How many people have a vitamin D deficiency?
The numbers are close to 1 billion people worldwide. If you’re not getting enough vitamin D regularly, you might be at risk of developing a vitamin D deficiency yourself.
Respiratory problems, depression, and frequent sickness can all result from a vitamin D deficiency. Luckily, by increasing your intake of vitamin D you can avoid these conditions, while also improving health!
How can vitamin D keep you healthy and strong? Read on to find out about the top vitamin D benefits.
1. Vitamin D Benefits for Cancer
There’s ongoing research about vitamin D benefits in regards to cancer prevention. Some studies are showing vitamin D can prolong the life of people who already have cancer.
Finally, scientists are discovering that women with vitamin D deficiencies are more likely to get breast cancer. The reason is that vitamin D plays a roll in promoting normal breast cell growth.
The studies are also showing that vitamin D is capable of stopping cancer cells that begin to form in the breasts.
2. Protect Your Respiratory System
Oftentimes, respiratory problems start with a problem in your immune system. When your immune system is weak, your more likely to develop chronic respiratory issues.
Thankfully, vitamin D is great at strengthening and regulating the functions of your entire immune system. For it to work best, it helps if you consistently get enough vitamin D throughout your lifetime. For instance, a child who consistently gets their daily dose of vitamin D is less likely to struggle with respiratory issues later in life.
However, if you didn’t get enough vitamin D as a kid, that doesn’t mean you’re out of luck. Adults who consistently take vitamin D are less likely to struggle with respiratory problems when the seasons change.
3. Boost Your Metabolism
Not only does vitamin D help your immune system, but it also has the power to boost your metabolic processes! Perhaps one of the top vitamin D benefits is its ability to help your metabolic process function at peak capacity.
By positively influencing your blood sugar imbalances, vitamin D can keep your metabolism in peak condition. Maintaining a healthy metabolism is key to avoiding problems like obesity.
4. Prevent and Treat Diabetes
Next, another one of our favorite vitamin D benefits is its ability to help with diabetes. Since vitamin D can help keep your blood sugar in check, it’s great at preventing both type 1 and type 2 diabetes from occurring. However, if you already have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, vitamin D should be a part of your treatment plan.
One of the ways vitamin D helps individuals with diabetes is by improving their body’s receptiveness to insulin. Insulin is a hormone that your body uses to regulate your sugar levels.
When someone starts to lose their sensitivity to insulin, it’s usually the first step before type 2 diabetes sets in. Luckily, vitamin D can help regulate the insulin your pancreas produces, as well as increasing insulin sensitivity.
There’s no one size fits all when it comes to determining how much vitamin D you need to help treat diabetes. The correct level of vitamin D is going to vary from 1 person to the next. Instead of guessing, talk to your doctor to find out exactly where your vitamin D levels need to be.
5. Weight Loss Aid
If you want to drop a few pounds, try soaking up some vitamin D from the sunshine. When you use sunlight synthesis to maintain vitamin D levels, you can help your body reduce your parathyroid hormone levels or PTH.
When your PTH levels are too high, it can be difficult for your body to burn fat. By lowering your PTH levels, you’ll be able to promote weight loss while also preventing obesity. Considering that obesity is a big risk factor for diabetes, keeping your PTH levels low is crucial for your health.
Another way vitamin D can assist with weight loss is by regulating your appetite. When you have healthy vitamin D levels your body will increase the leptin hormone. Leptin is the hormone responsible for controlling the way your body stores fat.
When your leptin levels are too low, you’re more likely to feel hungry, even if you’ve already eaten. Whereas when your leptin levels are just right, you’ll feel full even if it’s been hours since your last meal.
Finally, Vitamin D can also help reduce how much fat you store in your belly. How is this possible? It’s all thanks to vitamin D’s ability to lower your body’s cortisol levels.
Cortisol is a stress hormone that your body produces in your adrenal glands. Your body relies on cortisol to help with all sorts of things, like regulating your blood pressure. However, when your cortisol levels are too high, it can lead to a variety of health problems like increased belly fat.
6. Healthier Children
It’s strange to think of an infant as having high blood pressure, however, it happens all the time. Low vitamin D levels can cause children’s arterial walls to become stiff.
The stiffness makes it difficult for the blood to flow freely. Over time as the arterial walls continue to decline, the child’s blood pressure can skyrocket. By introducing vitamin D into the diet, the arteries can begin to repair themselves, thus correcting the high blood pressure problem.
Another way vitamin d helps children is by reducing their risk of developing an allergy. Finally, vitamin D can also help kids with breathing problems respond better to asthma treatments.
For instance, let’s say a child has steroid-resistant asthma. Vitamin D can make the child’s body more receptive to the anti-inflammatory effects of steroids.
7. Strong Bones
Your body needs calcium to keep your bones healthy and strong. Vitamin D is great at promoting calcium regulation, as well as aiding in maintaining the phosphorus levels in your blood.
Both of these things help keep your bones in peak condition. How exactly does vitamin D help with calcium regulation? It all starts with your digestive system. Let’s say you eat something rich in calcium.
For your body to be able to use the calcium, it has to absorb the calcium while it’s in your intestines. If your body doesn’t absorb the calcium present in your intestines than your body will assume you don’t need it.
Instead of putting the calcium to good use, your body will excrete it through your kidneys. By eating a diet rich in vitamin D, you’ll make it easier for your body to absorb all of the calcium it needs before the kidneys move it along.
Do you want to have hair that’s as strong as your bones? Then you’ll be happy to know that vitamin D also promotes healthy hair. You might be wondering, “are SugarBearHair vitamins safe for your hair”, and we’re happy to say they are.
8. Better Moods
Do you feel yourself getting sad or emotional when winter rolls around? You might be dealing with a seasonal affective disorder, or SAD. When someone has SAD, they’re likely to experience a lack of energy, and general moodiness, as the winter months set in.
Luckily, by eating a diet rich in vitamin D, you can naturally prevent SAD from occurring. During the winter season, your body isn’t able to get as much vitamin D from the sun.
By eating foods that have vitamin D in them, you’ll be able to enhance your wintertime moods. The sunshine vitamin is also helpful at fighting off sleep problems that are commonly associated with SAD.
9. Safe Pregnancy
Are you trying to get pregnant? Now’s the time to up your daily dose of vitamin D. Women who have vitamin D deficiencies are more likely to deal with problems like preeclampsia.
Preeclampsia is a sudden jump in blood pressure, and it usually results in swelling in the hands, feet, and face. Left untreated, preeclampsia can be a fatal condition for both the mother and the unborn child.
Vitamin D’s ability to help boost your immune system helps prevent preeclampsia from happening in the first place. Pregnant women who maintain their vitamin D levels are also less likely to deal with bacterial vaginosis.
Not only can vitamin D prevent bad things from happening, but it can also assist with all sorts of benefits, like healthy birth weight. Long after birth, the positive side effects of vitamin D will continue to surface.
For instance, infants who had enough vitamin D in the womb are more likely to have a healthy respiratory system. Everyone, especially pregnant women should always consult their doctor when it comes to adjusting vitamin D intake. If your vitamin D levels are too high during pregnancy, it could cause problems for the unborn child such as food allergies.
Invest in Your Health
We hope you enjoyed our list of vitamin D benefits! Talk to your doctor today about monitoring your vitamin D levels. After all, investing in your health always pays off.
For more ways to be the healthiest you possible, explore the rest of this site.
