Vitamin D – Blood Spot Test
Why Measure D Levels?
Due to the newly discovered importance of vitamin D in improving health, many health care practitioners believe that vitamin D status should be regularly assessed in everyone and that treatment of vitamin D deficiency become a routine component of their clinical practice. Deficiency is very common and may be present even when there are no symptoms. However, a vitamin D deficiency is simple to correct and may solve a number of subclinical health problems and reduce risk for more serious diseases.
Blood Spot Testing for Vitamin D is Very Convenient
You no longer have to go to a laboratory to have your vitamin D levels measured. Blood spot labs (ie. A simple finger prick test) can conveniently be done in the Natural Way Health Clinic to identify vitamin D deficiency as a potential cause of health problems. Although vitamin D deficiency is common, supplementation is not recommended unless there is a known deficiency as it is a fat-soluble vitamin (meaning that it can be toxic if you supplement when it is not required). This convenient new method for assessing vitamin D levels allows for easy monitoring of your vitamin D status following supplementation to ensure adequate dosing.
Vitamin D: What Is It?
Vitamin D is known as the “sun” vitamin. Its designation as vitamin D was originally based on its role as a dietary factor that aided in the cure of rickets (a disease characterized by softening of the bones). It is currently thought that vitamin D is actually more hormone-like in its action and not a true vitamin.
How Do We Get Vitamin D?
Vitamin D is obtained naturally from two sources: sunlight and dietary consumption. It is not required in the diet if there is sufficient sunlight to allow the production of vitamin D from “provitamin D” in the skin.
The sun is such an excellent source of vitamin D that 10 minutes of summer sun exposure to the face and hands results in the body producing roughly 400 IU of vitamin D. If you stay in the sun a little bit longer without sunblock and with your arms and legs exposed, your skin will make an average of 10,000 IU of vitamin D in one pinking sun exposure.
What is Vitamin D’s Role in the Body?
The primary role of vitamin D is regulation of calcium and phosphorus absorption in the intestine, regulation of calcium balance, and stimulation of bone cell mineralization. In fact, without vitamin D, only 10 to 15% of dietary calcium and about 60% of phosphorus is absorbed. The interaction of vitamin D with the vitamin D receptor increases the efficiency of calcium absorption in the gut to 30 to 40% and phosphorus absorption to approximately 80%.
While many people are familiar with the important role of vitamin D in calcium absorption and bone metabolism, many people are not aware of the recent research on the health implications of optimal vitamin D levels. Many tissues possess receptors for this hormone-like vitamin and this has provided new insights into the function of this vitamin. Vitamin D receptors are present not only in the gut and bone, but also in the brain, breast, prostate, and lymphocytes (immune cells). Research is now suggesting that higher vitamin D levels can provide protection from Diabetes, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, high blood pressure, heart disease, metabolic syndrome (also known as Syndrome X), multiple sclerosis, polycystic ovarian syndrome, musculoskeletal (muscle and bone) pain, depression, epilepsy, several autoimmune diseases, and cancers of the breast, prostate, and colon. Therefore, vitamin D can be utilized for a wide range of preventive and therapeutic applications to maintain and improve health.
Who is at Risk of Vitamin D Deficiency?
- People with Limited Sunlight Exposure: People living at northern latitudes (ie. Canada) or who have limited sunlight exposure because of lifestyle choices (ie. Working inside for many hours, cultural dress, etc) may have low vitamin D levels.
- The Elderly: The vitamin D precursor decreases in the skin with age, leading to a reduced production of vitamin D. In addition, living in retirement homes or nursing homes can reduce sun exposure and therefore reduce vitamin D levels.
- Dark-Skinned People: Dark skinned people require longer sunlight exposure than fair-skinned people to generate adequate circulating vitamin D.
- Musculoskeletal Pain Sufferers: Patients with symptoms of hypothyroidism, non-specific musculoskeletal pain, chronic low back pain, or fibromyalgia are frequently found to have low vitamin D levels and show clinical improvement after supplementation.
- Overweight or Obese People: Vitamin D can be locked up in fat stores in obese patients, who have been found to have lower levels of circulating vitamin D and are at risk of deficiency.
Call The Natural Way for more information about having a blood spot vitamin D test done today!