Root Causes of Vitamin D Deficiency & Doing More than Reactively Utilizing Supplementation

Have your vitamin D levels been chronically low? Read this! It might not be as straightforward as needing to supplement with vitamin D as the only intervention.

Let’s cover some bare bones basics on the topic of taking a vitamin D supplement as ONE helpful strategy to correcting deficiencies:

1. If levels are low or low end of normal, you are wise to seek vitamin D levels being optimal (50-70ng/dL). You’ll likely have been told that conventional care views getting above 30ng/dL is “good enough” but the grade of an A is better than the grade of a C.
2. A vitamin D3/k2 supplement is superior to a vitamin D3 or vitamin D2 supplement. 
3. If you unfortunately have a provider who refuses to even check your vitamin D levels (which is sadly common), you can self order vitamin D labs here and get done at any Quest labs for a fraction of the costs compared to traditional healthcare settings due to the ridiculous upcharge of around $300 dollars if not covered by insurance. It’s around 40 bucks cash pay at Quest.
4. If you are truly deficient, it’s important to know you can’t eat your way out of a deficiency, meaning food has such minimal amounts and when you are that low, you are going to need supplementation to get out of the hole to achieve optimal blood levels.

Let’s say you have tried these basics and your Vitamin D level is still not optimal. What else should you be considering? Read on:

Possible Root Causes to WHY Your Vitamin D is Deficient (<20mg/dL) or Insufficient (<30ng/dL)

1. Inadequate Magnesium intake.
Are you consuming enough magnesium? Statistically – not likely. Studies show 80% of Americans are magnesium depleted; a serum magnesium isn’t going to help figure this out as about 1% of magnesium in the body is circulating in the blood. Consider getting a HTMA test if wanting to see a better picture of magnesium status. Magnesium is an essential mineral needed each day (from food and/or supplements) for vitamin D absorption as the two have a synergistic relationship. Magnesium helps activate vitamin D in the liver and kidneys, and Magnesium moves vitamin D around in the blood. 

2. Low Glutathione 
This power house antioxidant made in liver helps impact vitamin D bioavailability. Every day things in people’s homes can deplete glutathione. Toxic indoor mold (which is very common) can deplete glutathione and so can tylenol usage. You can get glutathione from supplements and food; it is found in fresh fruits and vegetables, and unpasteurized dairy products. Cooking can diminish the strength of glutathione, so it’s best to eat these foods raw or to supplement if stores are low in the body, which can be tested.

3.Heavy metal bioaccumulation 
Non life threatening levels of certain toxins can lower vitamin D. We should be preventing toxins from entering our bodies and react to toxins if they are present with the use binders to help usher them out of the body. This can help correct low vitamin D levels. As a few examples, toxins like arsenic, lead and cadmium (often found in tap water) can decrease vitamin D levels. If you are drinking tap water – you have got to knock that off! Most tap water in the country has endocrine disruptors and carcinogens and heavy metals….you can check your city’s zip code water score here and see what you are drinking and bathing in. All people should be drinking only highly filtered water to have serious contaminants removed. In the word’s of the Environmental Workin Group out of D.C.: “legal does not equal safe.”

4. Gut Malabsorption
Are you absorping what you are ingesting? Are you sure you don’t have gut dysbiosis? SIBO? Low stomach acid? Underlying celiac disease which is asymptomatic in a huge percentage of people? Test dont guess! See if any of this applies to you. 

5. Medications inhibiting absorption
Yes, there is some evidence that many prescriptions can inhibit absorption of vitamin D. One very commonly used medications is PPIs. Long-term use of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) can increase the risk of vitamin D deficiency.

The above is a non-exhaustive list of reasons why vitamin D levels could be chronically low or suboptimal. We can’t assume it’s always low oral intake to blame.

You may need vitamin D3/K2 supplementation (get here at 10% off and free shipping) but also zoom out and look at the big picture and ask WHY the vitamin D is low.

Is it truly not enough vitamin D, or is it something more underlying impacting absorption or utilization? Test, and don’t guess! If you need one-on-one assistance, please self schedule a consult package and I would be happy to help!

References & Studies:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29480918/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6163803/
 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3942754/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3829578/
 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6208166/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9959653/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1852643/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10146626/

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