Are you taking vitamin D supplements? If so, you might be better off not taking them. There are often other better and less costly ways for you to keep your bones healthy, such as through exercise and sun exposure.
First things first, there is no good evidence to suggest that vitamin D helps to ward off Covid-19. That said, vitamin D has been found to reduce your likelihood of a respiratory infection because it leads to several antiviral responses. Vitamin D helps your lung cells to combat viruses and bacteria.
Vitamin D also reduces your risk of inflammation and keeps your immune system from acting up in unhelpful ways. For example, your COVID-19 symptoms could be more grave if your body’s immune system responds too much to the virus and harms tissues that benefit you.
How to get vitamin D through sun exposure: All you need to do is be in the sun without sunscreen–your face, your arms, your legs, your back–for 15-20 minutes a day. That said, keep in mind that older adults do not make as much vitamin D from sun exposure as younger adults.
How to get vitamin D through healthy eating: Generally, milk is fortified with vitamin D, as are many fruit juices and cereals. You can also get your vitamin D from fatty fish, mushrooms and eggs. Smoking reduces your ability to create vitamin D.
How to get vitamin D through exercise: Active adults are more likely to have higher blood levels of vitamin D.
If you have enough vitamin D in your system, there is not a single study showing that you benefit from taking a vitamin D supplement. A recent study of 25,000 people with appropriate blood levels of vitamin D published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that people who took 2,000 IU of vitamin D every day did not reduce their risk of cancer or heart disease as compared to people who took nothing.
And, a 2018 meta-analysis of 81 studies published in The Lancet suggests that taking vitamin D supplements to increase your level of vitamin D might not be beneficial. The analysis did not find that vitamin D helped prevent falls and fractures in older adults.
One meta-analysis of 25 studies, involving 11,000 people, of the effects of vitamin D on respiratory infections found that taking a vitamin D supplement of 800 IU to 2,000 IU every day lowered your odds of getting at least one respiratory infection. People who had the least amount of vitamin D in their blood benefited most from taking a supplement.
Other studies show that vitamin D keeps your bones from weakening. And, still others show that without enough vitamin D, you could be at greater risk of cancer, heart disease and stroke. But, should you take vitamin D supplements? Talk to your doctor. The FDA does not oversee supplements, so they can contain dangerous ingredients and otherwise be harmful.
For sure, there is evidence that excessive amounts of vitamin D–4,000-10,000 IU’s a day–reduces people’s bone density.
Here’s more from Just Care:
Leave a Reply