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THE UK VITAMIN-D CRISIS

Posted 18th October 2013 by Josh Schouten

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Now is the perfect time for me to write about vitamin-D. With 87% of the UK population vitamin-D deficient during winter/spring ALL of us should be taking a vitamin-D supplement.

Vitamin-D is stored in our cells that are involved in making important proteins that help to regulate essential functions so the human body can grow and repair. As we get older our body’s ability to produce vitamin-D from sunlight declines. A 70-year-old has only 25% of the capacity for making vitamin-D compared to a 20-year-old.

Recent research is now showing that vitamin-D may be important in preventing and treating a number of serious long term health problems. It’s also an important factor in making sure your muscles, heart, lungs and brain work well and that your body can fight infection.  The research has linked low vitamin-D levels to an increased chance of cancer, cardiovascular diseases and obesity. Research has also demonstrated physical performance is significantly affected by vitamin D status, athletes always perform better in the summer months.

Most of us already know the importance of vitamin-D for bone health, but did you know that vitamin-D is actually a hormone?  We use vitamin-D for cell signalling.  When  your body gets its vitamin-D, it turns vitamin D into a hormone. This hormone is sometimes called “activated vitamin-D” or “calcitriol.”

Charles Poliquin, a world-renowned strength and conditioning coach, provides many other health benefits of vitamin-D in his article 25 excellent reasons to take vitamin-D.   If you could take a supplement to improve your health, improve body composition, improve your sex drive and make you perform better, would you?

WHERE DO I GET MY VITAMIN-D?

Improving your vitamin-D levels is not a luxury, but a necessity.  The human body is designed to fulfil vitamin-D needs by synthesising ultraviolet-B (UVB) light from the sun. Vitamin-D deficiency occurs as a result of a lack of consistent exposure of bare skin to the sun’s UVB light.  Sunlight is always the best source of vitamin-D.

It is important to note that our dietary intake of vitamin-D is severely limited.  The best dietary source of vitamin-D is oily fish and cod liver oil. There is little or no vitamin-D in UK milk and dairy products. Only infant formula milk and margarine have statutory vitamin-D supplementation in the UK. Egg yolk, liver, and wild mushrooms contain only small quantities of vitamin-D. Our diets typically provide less than 10% of our vitamin-D requirements, with more than 90% coming from UVB sunlight exposure.

WHAT ABOUT SUNBEDS?

The benefits are outweighed by the risks of skin cancer when using a sunbed.  The International Agency for research on Cancer found that tanning beds increase the risk of skin cancer by 75% for those who use them before the age of 35.

The second best place to get your vitamin-D intake is from supplementation.

THE UK VITAMIN-D CRISIS

So how does the UK sunshine stack up? We now know that out skin has the job of turning UVB into vitamin-D, however the wavelength of the light needs to be between 290-320nm.  Why should we care about this scientific piece of information? The wavelength frequency of sunlight is affected by the angle at which the sunlight passes through the earth ozone.  During early morning, late afternoon, and winter months the wavelength of the sunlight in the UK falls outside the required range for our bodies to make vitamin-D. If you live in the more northerly latitudes, places above 51 degrees latitude (like London), you will experience a vitamin-D deficient winter, and even the sunniest days will provide ZERO vitamin-D.

During the summer months our bodies have the best chance of making vitamin-D between the hours of 10:00 and 14:00 when the wavelength of the sunlight is correct and the ratio of UVB to UVA is highest.  A good rule of thumb for determining if vitamin-D is being produced by sunlight is that UVB rays are only beneficial when your shadow is shorter than your height.

Many people who have a vitamin-D deficiency don’t have any symptoms, or have tiredness or vague aches and pains and are unaware of the problem.  Signs of low vitamin-D levels can include a low immune system, regular illness, low energy levels and a lack in results from exercise and strength training.

Modern day human behaviour has a part to play in the vitamin-D game. We now spend more time indoors than ever before and our sun exposure is ridiculously low. In addition to that, the sun avoidance of the modern lifestyle is the predominant factor influencing the rise we see in vitamin-D deficiency today. In the UK, 47% of adults don’t even reach 16ng/ml in the winter/spring, and 87% fail to reach the upper desirable level of 32ng/ml (in Scotland it’s 92%). When summer comes around and vitamin-D levels peak, a whopping 61% of people still fail to reach the upper limits. The anti-cancer campaign to limit sun exposure has many people “protecting” themselves from the sun with sunblock! Yes, sunblock will stop the absorption of UVB and your body’s ability to make vitamin-D.

According to the vitamin council “A deficiency in vitamin-D should not be allowed to remain uncorrected for too long, even in those who are healthy. The longer the deficiency is allowed to persist, the greater the risk of serious health complications such as chronic illness, debilitation, or even early mortality”

KNOW THE SCORE…

The current UK health recommendations for vitamin-D levels are set at a ridiculous 10ng/ml. These recommendations are based solely on the minimum levels required to avoid rickets. In reality, the range should be between 20-32ng/ml as studies show that between these ranges calcium absorption and parathyroid hormone suppression are maximised. Unbelievably, many of the UK’s so called “health agencies” combined to release a statement in 2010 that “raising the definition of ‘deficiency’ or ‘sufficiency’ to higher levels (>10ng.ml) is inappropriate.” However, in the same year the US Institute of Medicine published recommendations that vitamin-D levels should be at least 20ng/ml to form maximum health benefits.

When getting your vitamin-D levels tested at your local GP or blood lab, make sure you ask for the actual scores. Simply getting a pass or fail is not acceptable, as you need to know what range they are measuring against. (Note: vitamin-D is sometimes measured in nmol/L or ng/mL (1.0 nmol/L = 0.4 ng/mL)

Why Vitamin-D?

  • Vitamin-D is critical for bone health.  Low vitamin-D levels will cause rickets and osteomalacia
  • Vitamin-D improves the absorption of calcium
  • Vitamin-D plays a critical role in the health of our immune systems and its ability to fight off infection. Forget the flu shot and get your vitamin-D levels tested
  • Low vitamin-D has been associated with depression and mood
  • Vitamin-D has been shown to improve body composition and improve blood sugar control. Low vitamin-D has been linked to obesity
  • Fat cells absorb vitamin-D and hence overweight people need high levels of vitamin-D to support the additional demand (some studies have suggested obese people need at least 2X more vitamin-D, which is secreted away in their fat)
  • Countless studies show that vitamin-D levels influence our risk of virtually every modern-day health problem, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes and more
  • Vitamin-D has direct muscle-building (anabolic) effects
  • Vitamin-D has been shown to improve skin disorders as it lowers inflammation.  People who have psoriasis, dermatitis, dandruff, eczema, rosacea, and severe acne are often vitamin-D deficient
  • The lower your vitamin-D levels the higher your chances of cardiovascular disease and a host of autoimmune diseases, such as Crohn’s disease, type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis
  • Infants with a vitamin-D deficiency are 29% more at risk of having type 1 diabetes
  • Vitamin-D protects the cardiovascular system – reduces inflammation, controls calcification of blood vessels, improves endothelial function and reduces blood pressure.  For these reasons vitamin-D can also help to lower stress
  • High vitamin-D levels have been shown to improve lung function and have positive effects on asthma sufferers
  • Men with vitamin-D deficiencies are 50% more likely to have heart attacks
  • Men with low vitamin-D levels have been shown to have a lower sperm count
  • Vitamin-D is also important for female fertility and it plays an important role in the health of the uterus

Replenishing your vitamin-D levels and supplementing vitamin-D is a whole separate blog post.

FURTHER READING

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