Transform Your Health This Winter: 8 Powerful Reasons to Prioritise Vitamin D

With winter around the corner and the days getting shorter, now is a perfect time for the Brunswick community to explore something many of us are lacking: Vitamin D. As a local Brunswick myotherapist, I’m here to share why this nutrient is critical to your health span, life span, immune function, and much more.

What is Vitamin D?

Vitamin D is an essential nutrient known for its vital role in:

• Bone health

• Immune function

• General wellbeing

It supports the absorption of calcium and phosphorus—essential for strong bones.

Fun Fact: Despite its name, Vitamin D is technically a steroid hormone, not a vitamin, because your body can produce it with the help of sunlight.

Also, to clear things up, Vitamin D is technically not a vitamin but considered a steroid hormone. Unlike other vitamins that are typically obtained from food, Vitamin D is primarily produced in the body and acts as a regulator of various physiological functions. 

How do we get Vitamin D?

• Sunlight: UVB rays trigger Vitamin D synthesis in the skin from cholesterol—similar to photosynthesis in plants.

• Food: Fatty fish, egg yolks, and fortified foods.

• Supplements: Readily available and affordable.

  
  

For those in Brunswick and Melbourne, where winter sunlight is limited, supplementation may be necessary.

So Why Is Vitamin D important?

Vitamin D is responsible for turning genes “on” or “off”. Here’s a good analogy to help you think about it. 

Vitamin D is like the "project manager" of a big construction site.

• Your body is the construction site.

• Calcium and other nutrients are the building materials (bricks, cement, steel).

• Vitamin D is the project manager who makes sure the workers know where to put the bricks, how to build the walls, and when to strengthen the structure.

Without the project manager:

• The materials might just sit there unused.

• Walls might collapse.

• The whole structure (your bones, muscles, immune system) could fail to be built properly or maintained.

Even if you have plenty of materials (calcium, other nutrients), without Vitamin D, your body doesn’t know how to use them efficiently.

 Which Genes Are Affected?

• Bone-building genes: (like osteocalcin, involved in bone mineralization)

• Immune system genes: (like cathelicidin, an antimicrobial peptide)

• Cell growth and differentiation genes: (important for preventing cancer)

• Inflammation-related genes: (helping to control inflammatory responses)

• It’s estimated that vitamin D regulates over 1000 genes!

To Recap on to why Vitamin D is so important 

• Immune Health: It helps fight infections by upregulating antimicrobial proteins.

• Cancer Prevention: It controls genes related to cell growth and apoptosis (cell death), which may reduce cancer risk.

• Autoimmune Diseases: It may help prevent overactive immune responses.

• Bone Formation: It ensures that genes needed for calcium absorption and bone strength are active.

I’m not a doctor but I’d say this is seems pretty important! 

What are signs of low Vitamin D?

Signs of low vitamin D can show up in different ways, and often they’re easy to miss at first. Here's a clear list:

⚠️ Common Signs of Vitamin D Deficiency

 In Severe Deficiency

• Children: Risk of rickets (soft, bent bones)

• Adults: Risk of osteomalacia (soft bones causing pain and weakness)

Quick Self-Check

If you often feel:

• Tired even after good sleep

• Sore in your bones and muscles

• More prone to colds, flu, or infections

• Sad or low for no clear reason

• Slow to heal from cuts or injuries

...you might want to get your vitamin D levels tested.

Most people are unfortunately deficient in vitamin D, if you have 30-20 nanograms per mil or less of Vitamin D then you are clearly deficient and could potentially be experiencing 1 or more of these symptoms that I have just mentioned. A simple blood test will determine this. Ideally having ad least 40-60 nanograms per mil would be the sweet spot or marker to aim for.

How Can I get more Vitamin D?

 Exposing yourself to more sun especially in the winter is a good way to start however I understand it might be difficult with our modern lifestyles but you’re in luck! Supplementing  Vitamin D is fairly cheap and widely available from health stores and pharmacies, it comes in capsule form. Just make sure you buy your vitamin d with k2 as it is better absorbed. It will say on the bottle if it is with K2 or not. 

How much Do I take?

Generally each capsule contains 1000 iu’s of vitamin d. Some have 5000 iu’s per tablet but depending which you choose, for someone who is deficient 4000 to 5000 iu’s per day is recommended to bring you up to healthy levels. If you have sufficient levels the same amount is good for maintenance. If you’re someone who works outside all day you could get away with taking less.

When Should I Take Vitamin D?

Timing is important with Vitamin D, you need to take it in the morning preferably with a meal that has some fat. So eggs, yogurt, avocado or some nuts. Reason being is that Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin so it gets absorbed through the fats of your foods. Having it with breakfast is fine as well. 

I hope this sheds some light on Vitamin D and its importance and why we could all benefit from making sure we are getting enough! Your mind and body will thank you.