Vitamin D deficiency is quite common, especially in countries where sun exposure is not enough, as one of the ways the body obtains this vitamin is through the skin, naturally present and exposed to sunlight.
Deficiency of this vitamin has no symptoms at first, however, when the deficiency continues for a longer period, with the appearance of some characteristic signs and symptoms, these are:
- Situations that promote vitamin D deficiency in the absence of healthy and healthy sun exposure.
- Increased skin pigmentation.
- An age greater than 50 years.
- Time to eat foods rich in vitamin D and live in cold places.
- From which the skin is rarely expelled.
- The sun.
Light-skinned people need about 20 minutes of sun exposure a day, even if dark-skinned people need less than an hour of direct sun exposure, without sunscreen from the early hours of the morning to the late afternoon. Hence the sun is not so strong.
Your doctor may suspect that the person has vitamin D deficiency when he finds that the sun is not properly expelled, always uses sunscreen, and does not eat foods rich in vitamin D, osteopenia, or osteoporosis.
Diagnosis is made using a blood test of 25 hydroxy D, and the reference values are:
This test may be requested by your family doctor or pediatrician, who can evaluate whether a vitamin D supplement is necessary.
In addition to eating foods that contain vitamin D, due to lack of adequate sun exposure, excessive use of sunscreen, and dark, mulata, or black skin, a vitamin D deficiency may also be related to certain situations such as:
In the presence of these diseases, medical follow-up should be done to check vitamin D levels in the body, using a specific blood test and, if necessary, taking vitamin D supplements.
Vitamin D can be obtained through food consumption by consuming animal foods such as salmon, trout, oysters, eggs and sardines. Find a more complete list of vitamin D-rich foods
In addition to this, another source of vitamin D is skin exposure to sunlight, and just as the body produces it naturally, sun exposure is of paramount importance to avoid deficiency of this vitamin since only about 20% of its daily needs are covered diet.
Another way to obtain vitamin D is by taking nutritional supplements, which should be indicated by the doctor or nutritionist according to the needs of the individual.
Your doctor or nutritionist may recommend intake of vitamin D2 and D3 when the person lives in a place where there has been a period of sun exposure and where vitamin D-rich foods are not very accessible to the general population. In addition, it may also indicate a shipping supplement and babies born up to 1 year, if the deficiency of this vitamin is confirmed.
Deficiency supplementation should be performed for 1 to 2 months, and after that period, your doctor may order a new blood test to assess whether it is necessary to continue taking the supplement longer, as excessive vitamin D intake is dangerous. that blood levels could increase considerably, which also promotes blood rupture.
Lack of vitamin D increases the risk of serious diseases affecting people such as rickitism in children and osteopenia or osteoporosis in adults, but it also increases the risk of other diseases such as diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple diseases. Sclerosis.