Vitamin D Deficiency & Insulin Resistance

Vitamin D is a vitamin that helps your body absorb calcium. Calcium is important for building and maintaining the strength of your bones. The recommended daily intake of vitamin D is 400 international units (IU) for babies up to 12 months, 600 IU for people aged 1 to 70 years, and 800 IU for people over the age of 70.

How do you get vitamin D?

There are three ways in which you can get vitamin D: through your skin, from your diet, and from supplements. Naturally, exposure to sunlight causes your body to form vitamin D. However, too much sun exposure can lead to skin ageing and skin cancer, so many people prefer to get their vitamin D from other sources like supplements and food.

Causes of vitamin D deficiency:

• Not enough vitamin D in the diet
• Don’t absorb enough vitamin D from food (malabsorption problem)
• Not enough sunlight exposure
• Your liver & kidneys can’t convert vitamin D to its active form in the body
• You take medicines that interfere with your body’s ability to convert or absorb vitamin D

What problems are caused by vitamin D deficiency?

Vitamin D deficiency can lead to a loss of bone density, which can ultimately lead to osteoporosis and also increases the likelihood of bone fractures. Severe vitamin D can also lead to other diseases. An example of this is rickets (more prevalent in children), which is a rare disease that causes bones to become soft and to bend.

In adults, severe vitamin D deficiency can lead to osteomalacia, which causes weak bones, bone pain and muscle weakness.

Vitamin D and insulin resistance

Vitamin D has been shown to be beneficial in reducing insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is where your body becomes less sensitive to insulin and can’t easily take glucose from your blood. Reducing insulin resistance is very beneficial as it can help reduce the risk of many diseases, including diabetes.