18 Science-Proven Benefits Of Vitamin D

Updated on  February 7, 2023
William Toro

Published By:  William Toro

Fact Checked by: Bridget MacDonald, RDN


Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that affects more than two thousand body genes. Our body produces vitamin D when it is exposed to sunlight.

You can also get vitamin D through your diet or through Vitamin D supplement to ensure adequate levels of the vitamin in your blood. Great dietary sources of vitamin D include dairy products and fortified breakfast together with fish like salmon and tuna. [1]


For majority of people, the best way to obtain sufficient amount of vitamin D is to take Vitamin D supplement. However, most vitamin D supplements contain 400 IU of vitamin D which is low. Luckily, many producers of vitamin D supplement are currently adding up to 800 or 1,000 IU into their mixture.

To get enough levels of vitamin D that your body needs to function optimally, look for multivitamin supplement with 1,000 IU of vitamin D especially if you don’t get enough exposure to sunlight.

Benefits of Vitamin D

#1. Vitamin D fights hearts disease

The heart very much like the skeletal muscle has receptors for vitamin D.  Many studies found that vitamin D helps to reduce an individual’s risk of suffering from heart disease. [2] Similarly, many research studies have shown that vitamin D deficiency may be connected to heart disease.

Another Follow-Up Study that monitored roughly fifty thousand healthy men for ten years found that vitamin D deficiency results to fifty percent risk of suffering from heart attack compared to men with normal levels of vitamin D.

Further studies found that insufficient amount of vitamin D are connected to increased risk of heart failure, cardiac death, stroke and other types of cardiovascular disease  including death connected to heath diseases. [3] It was found that the beneficial effect of vitamin D to the heart is due to its ability to control blood pressure and prevent damage to the artery.

It was also found that Vitamin therapeutic effect is due to renin–angiotensin hormone system which can reduce inflammation, or have a direct therapeutic effect on the heart cells and the walls of blood-vessel. [4]

#2. Vitamin D minimizes risk for Flu and Common Cold

A 2010 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition shows that Vitamin D minimizes an individual’s risk of developing flu. [5] The research shows that kids given 1,200 International Units of vitamin D every day over a four months period in winter season minimized their risk of suffering from influenza A infection by more than forty percent.

Vitamin D deficiency is more rampant during the winter season. [6] A Japanese randomized, controlled study found that kids who received 1200 IU of vitamin D supplement every day reduced their risk of suffering from influenza type A but did not show significant variation in the risk to influenza type B.

#3. Vitamin D is great for the treatment of Tuberculosis

Prior to the development of antibiotics, the treatment procedures for tuberculosis are the sunlight and sun lamps. A research analysis of multiple case-control studies shows that people diagnosed with tuberculosis are commonly found with lower levels of vitamin D compared to healthy individuals of related age.

However, these studies were not conducted on the individuals on a long-term basis. Therefore, they do not explicitly represent that Vitamin D deficiency leads to high risk for TB. It was as well found that the receptor that binds Vitamin D varies genetically which in turn influence the risk of TB.

#5. Vitamin D reduces depression

It has been proven by research that vitamin D may play a significant role in mood regulation and can help to get rid of depression. It was found by a study that depressed individual who were given vitamin D supplements got better. [7]

A different study of individuals with fibromyalgia discovered that individuals who are worried and depressed suffer more from vitamin D deficiency. A trial study conducted in Norway among overweight individuals showed that individuals who receive high dose of vitamin D or roughly 20,000 or 40,000 IU every week for one year perked up their mood against individuals used as the control. [8] The research, thus, shows that there is a significant link between vitamin D and the risk of depression.

#6. Vitamin D boosts weight loss

Vitamin D has been found to be associated with weight loss. If you are working on a weight loss goal, taking Vitamin D supplement will help your weight loss goal and prevent heart disease.

