The reality is, if your body isn’t producing sufficient levels of Vitamin D, it can wreak havoc on your system.
This includes:
Heart Disease and High Blood Pressure:
A growing number of scientific studies are pointing to vitamin D deficiency as a risk factor for heart attacks, congestive heart failure, peripheral arterial disease (PAD), stokes, and high blood pressure. Vitamin D is known to help regulate blood pressure in the kidneys as well.
Bone Disorders and Osteoporosis:
Your bones are constantly being remodeled. However, as you age (especially if you’re a woman during menopause) the breakdown rates exceed bone buildup rates. Over time, bone density declines.
Osteoporosis is one effect of long-term calcium and/or vitamin D deficiency. Bones also depend on the surrounding muscles for strength, and vitamin D is needed for proper growth and development of muscle tissue.
Diabetes:
Vitamin D helps your body regulate the amount of blood sugar levels in the pancreas. It also helps improve your body’s sensitivity to insulin, which is the hormone your body makes to regulate your blood sugar levels.
Vitamin D can thus prevent insulin resistance, which can lead to diabetes.
Infections:
Before modern antibiotics were invented, some infections (like tuberculosis) were treated by having the patient get plenty of sunlight and take cod liver oil daily.
Several studies have shown a relationship between vitamin D deficiency and an increase in infections.
Autoimmune Disorders:
There is increasing evidence linking low levels of vitamin D in the body with some autoimmune disorders like multiple sclerosis (MS), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), inflammatory bowel disease, and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).
Patients with these disorders usually have lower levels of vitamin D than patients without an autoimmune disorder.
Certain Types of Cancer:
Vitamin D helps to keep abnormal cells from multiplying in breast and colon tissues, which can help prevent and maybe even treat breast and colon cancer, and possibly prostate cancer as well.
Pregnancy Complications.
A 2019 study showed a link between low vitamin D in pregnant women and the risk of preeclampsia and giving birth early. There may also be a link with gestational diabetes.
And women with low vitamin D are more likely to get bacterial vaginosis during pregnancy.
However, it’s important to note that getting too much vitamin D may be associated with an increased risk of the child developing food allergies in the first two years of life.
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