What Are The Most Common Signs and Symptoms of Vitamin D Deficiency?

Vitamin D is an essential nutrient that serves powerful uses in the human body. In spite of its importance, it is often overlooked by people when adding vitamins into their diet. The reason is often that the symptoms and benefits of healthy Vitamin D levels require longer time horizons to present themselves.

Few vitamins affect a person’s overall well-being as much as this nutrient does. Let’s look at some of the benefits, what happens when we don’t get enough, and ways that we can naturally boost our Vitamin D levels for optimal health.

The role of Vitamin D in our bodies

Vitamin D has its hands on many important functions. Perhaps most crucial is regulating the absorption of calcium and phosphorus and ensuring the proper function of the immune system.

Normal levels of Vitamin D are key to the healthy growth and development of bones and teeth. In addition to their role in crucial body functions, they have also been linked to aiding in other areas as well.

Symptoms associated with low Vitamin D levels

Despite its importance and numerous benefits, 35% of indidviduals are deficient in this vital nutrient. As important as healthy Vitamin D levels are to our bodies, having too little can have a far-reaching negative impact. While it’s not always as obvious there are signs that are associated with Vitamin D deficiency that you can be aware of

Common Symptoms

Common symptoms include joint weakness, muscle pain and aches, and fatigue. Many people can find themselves experiencing pain when exercising or even simply doing routine things in their daily life. Moreover, feeling tired, sleeping more frequently, and having less energy are all common signs of Vitamin D deficiency.

Serious Symptoms

More serious symptoms are if these symptoms occur in kids. Additionally, severe and constant muscle or bone weakness are less common yet more severe symptoms.

Extreme Symptoms

Severe mood changes such as depression, bone breaks, severe muscle cramps, and difficulty breathing are very extreme symptoms that require medical attention immediately.

Recurring illness and infection

Vitamin D is one of the few nutrients that directly interacts with the cells that are tasked with fighting infection. If you often come down with colds or the flu, low Vitamin D levels may be the culprit. A deficiency may even contribute to respiratory tract infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia.

Reduced ability to fight chronic diseases and infection

When there are low levels of Vitamin D in the system, it limits the body’s ability to initiate processes that build the immune system and protect cells of the body from infection. Low Vitamin D may make people more susceptible to viruses such as COVID-19.

Compromised protection against multiple forms of cancer

Current research (2) is conflicting on the possible protective relationship between Vitamin D and lower risk of different forms of cancer. While some experimental evidence suggests that low Vitamin D levels could increase the likelihood of cancer incidence and mortality, other studies argue no significant correlation exists.

Bone pain and muscle weakness

Considering the nutrients’ essential role to the healthy development of the skeletal structure of the body, it should be unsurprising that low Vitamin D levels may lead to major issues. Maintaining proper Vitamin D levels can help protect against developing conditions including bone pain, muscle weakness, falls in the elderly, low bone mass, and fractures.

Chronic fatigue and tiredness

There is a strong case linking low vitamin D to overall lethargy. Some mechanisms through which it can contribute to lethargy include poor sleep, anxiety, and diminished mental clarity that in turn cause people to experience major fatigue and tiredness.

Mental Health Changes

Vitamin D deficiency can also affect your mood in more severe ways than temporary mood swings. In fact research has linked low vitamin d levels to increased instances of depression and anxiety (2). Vitamin D antioxidant properties are involved with preventing mood disorders and low levels can contribute to the development of said disorders.

Hair Loss

Due to the multiple pathways in which Vitamin D stimulates hair growth, the deficiency can lead to multiple types of scalp and hair conditions. Not only is Vitamin D deficiency linked to issues with hair follicle growth and development but restoring Vitamin D levels is a beneficial treatment option for hair loss in many types of alopecia.

Weight Gain/Loss

Although research is currently limited and more has to be elucidated to better understand the link between vitamin d and weight management. Observational studies have connected obesity to low vitamin d levels which shows a clear relationship between weight and vitamin d. Thus weight gain and loss may be affected by vitamin d deficiency and vice versa.

What is Vitamin D deficiency?

Vitamin D deficiency is when your body does not have enough of the nutrient. Many people in the world suffer from this deficiency across the world as it is an extremely prevalent issue worldwide. While 50% of people globally experience insufficient levels of Vitamin D (2), only 35% have levels low enough to be considered deficient in the nutrient. Vitamin D deficiency can cause a myriad of issues and having consistently low levels of vitamin d is connected to multiple pathologies.

What causes vitamin D deficiency?

While many factors can contribute to low vitamin d levels, there are only a few true causes to being vitamin d deficient. The causes of vitamin d deficiency are most often from a nutrition and/or lifestyle with too little vitamin d or some physiological impairment in your body’s ability to absorb vitamin d. For example, a medication that reduces vitamin d absorption or a condition like Celiacs disease which results in malabsorption of food and nutrients.

Factors that contribute to low vitamin D levels

Unlike nutrients such as vitamin C and vitamin B12 that are only derived from diet, the body has the ability to produce vitamin D. Because of this; many would assume that the body is capable of producing the right amount. While true in principle, it is not the whole picture. How much vitamin D the body produces is dependent on a host of factors.

It’s important to remember that our bodies do not produce Vitamin D in response to low supply. Production is triggered by other factors, including our environment.

Vitamin D production is largely influenced by the amount of direct sunlight a person is exposed to. Depending on lifestyle habits, geographic location, and climate, how much direct sunlight you receive can have a major impact.

Additional contributors to reduced vitamin D include:

• darker skin
• getting older
• obesity
• working indoors or overnight
• having chronic kidney disease, liver disease
• Celiac disease
• using medications like statins and steroids

Understanding Rickets Disease

Vitamin D is important in all individuals but being deficient in this nutrient can have exceptionally severe effects in children. Due to the nutrient’s role in supporting calcium and phosphorus absorption, a prolonged Vitamin D deficiency can lead to being deficient in calcium and phosphorus as well. The lack of proper calcium and phosphorus absorption disrupts bone growth, development, and health leading to softened and weakened bones. If left untreated, symptoms can worsen to poor or misshapen bones, a failure to grow, as well as seizures.

Vitamin D deficiency diagnosis and testing

Diagnosis of vitamin deficiencies is usually a relatively fast and uncomplicated process. Doctors will often use symptoms along with a blood panel to determine whether you have Vitamin D deficiency. Once your diagnosis is confirmed, your physician may do additional testing in case your underlying cause that led to low Vitamin D levels is still unclear.

How to treat low Vitamin D

Treatment or Vitamin D deficiency also looks similar to preventative measures. This can include increasing food that is rich in Vitamin D , taking Vitamin D supplements, increasing your time outside and exposure to sunlight. In more severe cases of Vitamin D deficiency a healthcare provider may prescribe a high dose Vitamin D supplement or even place you on an intravenous (IV) vitamin treatment. Understanding these methods as both preventative and treatment options can help you better understand the different pathways available for you to maintain proper nutrient levels.

Prevention

One of the most effective ways to mitigate conditions is through preventative measures that can reduce your risk for developing the disorder. For a vitamin deficiency, making sure to get the vitamin in sufficient amounts as often as possible can often help avoid becoming deficient.

How to avoid a vitamin D deficiency naturally

Thankfully, there are a series of strategies that we are able to implement in order to make sure that we have healthy, normal levels of vitamin D for our body’s function at peak performance.

• Vitamin D IV Therapy Benefits and Side Effects
• The Top 10 Vitamins For Clearing Brain Fog
• Get the Best Vitamins for Healthy Skin with in Home IV Therapy