The Importance of Vitamin D + How to Get More

If you are on a journey to ensure you get just enough vitamin D during cold and flu season, and the darker months of the year, then reading this article already gives you a headstart.

Overall there are three key takeaways from this article; they include the fact that:

• Vitamin D ingestion should be regulated if it’s not sunlight-induced,
• There are more than one way to ensure you aren’t vitamin D deficient,
• Vitamin D requirement for individuals varies with age.

Vitamin D is crucial in helping us maintain good health and looks, amongst other things. It saves our skin from inflammation, regulates immune functions, and allows our bones and teeth to keep in suitable shapes and perform their intended objectives.

Its deficiency in children is the leading cause of rickets and osteomalacia –a case of poor bone density and muscular weakness, which can impede a child’s chances to walk. In adults, the long-term deficiency of Vitamin D inhibits the strength of your immune system, which isn’t one of the myths of the immune system. In turn, this aids the development of bone diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and other non-bone disorders like asthma and diabetes.

You shouldn’t ever have to worry about having a deficiency of Vitamin D, especially since it’s one of the vitamins that are as free as they come. You can quickly get Vitamin D almost everywhere from the sun. But that’s not always the case, and as the fall season creeps in, it gets even harder to depend on the sun for your share of vitamin D.

In this article, you’d learn more about how much Vitamin D you need, the possible side effects of taking in too much vitamin D, and how you can get as much vitamin D as you need during this fall season.

How Much Vitamin D do I Need?

The summer season promotes lots of beach hangouts and outings. From late March & early April to September, you probably got enough vitamin D from the sun without worrying about much of the vitamin D you absorbed. However, it still begs the question of how much Vitamin D I need to get by just fine. The answer is, however, quite relative. As humans, our need for vitamin D tends to shift with age.

Children aged one year and adults generally require an everyday Vitamin D dose of 10 micrograms. This also includes women that are breastfeeding, pregnant, and people at risk of vitamin D deficiency.

One-week or day-old babies up to the age of 1 year require a daily vitamin D dose of 8.5 to 10 micrograms.

Note: A microgram is about 1,000 times smaller than a milligram (mg). Sometimes the word is written with the Greek symbol μ and the letter g (μg). Alternatively, the amount of vitamin D can be expressed as International Units (IU). In this case, 1 microgram of vitamin D equals 40 IU. As a result, ten micrograms of vitamin D would equal 400 IU.

The U.S. The National Academy of Medicine considers about 600–800 IU of daily vitamin D sufficient for a significant part of the population, while the U.S. The Endocrine Society recommends just about 1,500–2,000 IU per day. However, the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) is set at 600-800 IU of vitamin D for adults; this is based on the recommendation of the U.S. National Academy of Medicine.

While there is no cut-and-dry answer to what the ideal blood level of vitamin D should be, there’s been much concrete speculation that it likely falls between 20 and 50 ng/ml.

Additionally, the U.S. The National Academy of Medicine states that the daily intake of vitamin D up to 4,000 IU is safe for most people. However, a much higher dose might be needed to raise blood levels in some people. Also, they strongly advise against a prolonged dose of 4000 IU per day as it creates exposure to toxicity and an overload of vitamin D.

Can Vitamin D be Too Much and What is the Side Effect of Taking Too Much Vitamin?

As advantageous as taking vitamin D might be, it attracts some side effects of prolonged doses. For example, taking too many vitamin D supplements over a long period builds up excess calcium (hypercalcaemia). As a result, this weakens the bones and causes damage to the kidneys and heart.

As one of the ways to ingest vitamin D, you can choose to take vitamin D supplements. However, it’s important to restrict it to about ten micrograms daily (a regulated dose for most people). Above 100 micrograms (4,000 IU) of vitamin D, a day could cause more harm than you can imagine.

Although there are Some people with medical conditions, which could mean they can’t take as much or have to take more than the usual dosage. However, it’s inevitable to do it without the consent of a medical practitioner. If your doctor recommends a different amount of vitamin D, you should follow their advice.

