposure to bright light and falls with decreased sun exposure. In 2006, scientists evaluated the effects of vitamin D on the mental health of 80 elderly patients and found those with the lowest levels of vitamin D were 11 times more prone to be depressed than those who received healthy doses.
3. You're 50 or Older As mentioned, as you get older your skin doesn't make as much vitamin D in response to sun exposure. At the same time, your kidneys become less efficient at converting vitamin D into the form used by your body and older adults tend to spend more time indoors (i.e. getting even less sun exposure and therefore vitamin D).
4. You're Overweight or Obese (or Have a Higher Muscle Mass)Vitamin D is a fat-soluble, hormone-like vitamin, which means body fat acts as a "sink" by collecting it. If you're overweight or obese, you're therefore likely going to need more vitamin D than a slimmer person -- and the same holds true for people with higher body weights due to muscle mass.
5. Your Bones Ache According to Dr. Holick, many who see their doctor for aches and pains, especially in combination with fatigue, end up being misdiagnosed as having fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome."Many of these symptoms are classic signs of vitamin D deficiency osteomalacia, which is different from the vitamin D deficiency that causes osteoporosis in adults," he says. "What's happening is that the vitamin D deficiency causes a defect in putting calcium into the collagen matrix into your skeleton. As a result, you have throbbing, aching bone pain.
6. Head Sweating according to Dr. Holick, one of the first, classic signs of vitamin D deficiency is a sweaty head. In fact, physicians used to ask new mothers about head sweating in their newborns for this very reason. Excessive sweating in newborns due to neuromuscular irritability is still described as a common, early symptom of vitamin D deficiency.47. You Have Gut Trouble Remember, vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, which means if you have a gastrointestinal condition that affects your ability to absorb fat, you may have lower absorption of fat-soluble vitamins like vitamin D as well. This includes gut conditions like Crohn's, celiac and non-celiac g,Studies have shown that if you improve your vitamin D status, it reduces risk of colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, and a whole host of other deadly cancers by 30 to 50 percent. You're correct. Cancer is a big deal. You need to realize that vitamin D is playing a very important role in helping to maintain cell growth and to help fight cancer when a cancer cell is developing in your body."luten sensitivity, and inflammatory bowel disease.Vitamin D also fights infections, including colds and the flu, as it regulates the expression of genes that influence your immune system to attack and destroy bacteria and viruses. In this interview above, Dr. Holick expounds on these and many other health benefits of vitamin D. For instance, optimizing your vitamin D levels can help protect against:
⦁Cardiovascular disease Vitamin D is very important for reducing hypertension, atherosclerotic heart disease, heart attack, and stroke.
⦁Autoimmune diseases.;Vitamin D is a potent immune modulator, making it very important for the prevention of autoimmune diseases, like multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease.
⦁Infections, including influenza. It also helps you fight infections of all kinds. A study done in Japan, for example, showed that schoolchildren taking 1,200 units of vitamin D per day during winter reduced their risk of getting influenza A infection by about 40 percent. I believe it's far more prudent, safer, less expensive, and most importantly, far more effective to optimize your vitamin D levels than to get vaccinated against the flu.
⦁DNA repair and metabolic processes. One of Dr. Holick's studies showed that healthy volunteers taking 2,000 IUs of vitamin D per day for a few months up-regulated 291 different genes that control up to 80 different metabolic processes, from improving DNA repair to having effect on autoxidation (oxidation that occurs in the presence of oxygen and/or UV radiation, which has implications for aging and cancer, for example), boosting your immune system and many other biological processes.
⦁How Much Vitamin D Do You Need for Optimal Health?
When it comes to vitamin D, you don't want to be in the "average" or "normal" range, you want to be in the "optimal" range. The reason for this is that as the years have gone by, researchers have progressively moved that range upward. At present, based on the evaluation of healthy populations that get plenty of natural sun exposure, the optimal range for general health appears to be somewhere between 50 and 70 ng/ml. As for how to optimize your vitamin D levels, I firmly believe that appropriate sun exposure is the best way.What are the ways to correct the deficiency?Following measures are required to correct the deficiency of Vitamin D3
⦁Sun exposure
⦁Diet: Include following food items in your daily diet.Fortified milk and milk products Fortified cereals, soy products and tofu.Cod liver oil, Egg yolk Including fatty fish in the diet like herring, salmon, catfish, tuna etc.Mushroom is the only vegetable which is a natural source of Vitamin D.Including above things in the daily diet chart along with regular sunlight exposure can assure that the body gets the enough amount of Vitamin D3 and the person isnot suffering from the deficiency of Vitamin D3.
HOMEOPATHIC IN VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY;Homeopathy works by initiating the body's reaction to an external stimulus, which then encourages the individual's body to heal itself. Remedies are made from natural sources usRhus ToxicodendronRHUS TOXIt is indicated in cases where your musculoskeletal problems are made worse when you first move and then get better as you continue to move, according to Boericke. The remedy is useful for muscle aches, joint problems and tendonitising .ARNICA;It is indicated for aches and pains, especially muscle pain and bruising, according to William Boericke, M. D., in the “Materia Medica and Repertory." Arnica may help relieve soreness and aching from injuries to muscles due to overuse . The injury or sore spot may be discolored and black-and-blue. Arnica can relieve tenderness, pain, swelling and inflammation in the musclesmounts of that substance.