Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin that is found in foods such as fatty fish, liver, and milk. If you don’t eat those foods often you can get vitamin D from supplements. Vitamin D is also absorbed into the body from the sun’s ultraviolet rays.
Vitamin D works in the body by maintaining normal levels of calcium and phosphorus. By aiding in the absorption of calcium, vitamin D helps form and keeps bones strong. Without vitamin D the bones will become brittle.
A vitamin D deficiency occurs when a person’s body can’t absorb vitamin D from the gastrointestinal tract, they don’t get enough vitamin D in their diet, have limited sun exposure, and when the kidneys can’t properly convert vitamin D to its active form.
People who are deficient in vitamin D can develop diseases that weaken bones. Children develop rickets and adults get osteomalacia. Rickets causes skeletal deformities. Osteomalacia causes weak bones and muscles.
Women with osteoporosis should make sure to get adequate amounts of vitamin D. This will help prevent bone fractures by keeping bones stronger. It’s a good idea to talk with your doctor about adding vitamin D supplements to your day if you have osteoporosis.
Adequate vitamin D has shown to provide protective abilities against colon cancer. To determine if vitamin D deficiency actually causes cancer, or if it’s just protective against certain types of cancer, more testing has to be done.
People with Alzheimer’s disease often get hip fractures. If they have vitamin D deficiency, this may be the reason. Often someone with Alzheimer’s disease doesn’t get out much so is not absorbing vitamin D from the sun’s rays. Vitamin D supplements should be discussed with the treating physician.
If you breast feed your child, be sure to supplement vitamin D. Failing to do so can result in an infant with rickets if the mother is vitamin D deficient herself.
Darker skinned people are more prone to vitamin D deficiency because they can’t absorb as much vitamin D from the sun’s rays.
Obese people are also at greater risk for vitamin D deficiency because more subcutaneous fat doesn’t let the vitamin D hormones circulate in the body properly.
People who don’t absorb dietary fat correctly are also at risk for vitamin D deficiency. Conditions that cause this problem include Crohn’s disease, cystic fibrosis, celiac disease, liver disease, pancreatic enzyme deficiency, and people who have surgery that removes part of the stomach.
Taking supplements with vitamin D, eating foods rich in vitamin D naturally, getting adequate sun exposure, and maintaining a healthy weight are all things we can do to reduce the risk of becoming vitamin D deficient. It’s very important to incorporate all these into your life.