Vitamin D intake is nature regulated, and your body syncs with it. As a result, it’s impossible to overdose on vitamin D intake from the sunlight. Conversely, it’s essential to cover and protect your skin if you go out in the sun for long periods. This helps reduce and mitigate the risk of skin damage and skin cancer.

5 Ways to Increase and Regulate Your Intake of Vitamin D

Spending time in sunlight is the first of many other approaches to ingesting vitamin D. Although Vitamin D is fondly referred to as the sunshine Vitamin, you can bet that the fall season makes it almost impossible to rely on the sun for Vitamin D. The good news is that there are five other ways to get a fair share of all the Vitamin D you need for this season and seasons to come let’s explore them:

UV lamps

The UV lamp is the closest alternative to sunlight. It offers similar benefits of providing absorbable vitamin D from its UV-B radiation, which can boost your vitamin D levels at an almost natural pace compared to sunlight. But lamps like this can be very costly.

Absorbing vitamin D from the sun happens when your skin gets exposed to UV-B radiation, which induces the production of an in-house vitamin D. The UV lamps also mimic the same action path as the sun. It can be convenient when your geography limits the sun exposure you’d get. Interestingly UV radiation has been used therapeutically for treating skin conditions for over a decade.

However, it was only recently discovered and promoted as a way to improve vitamin D levels in the body. But, it takes a lot of caution to use these devices or UV lamps. Too much exposure will burn your skin, so stick to the recommendation.

Fatty fish and seafood

Seafood and fatty fish are classes of food rich in vitamin D. You’d find about 386 IU of vitamin D in a 3.5-ounce (100-gram) serving of canned salmon. Which is more than half the RDI recommended daily intake.

As you might have guessed, there’s no way to tell exactly how much vitamin D is present in seafood; the statistics vary to the type and species of seafood in question. Some research suggests that only 25% of vitamin D in wild-caught salmon can be found in farmed salmon.

Other relatable types of fish and seafood rich in vitamin D include; tuna, mackerel, oysters, shrimp, sardines, and anchovies.

Egg yolks

Egg yolks are a fantastic example of sources of vitamins that are pretty accessible. You can easily add to your routine. And just like any natural food source, egg yolks can have varying vitamin D contents. This is because conventionally raised chickens have only limited or no outdoor adventure, which takes its toll on the build-up process of their egg yolks.

Some research further indicates that eggs from pasture-raised and free-range chickens provide just about 4 times more or about one-fifth of the RDI recommended daily dose. But it could be significantly more or less depending on how long your chicken spends outside. Additionally, types of chicken feed can be a significant booster of vitamin D content available in your egg yolks and sometimes it gets you well over the RDI recommended daily dose of vitamin D.

Fortified foods

Only a select few foods have a naturally high vitamin D. composition. In most cases, this nutrient gets added in a process called fortification. But fortification follows a provided country regulation which limits the available vitamin D in each food. So you’d find it varied across the types of food, but some examples of certifiable foods include; cow’s milk, soy, almond, hemp milk, orange juice, ready-to-eat cereals, some yogurt and tofu. To check if any food belongs to the category of fortified food, check the ingredients list.

Supplement

Taking vitamin D supplements is another way to make sure you have an adequate intake, especially for some in areas with little to no sunlight or in times like fall and winter. Vitamin D can exist as two major biologically formed supplements; D2 (ergocalciferol) and D3 (cholecalciferol).

While D2 is derived from plants and D3 can be derived from animals. And research shows that D3 could be more effective at building and maintaining an overall vitamin D level than D2. It might be wiser to opt for a supplement with D3 rather than D2. Also, it’s vital only to patronize high-quality accessories which have been independently tested as some of these products have no standard regulations, which in turn gives producers the freedom to do as they please.

Conclusion

Overall there are three key takeaways from this article; they include the fact that vitamin D ingestion should be regulated if it’s not sunlight-induced, there is more than one way to ensure you aren’t vitamin D deficient, and vitamin D consumption varies with age. So, if you are on a journey to ensure you get just enough vitamin D in the months to come, then reading this article already gives you a headstart.