Vitamin D is one of the most important vitamins for the body, but it’s this time of the year, when the sky is out less and we spend more time inside, when people show a lack of the vitamin.
It is known that sun exposure is the easiest way to stimulate the production of vitamin D in our body, which synthesizes a hormone in the skin, thanks to UVB ultraviolet rays. It’s believed that 15-30 minutes under the sun is enough for a person to produce enough.
However, if we aren’t able to expose ourselves, perhaps due to winter circumstances, or if we are particularly attentive to the harmful consequences of UV rays and therefore try to avoid them as much as possible, there are other solutions to maintain a good level of vitamin D in our body through foods and supplements.
The vitamin plays a key role in various metabolic processes: it is essential for having strong bones over time, because it acts on the absorption of calcium and phosphorus, keeps the heart and cardiovascular system healthy, together with the thyroid, and helps reduce inflammation and to control infections.
If no action occurs, in the more serious cases of hypnovitaminosis D it is possible to run into some pathologies, such as those of bone metabolism (rickets, osteoporosis, osteomalacia), and likewise in the weakening of the jaw bones, becoming more subject to periodontitis. Also linked to vitamin D deficiency are hypertension, diabetes, fibromyalgia and neurological conditions such as sclerosis.
To understand if you for sure have a vitamin D deficiency, it is advisable to perform blood tests, which your doctor will be able to help you with. However, these are symptoms that you should look out for if you are deficient.
- Fatigue
One of the most common symptoms of severe vitamin D deficiency is a feeling of chronic, intense and irremediable fatigue. However, this can be mixed up with the presence of excessive vitamin D. In fact, it also happens on the contrary, when you have too much of the vitamin, to experience profound tiredness.
2. Pain and Muscular Weakness
Many studies have shown a correlation between frequent muscle pain and weakness and vitamin D deficiency. If you experience episodes of such and don’t understand why, speak with your doctor.
3. Pain in the Bones or Joints
Due to severe lack of vitamin D, which is essential for the body to absorb calcium, symptoms related to pain in bones and joints and their increased fragility may occur.
4. Hair Loss
Vitamin D is necessary for hair health and beauty, and for hair to grow faster. Its deficiency can cause hair to fall and slow down growth, because it stops the life cycle of the follicle. Alopecia (the total loss of hair and body hair) is also thought to be linked to this vitamin insufficiency. More frequently, hair loss is due to genetic and hormonal causes.
5. You Get Sick Frequently
Vitamin D deficiency is associated with a weak immune system. For this reason, if you often get the sniffles, you may have a vitamin D deficiency.
6. Depression, Anxiety, Mood Swings, Sleeping Disorders
Even though there are not currently any studies and research directly linking the vitamin to depression, either as its cause in case of deficiency or as a remedy for depression with the right levels of the vitamin, it is clear to the scientific community that someone with a vitamin D deficiency has to work more and this can lead first, to perceive tiredness, and then to mental and hormonal disorders. If bones don’t receive the necessary calcium, and muscles and connective tissue have to work harder to support the body, people may feel tired from every day activities, and this can affect mood over time.
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