Overview

Vitamin D is a nutrient your body needs for building and maintaining healthy bones. That's considering your body tin can simply blot calcium, the chief component of os, when vitamin D is present. Vitamin D besides regulates many other cellular functions in your body. Its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and neuroprotective backdrop support immune wellness, muscle function and encephalon cell activeness.

Vitamin D isn't naturally found in many foods, only you can get information technology from fortified milk, fortified cereal, and fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel and sardines. Your body also makes vitamin D when direct sunlight converts a chemical in your skin into an active class of the vitamin (calciferol).

The amount of vitamin D your peel makes depends on many factors, including the time of mean solar day, flavor, latitude and your peel pigmentation. Depending on where y'all live and your lifestyle, vitamin D production might decrease or be completely absent during the winter months. Sunscreen, while important to foreclose skin cancer, besides tin decrease vitamin D production.

Many older adults don't get regular exposure to sunlight and have trouble arresting vitamin D. If your md suspects y'all're non getting enough vitamin D, a simple claret test can check the levels of this vitamin in your blood.

Taking a multivitamin with vitamin D may assistance improve bone health. The recommended daily amount of vitamin D is 400 international units (IU) for children up to historic period 12 months, 600 IU for people ages 1 to 70 years, and 800 IU for people over 70 years.

Evidence

Research on vitamin D use for specific weather condition shows:

  • Cancer. Findings on the benefits of vitamin D for cancer prevention are mixed. More studies are needed to determine whether vitamin D supplementation may reduce the risk of certain cancers.
  • Cognitive health. Inquiry shows that low levels of vitamin D in the blood are associated with cognitive turn down. Yet, more studies are needed to determine the benefits of vitamin D supplementation for cognitive wellness.
  • Inherited bone disorders. Vitamin D supplements tin can be used to aid treat inherited disorders resulting from an disability to absorb or process vitamin D, such as familial hypophosphatemia.
  • Multiple sclerosis. Research suggests that long-term vitamin D supplementation reduces the hazard of multiple sclerosis.
  • Osteomalacia. Vitamin D supplements are used to care for adults with severe vitamin D deficiency, resulting in loss of bone mineral content, os hurting, musculus weakness and soft bones (osteomalacia).
  • Osteoporosis. Studies propose that people who get plenty vitamin D and calcium in their diets can boring bone mineral loss, help foreclose osteoporosis and reduce bone fractures. Enquire your doc if y'all demand a calcium and vitamin D supplement to prevent or treat osteoporosis.
  • Psoriasis. Applying vitamin D or a topical preparation that contains a vitamin D compound called calcipotriene to the skin can treat plaque-type psoriasis in some people.
  • Rickets. This rare status develops in children with vitamin D deficiency. Supplementing with vitamin D can preclude and treat the problem.

Our have

Green light: Generally safe

Generally safe

Without vitamin D your bones can get soft, thin and brittle. Insufficient vitamin D is also connected to osteoporosis. If you don't go enough vitamin D through sunlight or dietary sources, y'all might need vitamin D supplements.

Condom and side furnishings

Taken in appropriate doses, vitamin D is generally considered safe.

Even so, taking also much vitamin D in the grade of supplements can be harmful. Children age 9 years and older, adults, and pregnant and breastfeeding women who have more than 4,000 IU a mean solar day of vitamin D might experience:

  • Nausea and vomiting
  • Poor appetite and weight loss
  • Constipation
  • Weakness
  • Confusion and disorientation
  • Heart rhythm problems
  • Kidney stones and kidney harm

Interactions

Possible interactions include:

  • Aluminum. Taking vitamin D and aluminum-containing phosphate binders, which may be used to treat high serum phosphate levels in people with chronic kidney disease, might crusade harmful levels of aluminum in people with kidney failure in the long term.
  • Anticonvulsants. The anticonvulsants phenobarbital and phenytoin (Dilantin, Phenytek) increase the breakup of vitamin D and reduce calcium absorption.
  • Atorvastatin (Lipitor). Taking vitamin D might affect the way your torso processes this cholesterol drug.
  • Calcipotriene (Dovonex, Sorilux). Don't take vitamin D with this psoriasis drug. The combination might increase the risk of too much calcium in the claret (hypercalcemia).
  • Cholestyramine (Prevalite). Taking vitamin D with this cholesterol-lowering drug can reduce your absorption of vitamin D.
  • Cytochrome P-450 3A4 (CYP3A4) substrates. Employ vitamin D cautiously if yous're taking drugs processed by these enzymes.
  • Digoxin (Lanoxin). Avoid taking loftier doses of vitamin D with this heart medication. High doses of vitamin D tin can cause hypercalcemia, which increases the risk of fatal heart issues with digoxin.
  • Diltiazem (Cardizem, Tiazac, others). Avoid taking high doses of vitamin D with this blood pressure level drug. High doses of vitamin D tin cause hypercalcemia, which might reduce the drug'due south effectiveness.
  • Orlistat (Xenical, Alli). Taking this weight-loss drug can reduce your absorption of vitamin D.
  • Thiazide diuretics. Taking these claret force per unit area drugs with vitamin D increases your risk of hypercalcemia.
  • Steroids. Taking steroid mediations such every bit prednisone can reduce calcium absorption and impair your body'southward processing of vitamin D.
  • Stimulant laxatives. Long-term use of high doses of stimulant laxatives can reduce vitamin D and calcium absorption.
  • Verapamil (Verelan, Calan SR). Taking high doses of vitamin D with this blood pressure drug can crusade hypercalcemia, and might also reduce the effectiveness of verapamil.

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Feb. 09, 2021