Are you deficient in Vitamin D?

by Dr Harold Gunatillake

This is a very important vitamin necessary to every cell in the body for its normal functions in fact every cell has an opening or receptor to vitamin D.
Vitamin D is manufactured in your skin from cholesterol in your body.

How do you find out whether you are deficient in vitamin D?

Dark people make less vitamin D in their skin due to the barrier action of the pigment layer in the basal layer of the outer skin preventing UV rays of the sun getting into the deeper layers of the skin. Furthermore, dark people avoid the sun generally. White people need only about 20 minute exposure to the sun for an adequate requirement of vitamin D

Vitamin D is less formed in elderly people. Obese and overweight are also risk factors for vitamin D deficiency. Those people living away from the equator where there is little sun is a risk factor, sildenafil too.

The symptoms of vitamin deficiency are subtle and may not know for a long time.

Vitamin D boosts your immune system and the deficiency would be more susceptible for virus and bacterial infections.

If you fall sick often with cold and coughs and flu symptoms including upper respiratory infections could be due to vitamin D deficiency. In such situations you need to take about 4000 IU daily of vitamin D and the results could be magic.

You could just feel tired for no reason and cause fatigue due to vitamin D deficiency.

Vitamin D is essential for bone growth and health. It helps absorption of calcium into the bones. You may get backache due to pain arising in your spine bones due to inadequate vitamin D in your blood.

Depression

You may be suffering from chronic depression and it could be linked to vitamin D deficiency. It is advisable to take daily vitamin D if you feel that you suffer from depression.

Wound healing: Poor wound healing after an accident or surgery may be due to vitamin D deficiency. Prime up yourself with daily vitamin D before going for any elective surgery.

Hair loss: Vitamin D deficiency is linked to hair loss. This is quite common among women, and taking vitamin D daily may reduce the loss of hair.
You do not have to take vitamin D supplements. Your food will have plenty provided you eat fatty fish like salmon. Wild fish has more vitamin D than the farmed fish.
Herrings and sardines are other oily fish that has high levels of vitamin. Fresh atlantic herring provides 1,628 IU per 3.5 oz (100 grams) serving, which is four times the RDI (8).

Oysters do have about 320IU of vitamin D, or 80% of the RDI (19).

Prawns, egg yolk, mushroom, fortified cereals, cows milk, soy milk, orange juice are other good sources of vitamin D.

Eating plenty of these foods and staying in the son for about half an hour day would provide you with the health benefits of vitamin D.

(Some Ref: authoritynutrition.com written by Taylor Jones, RD)