Vitamin D deficiency can lead to a number of health problems. Learn more about the 12 signs of vitamin D deficiency here.
There are many benefits attributed to vitamin D, but many people do not get enough of it despite its necessity.
There are approximately one billion vitamin D deficiency people around the world, including approximately 40% of American adults. Exactly why is this the case? Most vitamin D comes from your skin, as most of it is made by UV rays from the sun, which is why it is sometimes called the sun's vitamin.
Vitamin D deficiency can be hard to diagnose. Some symptoms aren't always related to low vitamin D levels. Check out these 12 signs to see if you're getting enough vitamin D.
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Vitamin D nourishes your muscles and ensures proper muscle contraction. It is also essential for building muscle strength. You may experience muscle pain that is not due to exertion if your vitamin D levels are insufficient. Many chronic muscle pain conditions can be attributed to a vitamin D deficiency.
Once you reach adulthood, your bones stop growing, but old bone tissue is constantly replaced by new tissue. A lack of vitamin D is essential for bone tissue replacement, and a lack of it can cause bones to soften. This condition is known as osteomalacia or adult rickets and can lead to osteoporosis.
Muscle pain and bone pain often resemble each other. It's important to know how to differentiate one from the other. Muscle pain is usually concentrated in one specific location and is aggravated by physical activity. Ached bones, however, are often felt as penetrating and broadly spreading the pain.
Exhaustion symptoms are often overlooked because we tend to attribute fatigue to several different things. That said, your body needs vitamin D to produce energy, and a lack of it can make you feel tired and sluggish throughout the day. This lack of energy can also cause you to adopt negative behaviors that can harm your health. So listen to your body if you notice that you are feeling sluggish and can't figure out why.
You may just need to get some more vitamin D for reduced endurance. If you are physically active but you notice that your endurance is decreasing for no apparent reason, low levels of vitamin D may be the cause, as mentioned in the previous point.
Vitamin D plays a vital role in maintaining and increasing energy levels, and this is especially true for endurance. Physically active people can also experience reduced endurance even if they are getting enough sunlight every day.
Fortunately, if a deficiency of this vitamin is the cause, your endurance will quickly improve once your levels return to normal. Vitamin D is not only an important factor in your brain's health.
It also affects your mood. The areas of your brain that are associated with mood have vitamin D receptors. Low vitamin D levels can thus have a significant impact on your brain cells. while research is still being conducted. There is evidence to suggest that vitamin D can increase certain neurotransmitters in the brain called monoamines.
These include feel-good substances like serotonin and dopamine. Not having enough of these chemicals in your brain can cause you to feel low and even depressed. This is also why many people experience low moods in the winter, a condition called a seasonal affective disorder, which is at least partly caused by the relative lack of sunshine during the winter months.
It has been discovered that vitamin D also plays a role in getting good sleep at night. The precise relationship between sleep and vitamin D is not yet certain, but research seems to associate the quality of your sleep with vitamin D levels.
This association may have something to do with the vitamin D receptors in the brain that control lead receptors that receive insufficient amounts and work less efficiently than they should, and this can lead to poor sleep quality.
When your body temperature rises above 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit or 37 degrees Celsius, you perspire to cool down. Perspiration also helps to eliminate toxins that accumulate in fat cells beneath your skin. However, if your head is sweating while the rest of your body is not, it could be an indication that you are not getting enough vitamin D. It is, of course, natural to lose hair as you get older, but people can also suffer from hair loss due to a deficiency in vitamin D.
This is especially true for women. Research also suggests a link between low vitamin D levels and alopecia, an autoimmune disease that results in nine wounds healing slowly if you get injured. A lack of vitamin D in your body could be the reason. Vitamin D plays a vital role in repairing skin, so if you don't get enough, healing will occur at a much slower pace. This can be especially problematic after surgery and can also result in more pronounced.
Research has demonstrated that vitamin D plays an important role in the proper functioning of your ears. Research has demonstrated that there are vitamin D receptors and calcium channel transport systems located in the inner ear. These serve to maintain a proper balance of calcium. When calcium crystals located in your inner ear are dislodged, you can experience sudden bouts of dizziness or a spinning sensation, as well as nausea, among other unpleasant symptoms.
Perhaps one of the most underestimated risk factors for heart disease is vitamin D deficiency. However, mounting evidence seems to indicate that insufficient levels of it can drastically increase the likelihood of heart disease. There also seems to be a connection with high blood pressure. According to several large research studies, low levels of vitamin D can double the risk of having a stroke, heart attack, or other heart complications.
Vitamin D is believed to optimize your body's ability to absorb important nutrients such as calcium, which is essential not only for bone health but also for a healthy metabolism. It helps your body burn calories. Research suggests that obesity increases the body's need for vitamins because of the higher amounts of fat tissue.
Not getting enough of this important vitamin can have serious consequences, including a significantly weakened immune system, making you susceptible to recurring infections and chronic diseases. Vitamin D in its biologically active form has been shown to have neuroprotective effects in people with reduced cognitive function.
This means that the vitamin aids in the preservation of nerve function, which is critical for your brain to function properly. Furthermore, adults with darker skin naturally produce less vitamin D, which means that you are at risk of having low levels if you spend too much time indoors, whether at home or work or if you live in extreme northern or southern latitudes.
