A weekend spent doing yard work has left you tired, weak, and with sore bones throughout your body. You chalk up the symptoms to a case of physical exertion but feel the same way after returning from a vacation spent sightseeing. You may be experiencing vitamin D deficiency, but there’s a way around that.
What is Vitamin D?
Vitamin D is a nutrient our bodies need for making and keeping bones healthy. Why? Because the presence of vitamin D is what allows our bodies to absorb calcium, which is what bones are made from. It also helps control numerous other cellular functions in the body. The unique anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and neuroprotective properties are critical for immunity, muscle health, and brain cell function.
Unlike other vitamins, it’s not found in many foods, but you can get vitamin D from certain milk and cereals, and various types of fatty fish. Thankfully, our bodies can make vitamin D – when we’re exposed to direct sunlight, and it transforms a chemical in the skin into an energetic form of the vitamin called calciferol.
How much vitamin D your skin makes relies on the time of day, season, latitude, skin pigmentation, where you live, and your lifestyle. But if that doesn’t happen often enough or as needed, there’s always another option: vitamin D3 IV therapy.
Vitamin Deficiency
Vitamin D deficiency means you don’t have enough of it in your body. Your skin and sunlight work wonders, making this vitamin naturally to support all sorts of functions within your body. If you’re fair-skinned and younger, you can convert sunshine into vitamin D better than someone who’s darker-skinned and 50 or older. Symptoms of vitamin D deficiency may include:
- Muscle weakness
- Pain
- Fatigue. In one study by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, vitamin D deficiency was recognized in 480 adults who reported extreme tiredness and fatigue.
- Depression
- One study has shown a correlation between low vitamin D levels and the onset of headaches
- Cognitive problems
- Frequent illness or infections
- Lower back pain may also be caused by vitamin D deficiency.
What’s The Deal with Calcium, Vitamin D, and Bones?
Calcium and vitamin D are critically important, and forever linked together. Vitamin D helps with calcium absorption, giving calcium the boost needed to keep our bones strong and healthy. And our bones are part of the human skeletal system, providing a rigid framework to support and defend our body’s soft organs. Without a strong skeleton, we can’t counteract the pull of gravity or support the weight of our bodies when standing. D3 IV vitamin therapy can support bone strength and help protect the skull, brain, spinal cord, heart, and lungs.
Vitamin D and Bone Health
Getting more vitamin D into your system, including with IV therapy, has many potential benefits, some of which are still being explored. If you think you’re deficient in vitamin D and have shown any of the symptoms discussed above, ask your doctor about the following.
Vitamin D as a disease fighter
- It may reduce the chance of developing multiple sclerosis.
- There is some evidence that healthy levels of vitamin D3 are critical for decreasing the chance of heart disease.
- It may reduce the chance of many illnesses, like the flu or other infections.
- Maintaining vitamin D levels is essential for supporting overall immune health. This means fighting off the risk of inflammatory bowel disease, type 1 diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis.
Vitamin D and depression
According to the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, more than 17 million Americans have depression. But it’s believed that good vitamin D levels can help minimize its symptoms.
Cognitive function
Research shows that people with low levels of vitamin D in the blood may exhibit some degree of cognitive decline, but more studies are needed to know for certain.
Inherited bone diseases
Without sufficient levels of vitamin D, you may be more susceptible to certain inherited bone diseases. If you have blood relatives with osteogenesis imperfecta, Hurler and Marfan syndromes, or other disorders, you may be more likely to develop them.
Rickets and Vitamin D
Rickets is a rare condition seen in kids with vitamin D deficiency or if their body has problems using vitamin D properly. It’s a condition known for softening and weakening the bones, shown through delayed bone growth, bowed legs, weakness, and other symptoms.
Symptoms of vitamin D3 deficiency can be treated with IV therapy, supplements, or even ketamine therapy.