How to support your vitamin D3 levels throughout winter
Have you recently tested low on your vitamin D3 levels?
If so, you may have received a prescription from your GP for a short course of a mega dose of vitamin D.
Now whilst I agree that it’s important to maintain healthy vitamin D levels and it’s therefore crucial to intervene with a vitamin D supplement, I do not find that short term dosages of 50,000iu once a week for a few weeks is sustainable or helpful.
Instead, I think it’s important to first understand why you may be deficient, as well as understanding what some long term solutions may be to prevent deficiency.
Why is vitamin D important?
Vitamin D is essential for a healthy immune system, with the latest research confirming it’s role in enhancing both our first line of defence, as well as our adaptive or memory immune system, which is able to build long term antibodies against viruses and bacteria. It has also been shown to protective against autoimmune conditions (1).
We also know that vitamin D supports mental health in several important ways. Vitamin D is a cofactor for an enzyme that is responsible for serotonin and dopamine production in the brain - two neurotransmitters that have an enormous impact on our mood, concentration and motivation. Vitamin D also has antioxidant properties in the brain, thereby helping to prevent neuroinflammation, which has been linked with depression. Lastly, vitamin D supports the expression of growth factors - compounds that are responsible for cell growth and neuronal plasticity (2).
Thirdly, vitamin D supports calcium homeostasis in the body and therefore plays a huge role in maintaining bone density and general musculoskeletal health.
Symptoms of vitamin D deficiency
Because of vitamin D’s role in so many aspects of health, symptoms can include any of the following:
Bone pain
Increased sensitivity to pain
A tingly, “pins-and-needles” sensation in the hands or feet
Muscle pain
Muscle weakness in body parts near the trunk of the body, such as the upper arms or thighs
Waddling while walking, due to muscle weakness in the hips or legs
A history of broken bones
Muscle twitches or tremors
Muscle spasms
Bowed legs (when the deficiency is severe)
Depression
Frequent infections
Poor dental health
Why do we become deficient?
Before talking about dosages and how to supplement, it’s important to briefly cover why we may become deficient.
We all know that adequate levels of vitamin D are very much dependent on exposure to sunlight, where synthesis can occur with just short-term (15-20min) direct exposure.
However, there are some other key factors that may be impacting your ability to maintain healthy levels:
Obesity
Those with a high BMI have larger amounts of adipose tissue (fat). As vitamin D is stored in fat, it can become ‘trapped’ in those that are overweight (3).
Aging
As we age, our skin becomes less efficient at synthesising vitamin D due to a decrease in the precursor to vitamin D - 7-dehydrocholesterol - which is normally stored in the epidermis of the skin.
Genetics
There are genes which influence how vitamin D is transported and metabolised which can impact someone’s responsiveness to vitamin D supplementation. If you’d like to test your genes related to vitamin D, as well as other nutrients, please get in touch with me here.
Low fat diet
Dietary fat helps us absorb fat soluble nutrients like vitamin D, vitamin K, vitamin A and vitamin E. In those eating a chronically low fat diet, they may be struggling to absorb vitamin D in supplements and food.
Medications
There are known medications that have been shown to reduce vitamin D levels, these are:
Steroids (such as prednisone).
Cholesterol-lowering drugs (such as cholestyramine and colestipol).
Seizure-preventing drugs (such as phenobarbital and phenytoin).
Rifampin (a tuberculosis drug).
Orlistat (a weight-loss drug).
Laxatives
So how do we maintain healthy levels of vitamin D throughout the winter months?
If you’ve gotten enough sun over the summer months, consider that you may not need vitamin D supplementation throughout the winter. This is because your body does a clever thing of storing it for later use in your liver and fat cells. We do encourage testing, however, and never letting levels get lower than 80 nmol/L.
However, if you’re going into winter with already low stores, it is important to supplement and keep an eye on levels. It’s normal to experience a dip in winter, but you will need to be careful to rebuild stores from March onwards when the sun’s UVB rays start to get strong enough for vitamin D synthesis.
Supplementation
If you have tested low you will need a lot more than the recommended 400iu a day, which is what public health bodies recommend. Research shows that optimal levels of vitamin D are much higher than what the NHS regards as ‘adequate’. The highest health benefits have been seen in some studies at 150nmol/L, where the cut off for deficiency is typically 25nmol/L in the NHS (4).
At Whole Mind Health, we believe that aiming for levels between 120 nmol/L to 180 nmol/L is important of optimal health, and therefore a maintenance dose of 2000iu a day is normally needed for those with already healthy levels, and for those with deficiencies a maintenance dose of 5000iu is normally required, as well as a loading dose of 10,000iu to 50,000iu. for 2 weeks.
It’s also important to take into consideration that vitamin D3 supplementation should always come hand in hand with vitamin K2, as these two vitamins work hand in hand to support calcium homeostasis.
Diet
We also recommend that you regularly eat the following foods, which are naturally high in vitamin D:
Pasture-raised egg yolks
Liver
Red meat
Mushrooms
Oily fish
Cod liver oil
I hope that helps!
If you want to some guidance in creating a tailored supplement programme to your specific needs, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me below:
