Having inadequate levels of vitamin D may correlate with unintentional weight gain. A study on women over the age of 65 found that participants with a lower vitamin D level experienced more weight gain. A systematic review of 23 different studies found similar associations between vitamin D deficiency and obesity.
Vitamin D deficiency is linked to many disease processes. It also plays a role in weight gain. If you're struggling with weight loss, there's a very good chance you're also struggling to store adequate amounts of vitamin D in your body.
The authors, including McTiernan, discovered an association between vitamin D and greater weight loss. “We found that those women who received vitamin D and whose blood levels got up to normal lost more weight than women whose blood levels remained low,” says McTiernan.
Besides boosting mood and promoting calcium absorption, recent studies have shown that vitamin D may also aid in weight loss. For people with extra belly fat, a vitamin D supplement may be beneficial.
Vitamins D and B12 deficiency and weight gain have been found to be directly related, with research suggesting that a complicated relationship exists between the amounts of minerals and vitamins one consumes and how much one weighs.
Vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid), calcium and vitamin D help the body to excrete excess fluids.
Symptoms of vitamin D deficiency may include:
Fatigue. Not sleeping well. Bone pain or achiness. Depression or feelings of sadness.
Low serum vitamin D has been found to be associated with various types of metabolic illness such as obesity, diabetes mellitus, insulin resistance, cardiovascular diseases including hypertension.
IBS and Vitamin D deficiency
Symptoms include a combination of diarrhoea or constipation, bloating, urgency (the need to use a restroom in a hurry), white or yellow mucus in the stool and the sensation of incompletely passing stools.
In general, the two main causes of vitamin D deficiency are: Not getting enough vitamin D in your diet and/or through sunlight. Your body isn't properly absorbing or using vitamin D.
However, taking too much vitamin D in the form of supplements can be harmful. Children age 9 years and older, adults, and pregnant and breastfeeding women who take more than 4,000 IU a day of vitamin D might experience: Nausea and vomiting. Poor appetite and weight loss.
“Adding an over-the-counter vitamin D supplement can make improvements in just three to four months time. Vitamin D with a strength of 1000-2000 international units daily is the recommended dose for most adults,” Dr. Ropte says.
There's no set time of day that's best to take vitamin D supplements. Some people say taking vitamin D supplements at night is an insomnia risk. There's no research to confirm this, but you might want to take your supplement earlier in the day if you think it's screwing with your sleep.
"Adequate levels of magnesium in the body are essential for the absorption and metabolism not only of vitamin D but of calcium as well," Dean states. "Magnesium converts vitamin D into its active form so that it can help calcium absorption.
Some side effects of taking too much vitamin D include weakness, dry mouth, nausea, vomiting, and others. Taking vitamin D for long periods of time in doses higher than 4000 IU (100 mcg) daily is possibly unsafe and may cause very high levels of calcium in the blood.
This mineral is involved in over 300 enzymatic processes in the body, including every major organ function—especially the heart and brain. But did you know that there is a link between magnesium deficiency and weight gain? Your body depends on magnesium for a lot of processes, like: Maintaining healthy DNA.
Growing evidence has demonstrated that vitamin D has a role in sleep regulation [12]. Specifically, vitamin D deficiency (VDD) can increase risk of sleep disorders and is associated with sleep difficulties, shorter sleep duration, and nocturnal awakenings in children and adults [13,14,15].
Furthermore, Vitamin D deficiency leads to dysbiosis of gut microbiome and reported to cause severe colitis.
Deficiency of vitamin D might be associated with diseases of immune dysregulation, one manifestation of which could be excessive daytime sleepiness (Zitterman and Gummert 2010; Hoeck and Pall 2011).
Although there is no scientific evidence that vitamin D can have a direct effect on the under-eye area, it is believed that puffy eyes and dark circles prevail in people deficient in vitamin D, particularly females aged 40+. As a matter of fact, a person may appear 4.7 years older than they really are because of that.
The best food sources of vitamin D are oily fish, including salmon, mackerel, and sardines. Other sources include egg yolks, red meat, and liver. Vitamin D is added to some foods too, including breakfast cereals, plant milks and fat spreads. Check information on-pack to see if this applies to the products you buy.