Vitamin D is a popular topic in many headlines today due to its many health benefits. Vitamin D helps maintain healthy levels of phosphorus and calcium in the blood for strong bones, but the popular vitamin may also prevent certain debilitating diseases. Reasons for vitamin D deficiency vary, depending on your health, diet and location. Vitamin D replacement therapy helps restore the vitamin D you're lacking and may lessen your risk for some chronic diseases.
Vitamin D Basics
Vitamin D is more than just a vitamin. It performs much like a hormone, initiating chain reactions in the body that affect all systems. Vitamin D is unique from other vitamins because your body can produce its own vitamin D through contact with the sun's ultraviolet rays. In fact, the body continues to make vitamin D for several hours after contact with the sun and stores extra vitamin D in adipose tissue for when you need it. Most foods contain very little vitamin D, so the vitamin is added to products like milk, cereal and bread. You can also get vitamin D by eating fatty fish, including salmon, mackerel and tuna.
Vitamin D Functions
Vitamin D enables the body's use of phosphorus and calcium to build strong bones. This prevents bone-softening diseases, such as rickets in children and osteomalacia or osteoporosis in adults. Although vitamin D is most known for its bone-building effects, vitamin D is also essential for immune, nerve and muscle functions. For example, the immune system needs adequate amounts of vitamin D to make white blood cells that fight off infection. Vitamin D also helps regulate inflammation, which may be helpful for treating chronic diseases such as arthritis and heart disease.
Deficiency and Replacement
The Office of Dietary Supplements suggests a daily intake of 600 IU for most healthy adults, but the University of Maryland Medical Center reports that some researchers feel that amount is too low and that the National Institutes of Health is reviewing current studies to review the suggested amount. People who live in the northern part of the United States are particularly at risk for deficiency because of limited sun exposure. People with dark skin are also at a greater risk. A simple blood test can show if you are deficient in vitamin D. If you are severely deficient, your physician may prescribe high doses of vitamin D to elevate your blood level to the optimal level.
Considerations
Vitamin D is important for overall health, but do not take more than the recommended amount. In 2010, the Institute of Medicine issued a new report stating an intake of 4,000 IU a day is a safe upper limit for most healthy adults. The sun does not produce excess levels of vitamin D in the body, so toxic levels are usually caused by over-supplementation of the vitamin. Excessive amounts of vitamin D can cause nausea, decreased appetite, disorientation and kidney failure. Vitamin D supplements can interfere with some medications, so talk to your doctor about vitamin D replacement therapy.
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