Symptoms of Vitamin D Deficiency

Vitamin D is critical to our health and the symptoms of vitamin D deficiency are often subtle. Vitamin D is the building block of a powerful steroid hormone in your body called calcitriol, which largely composes our bones and teeth. Not getting enough vitamin D can lead to soft and weak bones and teeth in children and adults, which is the cause of several serious conditions. However, new research also shows that vitamin D is essential to normal cell growth and differentiation throughout the body, making it a key factor in maintaining hormonal balance and a healthy immune system.

You can't get vitamin D on your own – you must receive it through sun exposure, supplements or foods. These sources of the vitamin seem widely available. However, you may be shocked to know that scientists estimate that as much as 85 to 90 percent of Americans do not get enough vitamin D. Lacking in this vitamin will negatively impact your health. Here's a look at the symptoms of vitamin D deficiency, so you can tell if you may be missing this vital nutrient.

If a child or adult is severely lacking in vitamin D they will show some key symptoms.

Children

Children will often come down with rickets if they're not getting nearly enough vitamin D. This disease is easily characterized by bowed legs, and sometimes even bowed arms, along with chronic bone pain and muscle weakness.

Adults

Adults will get sick with osteomalacia, which is similar to rickets, if they're severely lacking in vitamin D. This condition is also characterized by chronic bone pain and muscle weakness.

However, adults can better handle a vitamin D deficiency than children, so their symptoms of osteomalacia may not seem as worrisome, acute or pressing. Many adults with this condition go undiagnosed, or worse yet, misdiagnosed for years until the problem becomes much worse.

Due to this expert doctors recommend that any adult experiencing persistent, nonspecific musculoskeletal pain should be screened for a vitamin D deficiency.

Most of us will not have a severe deficiency of vitamin D, however the majority of us will be lacking this vital nutrient. Having any deficiency of vitamin D is not good for your health, so it's important to know the following other symptoms present when you have a mild to moderate deficiency:

• Persistent colds and flu
• Periodontal disease and cavities
• Depression and seasonal affective disorder
• Osteoporosis
• High blood pressure
• Lung cancer
• Ovarian cancer
• Colon cancer
• Asthma
• Breast cancer
• Multiple sclerosis

While it's true that many of the symptoms on this list are complicated diseases with many, many risk factors, it's also true that scientists are paying more and more attention to the fact that a common risk factor for each and every one of these diseases is a low vitamin D level.

Scientists are just beginning to understand the importance of vitamin D to our bodies. Unfortunately, many general practitioners do not check their patients for a vitamin D deficiency.

There are several proactive steps you can take to prevent a vitamin D deficiency:

Get limited, unprotected sun exposure

Fifteen minutes of this daily is enough for most light-skinned individuals. Those with darker skin may need this sun exposure for up to 40 minutes per day.

Eat a diet rich in whole foods

Fatty fish like mackerel and sardines are good sources of vitamin D. Egg yolks, fortified milk and other dairy products and some organ meats, such as liver, are also reasonably good natural sources of vitamin D.

Take a high quality supplement with D

This vitamin will help to ensure that you fill in any nutritional and sun exposure gaps.

Vitamin D is essential to our health and well-being. Amazingly though, many people are deficient in this nutrient. If you have any of the symptoms of a D deficiency, see your doctor and get screened. Take steps to get more of this vitamin into your life.

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