Feeling achy? Tired?  It could be a sign that you’re suffering from vitamin D deficiency.

I take vitamin D (actually a hormone)  daily but found out I was servery deficient.  Some quick Internet searches  showed Vitamin D deficiency isrelated to fatigue,  body aches, depression heart disease, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimes, and much more! The doctor put me on prescription stength D 1.25 MG. I’ll let you know if it makes any difference.

D  Builds and Protects Bone Health

Long recognized as important to the prevention of bone diseases, D vitamin builds and protects bone health and strength by regulating the amount of calcium our bones receive. Deficiency of this crucial vitamin has been identified as a cause of severe and disabling diseases such as rickets, osteoporosis, and osteomalasia. But recent research is showing that low levels of the vitamin could be behind simpler problems like body aches and muscle pains as well.

93 Percent Patients had Seriously Low Levels

A recent study by the University of Minnesota’s Community Health Care Center measured the D vitamin levels of 150 people being treated for persistent, unexplained body aches and pains. The results showed that 93 percent of the patients had seriously low levels of the vitamin. These results echo those of many other studies that have shown a direct correlation between otherwise unexplained body aches and deficiency of the sunshine vitamin.

In addition, emerging research indicates that supplementation can actually resolve many cases in which patients are virtually immobilized by persistent, unexplained body pain. A Saudi Arabian project involving 299 patients with chronic low back pain used D vitamin supplementation for a period of three months, which resulted in clinical improvement in every case.

These findings could be particularly important for older people, who are both generally more subject to chronic body aches and more prone to deficiency of vitamin D. Exposure to the sun triggers the body to manufacture vitamin D, but older people, particularly those who live in cold climates, tend to have significantly less sun exposure than the general population. This problem is compounded by the fact that the body’s ability to synthesize the vitamin decreases with age.

Other factors that influence the body’s ability to produce the vitamin include weight and skin color; heavier people and those with darker skin have more difficulty producing sufficient amounts of the vitamin.

Since there are relatively few dietary sources of the vitamin, sun exposure and fortified milk are both important to keeping blood levels of it sufficient. See articles below for  recommendations for D vitamin suppliments.

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