Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium. It is found in many foods, especially dairy products and oily fish, as well as in the sun. However, there are causes of vitamin D deficiency and some characteristic symptoms that are important to address in order to treat it.
Until a few years ago the only thing that was known about this vitamin was that the source of its supply was the sun and some foods (dairy products and blue fish) and that its role in our organism was destined to the metabolism of calcium, giving rise to problems of growth and composition of bone tissue (rickets, osteopenia, osteoporosis). Nowadays we know much more from Endocrinology and other specialties about the causes of its deficit and the symptoms it causes.
Causes of vitamin D deficiency
There are a number of circumstances that can cause vitamin D deficiency. Some of them are:
- Dark skin: more melanin hinders the production of vitamin D in the skin.
- Lack of sun exposure: the most important source of vitamin D is the sun. There will therefore be a greater deficit in winter than in summer. But, on the other hand, if we use sunscreen, less is absorbed.
- Age over 50 years: due to several factors, such as decreased intestinal absorption, decreased renal conversion and decreased sun exposure.
- Microwave use: heating or cooking food in the microwave destroys the vitamin D contained in the food.
- Vegetarian diet: there is a greater tendency to vitamin D deficiency, especially in the vegan diet (due to the lack of dairy products and eggs).
- Low intake of the foods richest in this vitamin: butter, milk, tuna, salmon, egg yolk, mushrooms, mushrooms, herring, sardines, shellfish or liver, among others.
- Intestinal absorption problems: Crohn’s disease or celiac disease.
- Hepatic or renal insufficiency: lack of production at these levels.
- Decrease of fats in the diet: vitamin D is fat-soluble, so it needs fats for its absorption.
- Consumption of antiepileptics: they increase the breakdown of vitamin D.
- Consumption of cortisone
- Hyperthyroidism: increases vitamin D metabolism.
- Obesity: vitamin D binds to fat and stops circulating in the body.
Symptoms of vitamin D deficiency
Over the last few years a great deal of work has been done in relation to this vitamin and we can already assure that its deficiency can produce the following pathological situations:
- Asthenia: general weakness or fatigue that makes it difficult to carry out day-to-day tasks.
- Apathy: lack of excitement, motivation or enthusiasm.
- Anemia: a condition that decreases the number of healthy red blood cells, which supply oxygen to the body’s tissues.
- Sweating of the head
- Decreased defenses due to a decrease or atrophy in the white blood cells.
- Tendency to autoimmune diseases:
– Organ-specific autoimmune diseases, i.e., those in which only one organ or tissue is affected. The best known and most common: Pernicious anemia, Celiac disease, Diabetes mellitus type I, Graves’ disease, Addison’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, Myasthenia Gravis, Goodpasture’s syndrome, Chron’s disease, etc.
– Systemic autoimmune diseases, or those affecting more than one organ or tissue. The most common are: Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Sjogren’s Syndrome, Psoriasis, Sarcoidosis….
- Skin problems: Psoriasis, Lupus, atopic dermatitis.
- Tendency to gain weight
- Tendency to hypothyroidism: disease characterized by a functional decrease of the thyroid gland, which causes tiredness, sensitivity to cold and, in women, menstrual disturbances.
- Imbalance of diabetes; that is, high blood glucose levels.
- Increased pain from diabetic neuropathy, which is neurological damage as a result of decreased blood flow and high blood sugar.
- Osteopenia: decrease in bone mineral density that may be a precursor to osteoporosis.
- Osteoporosis: a bone disease characterized by a decrease in the density of bone tissue, resulting in bone fragility.
- Hyperparathyroidism: alteration in which the parathyroid glands secrete more parathyroid hormone, responsible for regulating calcium, magnesium and phosphorus in the blood and bones.
- Muscle weakness
- Arterial hypertension: chronic disease characterized by a continuous increase of blood pressure in the arteries.
- Intestinal inflammation: Chron’s disease or celiac disease, among others.
- Dementia: loss of mental faculties due to age or disease, characterized by memory loss and behavioral disorders.
- Increased tendency to Parkinson’s disease, which is a degenerative disease of the nervous system characterized by lack of coordination and muscular rigidity, as well as tremors.
- Greater tendency to breast, prostate, colon and lymphoma cancer.
- Increased tendency to v, a disease characterized by unknown chronic muscle pain, followed by a feeling of fatigue.
- Insomnia