A research found that individuals who took vitamin D supplement every day did not lose a substantial amount of weight but their risk for heart disease was improved. [9]

A different study found that individuals who take calcium and vitamin D supplement every day lost more weight than the control group. The researchers concluded that the calcium and vitamin D helped them to achieve weight loss because it suppresses their appetite. [10]

Obese people commonly have low levels of blood vitamin D. This may explain their increased risk of suffering from specific types of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. High 25(OH)D levels result to low BMI, waist circumference, and body fat while at the same it is associated with aging and lean body mass.

#7. Vitamin D for healthy bones

Vitamin D has a great significance in the regulation of blood calcium. It as well helps to maintain the level of phosphorus in the blood. These two factors are essential for the maintenance of healthy bones. [11]

Vitamin D is essential for the absorption of calcium in the intestines. It as well helps to salvage calcium from being removed from the body through the kidneys.

The deficiency of Vitamin D in children results to rickets which is a condition that seriously affects the leg formation due to serious softening of the bone tissue. A number of studies found that vitamin D deficiency results to a high risk of fractures among the elderly.

The researchers suggest that vitamin D supplement may help to prevent that type of fracture when the individual take sufficient dose long as it is taken in high enough doses.

This conclusive combined analysis of twelve studies conducted on the prevention of fracture which involves forty thousand elderly people. The study found that 800 IU every day minimize hip and non-spine fractures by twenty percent whereas smaller doses of 400 IU or less may not result to related benefit.

Vitamin D may as well boost the strength of the muscle and this reduces your risk to falls, which is a widespread issue that results to great disability and death among the elderly. Nevertheless, the dosage of vitamin D plays a significant role. A combination of analysis of various studies discovered that 700 to 1,000 IU of vitamin D every day reduced nineteen percent risk of falls but two hundred  to six hundred IU every day did not have such benefits.

A study found that high single dose of Vitamin D results to a higher risk for fracture and fall risk in elderly women. It is better to take Vitamin D in multiple doses extended all through the year. [12] The study show that moderate doses of vitamin D taken on a regular basis are safe but very high single doses should be avoided as it can result to side effects. However, additional research is required to find out why high amount of single dose of Vitamin D results to side effects.

#8. Reduces risk to type 1 diabetes

Many observational studies found that that the higher levels of Vitamin D reduces an individual risk to suffering from type 1 diabetes while a reduction in the levels of  blood vitamin D increases an individual’s risk to suffering from Type 1 diabetes.

Individuals suffering from type 2 diabetes who are deficient in vitamin D suffer from negative effect of secretion of insulin and tolerance to glucose. [13] A study found that children given 2,000 International Units of Vitamin D everyday lowered their risk to Type 1 Diabetes by eighty-eight percent when they are thirty-two years old. [14]

Type 1 diabetes is as well connected with the geographical location of an individual. A study found that infants in Finland are about four hundred percent more likely to suffer from type 1 diabetes than children from Venezuela. Also, a thirty-year study found that vitamin D may prevent the occurrence type 1 diabetes. The study was conducted with over ten thousand Finnish children from birth.

Children who are constantly given vitamin D supplements lowers their risk to type 1 diabetes by ninety percent. A trial study of nondiabetic patients of sixty-five years and above found that individuals given 700 IU of vitamin D together with calcium had a lower level of fasting plasma glucose against the control group.

#9. Healthy infants

A study found that kids who have a normal normal blood pressure and who were given 2,000 International Units (IU) of Vitamin D every day minimizes to a greater level the stiffness of the wall of the artery when placed side by side kids that received just 400 IU per day. [15]

It was also found that Vitamin D deficiency resulted in low level of vitamin D boosts an individual’s risk of suffering from atopic childhood diseases and allergies like asthma, atopic dermatitis, and eczema. [16] Vitamin D may boost the anti-inflammatory properties of glucocorticoids and this helps to improve the condition of individuals with steroid-resistant asthma. 

#10.  It boost healthy pregnancy

Deficiency of vitamin D during pregnancy can boost the woman’s risk of suffering from preeclampsia and risk to giving birth through a cesarean section.

Vitamin D deficiency is linked to gestational diabetes mellitus and bacterial vaginosis among pregnant women. However, it is essential to note that a child in the womb with high levels of vitamin D from D mother faces the risk of food allergy within the first two years after birth.

#11. Cancer prevention

Vitamin D has been found to result to anti-cancerous effects. Some studies have found that calcitriol which a hormonally active form of vitamin D may minimize the risk to cancerous growth and in the formation of fresh blood vessels in cancerous growth boosting the death of cancer cell death, and minimizing cell increase and metastases. [17]

Majorities of studies also show that there is a connection between small levels of vitamin D and a boost of colorectal cancer. It was as well found through a follow-up study conducted by the Health Professionals that individuals with high levels of vitamin D are less likely to suffer from colon cancer by almost fifty percent.

There are also some studies that show that vitamin D can lower the risk of suffering from breast cancer.  The research found that colon cancer is associated more with higher latitudes than the equatorial region. A number of scientific hypotheses about vitamin D and disease are mostly from studies that compare solar radiation and disease rates in numerous countries. The UVB rays at high latitudes are weaker and this results to lower levels of vitamin D. [18]

Sufficient levels of Vitamin D may as well be an indication that an individual is surviving from cancer.  However, the connection does not essentially imply that taking vitamin d Vitamin will minimize an individuals’ risk of developing cancerous growth.

#12. Vitamin D and Immune Function

Vitamin D has been found to regulate the body’s immune function. As a result, two sets of studies have been conducted on vitamin D to check

(i) if vitamin D deficiency results to multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, and other types of autoimmune conditions that result when the body’s immune system attacks the organs and tissues of the body.

(ii) To check if vitamin D supplement improves the bodies immune system and its defense against communicable diseases like tuberculosis and seasonal flu. A lot of research studies have been conducted in this area and much more are still up-and-coming.

Such studies found that deficiency of Vitamin D results to autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS), type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and autoimmune thyroid disease. [19] Another study established that individuals with the high amount of vitamin D had sixty two percent minimal risk of suffering from MS. Again, a children Finnish study found that vitamin D supplements during infancy results to almost ninety percent minimal risk of suffering from type 1 diabetes as opposed to children not treated with the supplements.

#13. Hypertension

The study conducted by the National Health and Nutrition Examination (NHANES-III) indicated that systolic blood pressure and pulse pressure increases with the deficiency of 25(OH)D and decreases with higher levels of vitamin C among 12,644 individual that took part in the survey. It was as well discovered that age-related boost in systolic blood pressure is extensively reduced with sufficient supply of vitamin D.

The occurrence of hypertension of the artery was as well found to be connected with lower amount of serum 25(OH)D among four thousand and thirty participants that took part in a German study and among six thousand eight hundred and ten British Birth Cohort study. [20]

There are many other studies that proved this fact. Vitamin D has antihypertensive effects which are mainly due to its renoprotective effects, repression of the RAAS, favorable consequences on the homeostasis of calcium which includes hindering the occurrence of secondary hyperparathyroidism, and its vasculoprotective effect.

#14. It prevents Cognitive decline

It was found from an Italian population-based study that insufficient levels of vitamin D resulted in extensive cognitive decline among senior populations. The study was conducted over a six-year period. Low levels of 25(OH) D may be particularly injurious to decision-making functions while it may maintain memory and other cognitive abilities.

#15. Delays the development of Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson’s disease is a disease that is frequently suffered by elderly people which leads to disability among the elderly. A number of studies conducted on the Mini-Finland Health Survey show that lower levels of vitamin D may be a sign that the individual is developing Parkinson disease. [21]

#16. Prevention of Bacterial vaginosis

It was found by a study of data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination that vitamin D deficiency in pregnant women is associated with roughly three time risk of suffering from Bacterial Vaginosis. [22]

It was also found that vitamin D deficiency changes how smoking is connected to bacterial vaginosis in women that are not pregnant.

