Vitamin D: The Sunshine Nutrient Powering Your Health and Well-being
Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, supports your whole body. It acts on over 1,000 genes and is involved in building sex hormones such as testosterone, HGH, and estrogen. It also boosts immunity, curbs inflammation, assists in bone formation, boosts mood, and decreases the risk of depression.
Even though it’s called a vitamin, D is actually a steroid hormone produced by cholesterol in your skin when exposed to UVB rays from the sun. There are two types of vitamin D – D2 (ergocalciferol), which plants make, and D3 (cholecalciferol), which is the form your skin produces when exposed to sunlight. D3 is twice as effective as D2 at raising serum D levels and is found in cod liver oil, salmon, tuna, beef liver, and eggs. [1] It’s also the type you want to supplement with. D is fat-soluble, which means it dissolves in fat and can be stored by your body.
Cholecalciferol must first be converted to calcidiol (25(OH)D) by the liver. This is the form of vitamin D that your body stores. Next, the kidneys convert calcidiol to calcitriol (1,25(OH)2D). This is the active form of vitamin D. Calcitriol interacts with the vitamin D receptor (VDR), which is found in almost every cell in the body. By binding with the VDR, vitamin D turns genes on and off, which leads to cellular changes.
Some of the most critical processes in which vitamin D is involved include:
- Bone health – vitamin D is essential for calcium absorption and bone health. It plays a vital role in the process our bodies use to both maintain strong bones and repair old bone tissue[2]
- Muscle strength – vitamin D deficiency is associated with muscle weakness and impaired muscular function[3]
- Immunity – vitamin D helps regulate the cells in your immune system so they can function properly.[4] Some doctors even treat influenza using a method known as the “vitamin D hammer,” which involves a mega dose of 50,000 IU of vitamin D to supercharge the immune system
- Sexual health – studies show that males with vitamin D deficiency have lower testosterone levels, and supplementing with vitamin D improves sexual function, mood, and erectile dysfunction[5]
- Mood – studies have established a link between vitamin D deficiency and depression and anxiety.[6] Further studies suggest that drops in vitamin D levels cause the lower-serotonin characteristic of seasonal depression and that supplementing can improve these symptoms[7]
- Energy – studies have linked vitamin D deficiency to fatigue symptoms, poor sleep quality, shorter sleep duration, and delayed bedtime, and show that supplementing with vitamin D reduces the severity of fatigue[8]
Even though you can get vitamin D directly from the sun or foods, up to 75% of people are deficient in vitamin D.[9] Why? Most of us spend our days inside an office or other inside environment. When we do venture outside, we often cover our bodies and wear sunscreen to protect our skin from the supposed dangers of the sun. In northern latitudes, the proper light wavelengths required for your body to manufacture vitamin D don’t even reach you during the winter months.
Meanwhile, darker-skinned people don’t convert sunlight into vitamin D as efficiently as lighter-skinned people. But being outside uncovered may still not be enough. Even Indian farmers, who are in the sun all day, are often deficient in vitamin D. According to a study conducted in India in 2004, 70% of farmers, who had an average of 25 hours of sun exposure per week, were deficient in vitamin D.[10]
Vitamin D deficiency is linked to osteoporosis, lower bone density, decreased immune response, depression, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, dementia, and autoimmune diseases.[11] Perhaps most importantly, it is linked to reduced life expectancy.[12] Symptoms of vitamin D deficiency include reduced immunity, tiredness, aches and pains, bone or muscle pain or weakness, depression and anxiety, stress fractures, and hair loss.
You should regularly check your vitamin D levels via blood work to determine your deficiency. Blood serum levels considered optimal are 50-90 ng/mL, though you will feel best if you are at the top of the range. If you are deficient or even at the bottom of the range, try taking 1,000 IU per 25 pounds of body weight of a high-quality D3 supplement to get your levels up. Also, consider upping your dosage during winter when proper sunlight is tough to come by.
Vitamin D works synergistically with several nutrients, including vitamin K2, magnesium, and boron. Cholecalciferol increases calcium absorption in your gut, and K2 ensures that the calcium ends up in your bones and teeth, where it belongs, not in your arteries and heart. You must pair your vitamin D supplement with a vitamin K2 supplement.
Vitamin D also requires magnesium to function correctly. Converting cholecalciferol into its active form uses a tremendous amount of magnesium. Vitamin D deficiency and magnesium deficiency often go hand in hand for this reason: there is not enough magnesium to raise the body’s blood level of active vitamin D, and what little active vitamin D is in the body has used up all of the available magnesium. Often, the supposed side effects of taking vitamin D, such as headaches and tiredness, are actually the side effects of a magnesium deficiency. We’ve explored the many benefits of supplementing with magnesium – increased energy, mental clarity, calm focus, etc. – but your body will function more optimally by converting more vitamin D to its active form.
Finally, boron beneficially impacts the body’s use of vitamin D by extending its half-life. It enhances the positive effects of vitamin D by increasing how long it works in the body. You can supplement or get boron from foods such as prunes and avocados.
Many people worry about taking too much vitamin D. Because vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, excess D gets stored in the body's fat cells rather than being removed in the urine. This can lead to extreme vitamin D toxicity, which can be deadly. However, the risk of vitamin D toxicity is often exaggerated. You would have to take mega-high doses of D for an extended period to risk toxicity.
Vitamin D toxicity, also known as hypervitaminosis D, occurs when you take too much cholecalciferol. It is virtually impossible to suffer vitamin D toxicity from exposure to sunlight alone. Symptoms of vitamin D toxicity develop over time as excess cholecalciferol builds up in the body and include loss of appetite, constipation, dehydration, disorientation, dizziness, fatigue, high blood pressure, irritability, nausea, headaches, muscle weakness, tinnitus, excessive thirst, frequent urination, and vomiting. Overusing vitamin D supplements without vitamin K2 can also lead to hypercalcemia, excess calcium in the blood.
The Institute of Medicine states that vitamin D toxicity is rare at 10,000 IU per day but more common at regular doses of 50,000 IU per day, suggesting the toxicity range likely starts at 200 ng/ml or twice the adequate range upper limit. Multiple studies have reported no adverse effects at dosages up to 50,000 IU. One study found that while adults receiving 20,000 IU of vitamin D daily for one year experienced a significant increase in serum D levels, they showed no signs of toxicity.[13] I cannot stress this enough: check your levels via regular blood work and adjust your dosage accordingly.
THRIVE contains an optimal dose of 4,000 I.U. of vitamin D3 to support your mood, bones, immunity, inflammation, and more!
Note: This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a physician before taking any supplement. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22552031/
[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28516265/
[3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/55903/
[4] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1471489210000378
[5] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fendo.2022.960222/
[6] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32365423/
[7] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0306987714003351
[8] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5207540/
[9] https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/414878
[10] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17989271/
[11] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18400738/