Vitamin D is one of our basic vitamins, one of the important factors in whole wellness. Everyone knows that it is great for bone health, and that’s true, but most cells in our body have receptors for Vitamin D.
Tip Of The Iceberg
We do not know everything about how our body functions. We have only the tip of the iceberg. As much as we learn and as much research that’s being developed, we still don’t know much. Someone estimated that enough research is being developed and published in one day that one person could never read it in 35 years of medical practice. The research has developed so much in the last decade that we are finding out so much more than we’ve ever known. However, every time we find something, we have 20 more questions that we need to answer.
Our Personal Factories
Imagine that every cell is a factory that has several doors to get in. I am saying a factory because factories will have functions that do something. Every cell is a factory that does certain functions. From each door, there is a channel like a tunnel that will lead to a certain machine in that factory to produce something important for that cell and for the organism that the cell is part of. Just like some factories produce clothes or something else we need, every cell has a function that serves our entire body.
The doors of these cells to get into these channels are unlocked by certain keys. The doors are the receptors, and the keys are everything that binds to receptors. In this case, Vitamin D. Many cells in our bodies and a lot of tissues have receptors or doors that are unlocked by Vitamin D, which means that it influences their functions. Therefore, Vitamin D is a key factor in cell function.
Powerhouse
Vitamin D is shown to lower the production of inflammatory molecules and increase the production of anti-inflammatory molecules. Everything is inflammation:
- Diabetes
- Alzheimer’s
- Obesity
- Cardiovascular disease
- Periodontics
These are all inflammatory diseases. So, the more Vitamin D we have, the more we can fight this inflammation. We all have different levels of inflammation depending on what we eat and do. Chronic inflammation and lack of Vitamin D have also been associated with several sleep disorders. Vitamin D levels are one of the most important factors to correctly assess if you are prone to getting other diseases and how you’re going to fare when you get sick.
Vitamin D Deficiency
The problem is that Vitamin D levels have been so chronically low that people are just okay with having a minimum. The normal range is 30 to 100. Below 30 is deficient, from 30 to 50 is insufficient, and over 50 is sufficient. But 50 is still only half of normal. The papers on COVID have shown that you need a level more like 60 to 70 to fight off the virus. At that level, you can be more confident that there is much less risk of having severe disease. The fact that we don’t recognize the importance of a high level of Vitamin D is what’s hurting most people.
It’s important to be tested to find out your own Vitamin D levels. Know your levels and then supplement accordingly. 80% of people are chronically deficient so taking a supplement every day merely maintains your level. If you’re trying to increase your levels, you need to increase your daily supplement until you reach the desired level and then take it at the appropriate level every day to maintain it, especially in the winter when there is less sun. It’s important to know that vitamins A, D, E and K are fat-soluble vitamins so they get stored in our body so it’s possible to take too much.
Dr. Black’s Vitamin D Journey
My personal story on my personal wellness is that COVID has woken me up. Every year, I would visit my doctor, and the only thing he has ever said is your Vitamin D levels are not where they should be. You’re going to be an old lady with frail bones. Forget about the fact that it’s connected to inflammation and sleep deprivation. When the papers started coming out in April 2020 that you need to have levels of about 60 to fare well in this pandemic, I was like, I have never had any health problems, so my Vitamin D level is my weakest link.
Since it is fat-soluble, you can get Vitamin D with essential oils. So I used a liquid Vitamin D that I would put under my tongue every day. The directions said that to maintain normal levels, you have to take one or two drops each day. Well, I took the whole dropper full. In December 2019, when I was tested, my Vitamin D level was only 12. I started taking the dropper full of Vitamin D in August 2020, and when I was tested again in December 2020, it was up to 46, and by April 2021, it was at 99. I stopped for a while because I was high enough, and summer was coming, and I knew I would be outside in the sun. (It’s important to get outside in the sun for Vitamin D.) Now that winter is coming, I’m starting to supplement again but not as much as I did because my levels are already sufficient. I just want to keep them that way.
Vitamin D and Sleep
There are a lot of studies that show a link between the level of Vitamin D and certain sleep disorders. We also have studies to show that supplementation has improved different sleep parameters. It is important to make sure that we have the correct level of Vitamin D for our sleep, our bone health and our immune system.
For our Sleep Wellness patients, we talk about inflammation. Deficiency in Vitamin D has been shown to influence sleep parameters negatively, and supplementation has been shown to improve them. Some successful studies on Vitamin D supplementation to help sleep or help lose weight have been done. Injections of 50,000 units of Vitamin D were used weekly for six to eight weeks to show how it affects these conditions. You have to give yourself what you need to function and heal well.
Vitamin D and Weight Loss
Vitamin D levels and weight have been shown to be connected. You cannot lose weight if you have sleep apnea because you need to be able to sleep and sleep well to get to the deep sleep for the hormones involved in weight loss to even be created. If we don’t sleep long enough or well enough, we can’t lose weight. If we don’t have the right levels, we can’t sleep well. It’s all related to Vitamin D.
Vitamin D, Inflammation And Orthodontics
When patients come to see us at Sleep Wellness Associates or Appalachian Orthodontics, we treat the whole person holistically. Every patient who comes to us for orthodontics will be assessed for inflammation levels in the mouth. If there’s inflammation in the mouth, we need to lower it because you can’t straighten teeth if the bones and gums underneath are inflamed. If they are inflamed, the teeth are not stable in the mouth. We talk to the patient about assembling a team of providers like their general dentist and a periodontist. If there are other general but associated diseases like diabetes or obesity, we talk about that and get their physician involved. We discuss trying to improve those areas as well because it is all connected.
Not A Silver Bullet, But It’s A Start
God has given us this amazing, amazing body that can heal itself if we give it what it needs. But we have to recognize that we don’t know more than the tip of the iceberg of how we function, but He does. And, we need to humble ourselves and use what we know to heal ourselves. We know that if we have the correct levels of Vitamin D, our inflammation decreases, our sleep will be better and that we are then will be able to lose weight. I’m not saying that it’s a silver bullet. Nothing is a silver bullet. But, we have to start somewhere. We have to take control of our wellness, and nobody can do that for us.
That’s why I say holistically. You can’t do anything in medicine without looking at the whole body because everything is so interrelated. Remember the cell. I told you it’s a factory with a bunch of tunnels that you get in with different keys. Those different doors and tunnels are interrelated and tied together, making it so complicated for us to study and understand one hundred percent.
Click here to listen as Dr. Elena Black discusses the importance of Vitamin D for overall health with Lynchburg’s WLNI 105.9 FM
For more information about Dr. Black and how she treats the whole patient, contact Sleep Wellness of Lynchburg at 434-338-6551 for sleep medicine or contact Appalachian Orthodontics of Lynchburg at 434-515-0370 for orthodontics.