Heres Why You Need to Ensure You Take Vitamin D Daily

Many of us are under the misconception that if we are in the sun enough, we get enough Vitamin D. Not entirely true. The time of day, the duration and the absorption are key factors that make a difference.

Ideally if you stand under the sun during the middle of the day when the UVB rays are the strongest for about 10-15 minutes where your arms and back are exposed is one of the best ways to get your body to produce vitamin D than just exposing your hands and face. Those with darker skin would need a few hours of exposure in comparison to those with lighter skin.

Even if you do the above depending on various factors such as darker skin, obesity, age all can be few of the factors that may prevent your body from activating vitamin D production despite being under the sun.

However, if you are barely in the sun, always probably at work or home or at a mall where the only sunlight you get is when you walk to your car or when you’re in your garden – that is not enough for your body.

Vitamin D is essential for your body especially because it helps absorb calcium which is vital for your bones and to keep your immune system working properly.

How do I know if I’m getting enough vitamin D?

The easiest way to know if you have vitamin D deficiency is to do a blood test which will reveal whether your levels of vitamin D are in the optimum range or not. The ideal levels for Vitamin D should be between 25 - 80ng/ml. Anything below can be considered deficient and anything above could be toxic.

What symptoms does vitamin D deficiency cause?

For the longest time I never knew I had vitamin D deficiency. Living in a hot country where you do somewhat get enough sunlight, little did I know that it wasn’t doing anything for my body. Symptoms to say can vary for person to person and the only way to be sure is through a blood test. Few of the symptoms include falling sick quite often, body ache/muscle pain, feeling low in energy most of the time and sometimes even depression. The biggest sign for me which made me go just for a check up to a doctor was feeling tired 24/7 no matter what I tried. I just had no energy to even get off the bed some days. My blood test eventually revealed that my vitamin d levels were extremely low. Though this was a long time ago, it made me realize that I had to ensure my body was getting the required vitamins and minerals so that I don’t have any possible health issues.

How do you bring your levels up?

There are 2 ways of doing this – either a major change in diet which you would need to maintain or through daily supplements.

Vitamin D rich foods include fatty fish such as salmon/tuna/sardines/herring or cheese, mushrooms, cod liver oil, soy milk and egg yolks in your diet is one way to go.

If you are anything like me and have a tough time maintaining a healthy diet, then I recommend taking vitamin D supplements. A daily dosage of 4000IU is a sufficient amount to take to ensure your daily requirements are met. There are some people who would suggest taking higher dosages but though that might be required initially, if your levels are really low, it is highly recommended to take it daily than say a dosage of 50000IU every week. The reason being your body requires everything in moderation, if you consume too much of vitamin D it can lead to vitamin D toxicity which can cause other health issues. Thereby always to stick to the recommended amount.

For more information on daily supplements you can take and their benefits, please have a look at my other related articles.

Thank you for your time and reading.