#17. Management of Pelvic floor disorders

The occurrence of pelvic floor disorders which includes urinary and fecal incontinence increases as an individual ages. Pelvic floor disorders are connected with osteoporosis and low BMD and are one of the major causes of gynecologic surgery.

Women frequently suffer from lower levels of 25(OH) D and this liked with increased risk of pelvic floor disorders as demonstrated by the result of the survey conducted by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey among women over fifty years of age. [23]

#18. Macular restoration connected to aging process

Sufficient blood level of vitamin D seems to be connected with minimal early risk of suffering from age-related macular degeneration (AMD) for women less than seventy-five years old. For this to be operational, there must be a threshold effect at 15.22 ng/L serum 25 (OH) D.

Conclusion

Having known how beneficial Vitamin D is, to get your body’s requirement of Vitamin D, it is essential to limit your exposure to things that limits your supply of vitamin D.

Some factors that may limit your blood level of vitamin D include sunscreen, highly polluted environment, limiting sun exposure by staying indoors, having darker skin and living in areas with gigantic buildings that frequently block your ability to get exposure to sufficient amount of sunlight.

You can also boost your diet with foods that are known to improve the levels of vitamin D like salmon, sardine, shrimp, egg yolk, fortified milk, cereal and orange juice.

If you are unable to get sufficient amount of vitamin D each day through sun exposure and food alone, you can take Vitamin D supplement.

William Toro

William Toro ‧ CPT & Nutritionist


William is a certified personal trainer from NASM, he has also been a rehab physiologist for sports persons. He has more than 15 years of experience training people. And has featured in multiple publications like FoxNews, CNBC, Bustle, and other. 


References:

1. NHS, Vitamin D, retrieved from https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vitamins-and-minerals/vitamin-d/
2. Suzanne Judd, MPH, PhD, Vin Tangpricha, MD, PhD, Vitamin D Deficiency and Risk for Cardiovascular Disease, retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2726624/
3, 12, 18. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Vitamin D, retrieved from https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/vitamin-d/
4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23. Rathish Nair, Arun Maseeh, Vitamin D: The “sunshine” vitamin, retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3356951/
7. R. Jorde, M. Sneve, Y. Figenschau, J. Svartberg, K. Waterloo, Effects of vitamin D supplementation on symptoms of depression in overweight and obese subjects: randomized double blind trial, retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2796.2008.02008.x/abstract
9. Armin Zittermann, Sabine Frisch, Heiner K Berthold, Christian Götting, Joachim Kuhn, Knut Kleesiek, Peter Stehle, Heinrich Koertke, Reiner Koerfer, Vitamin D supplementation enhances the beneficial effects of weight loss on cardiovascular disease risk markers, retrieved from https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/89/5/1321/4596773
13. Suzanne Falck, M.D., FACP, Rachel Nall, MSN, CRNA, An overview of diabetes types and treatments, retrieved from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/info/diabetes/type2diabetes.php
14. Oregon State University, Vitamin D, retrieved from http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/vitamins/vitamin-D
15. Yanbin Dong, Inger S Stallmann-Jorgensen, Norman K Pollock, Ryan A Harris, Daniel Keeton, Ying Huang, Ke Li, Reda Bassali, De-huang Guo, Jeffrey Thomas, Gary L Pierce, Jennifer White, Michael F Holick, Haidong Zhu, A 16-week randomized clinical trial of 2000 international units daily vitamin D3 supplementation in black youth: 25-hydroxyvitamin D, adiposity, and arterial stiffness, retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20660028
16. Daniel A. Searing, MD, Donald YM Leung, MD, PhD, Vitamin D in Atopic Dermatitis, Asthma and Allergic Diseases, retrieved from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2914320/


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