Experts aren’t sure if a lack of Vitamin D leads to depression or if it’s the other way around.
But studies show a link between the two. Research is ongoing to see if raising your vitamin D levels can help with symptoms and boost your mood.
Additionally, scientists are still figuring out exactly how well vitamin D can treat or even keep you from getting the influenza virus.
One study showed taking vitamin D drops in the winter helped lower the number of Japanese schoolchildren who got the flu. It’s clear it’s an important part of a healthy immune system. Your body can’t fight germs well if it doesn’t have enough.
And, healthy vitamin D levels can slow bone loss. It also helps ward off osteoporosis and lowers your chance of broken bones.
Doctors use vitamin D to treat osteomalacia. That’s a condition that causes soft bones, bone loss, and bone pain.
Vitamin D Deficiency
About 4 out of 10 Americans don’t get enough vitamin D. If yours is low, you might not eat enough foods with it. Or you might have a health condition that stops you from absorbing it. Or you might just need more sunlight.
Problems converting vitamin D from food or sunshine can set you up for a deficiency. Factors that increase your risk include:
- Age 50 or older
- Dark skin
- A northern home
- Overweight, obese, gastric bypass surgery
- Milk allergy or lactose intolerance
- Diseases that reduce nutrient absorption in the gut, such as Crohn’s disease or celiac
- Being institutionalized
- Taking certain medications such as seizure meds
Using sunscreen can interfere with getting vitamin D, but abandoning sunscreen can significantly increase your risk for skin cancer. So it’s worth looking for other sources of vitamin D in place of prolonged, unprotected exposure to the sun.
Make sure you take Vitamin K with Vitamin D
Vitamin K is an essential nutrient that helps your blood clot and your bones grow the way they should. It also may help prevent the bone disease osteoporosis and protect you against heart disease. You can get vitamin K from certain foods, and most diets in the United States contain enough of the daily recommended goal (90 micrograms for women and 120 micrograms for men).
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