The Importance of Vitamin D in Rock Hill SC

In the age of sitting inside all day and sunscreen, many of us are quite deficient in a very important hormone-like vitamin that is vital for our overall health- Vitamin D.

The form you typically consume in food or supplements, or indirectly from the sun, is vitamin D3, but your body converts this into a steroid hormone, called calcitriol. Once vitamin D is turned into this active form, it travels throughout the body and plays a part in a number of functions: It builds bones and muscles; it also has anti-inflammatory effects, it helps make enzymes and proteins that prevent diseases, and it even affects aging. High levels of vitamin D in Rock Hill SC have been linked to stronger immune systems, while low levels are associated with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer.

Vitamin D Deficiency in Rock Hill SC

The U.S. Endocrine Society recommends that serum vitamin D levels above 30 ng/ml are adequate, levels between 29 ng/ml and 20 ng/ml are inadequate, and below 20 ng/ml are deficient. In the U.S., approximately 70% of the population has vitamin D levels below 30 ng/ml.

Vitamin D3 levels are thought to have decreased over the last few decades due to increased use of sunscreen and spending more time indoors on computers. Since UVB radiation from sunlight is required to produce vitamin D in the skin, anything that blocks UVB rays such as sunscreen will also prevent your skin from making vitamin D3.

Another possible contributing factor to low vitamin D3 is the increased obesity epidemic. Vitamin D3 is stored in our fat tissue. A higher body fat percentage can decrease the amount of Vitamin D3 that enters our circulation by as much as 50%, by soaking up the vitamin D and preventing it from reaching other tissues. This means that overweight and obese individuals may have less vitamin D that is available to be used by the body.

Other factors that regulate the ability of the skin to make vitamin D3 include age (a seventy-year-old makes about four times less vitamin D3 from the sun than a twenty-year old); melanin, which acts as a natural sunscreen; and latitude, which dictates whether UVB rays can reach the atmosphere.

Vitamin D and Aging

Vitamin D seems to affect the way we age. Mice that have been genetically created to not respond to vitamin D manifest dramatic signs of aging in all the organs on a cellular level. There are multiple ways in which vitamin D regulates the aging process, including telomeres. Telomeres, are caps at the end of chromosomes that help protect our DNA from damage and deterioration. The length of our telomeres serve as a marker for aging. If you have short telomeres, you're biologically old. If you have long telomeres, you're biologically younger.

A couple of studies have shown that vitamin D can slow telomere shortening that naturally happens with age. Telomere shortening is increased by inflammation and DNA damage. Vitamin D activates DNA repair genes and anti-inflammatory genes to reduce damage at the telomere.

Vitamin D and Mood

Among the 1,000 genes that vitamin D controls is a gene in the brain that encodes for an enzyme that converts tryptophan into serotonin in the brain. Serotonin regulates many cognitive functions such as: social behavior, impulse control, decision making, anxiety, memory, impulse aggression, and more.

Vitamin D and Gut Inflammation

Gut inflammation is also linked to serotonin. Around 90% of the serotonin in the body is actually produced in the gut by a separate gene. Serotonin made in the gut doesn't have a lot to do with the amount of serotonin in the brain. We need just the right amount of serotonin in the gut because too much causes gut inflammation where serotonin serves to actually activate immune cells in the gut. In fact, it's been shown that getting rid of serotonin in the gut in several different animal models of colitis and irritable bowel syndrome ameliorates the inflammatory symptoms associated with these inflammatory gut diseases. Vitamin D suppresses the serotonin producing gene in the gut; this suggests that vitamin D deficiency may lead to excessive immune cell activation in the gut and, thus, inflammation.

Make Sure You're Getting Enough Vitamin D

The best way to know if you are getting enough vitamin D is to get a blood test that measures your vitamin D3 levels. Meta-analyses of studies done ranging from 1966-2013 have shown that people with serum levels between 40-60 ng/ml have the lowest all-cause mortality, meaning they die less of all non-accidental diseases.

Supplementation with vitamin D3 is a good way to ensure you get adequate vitamin D. 1,000 IU of vitamin D3 per day, in most people, will raise serum levels by about 5 ng/ml. Some foods have been fortified with vitamin D, including milk (100 IU per 8 ounces) and orange juice (100 IU per 8 ounces), but if we're trying to fix inadequacy, these numbers are not very much at all.