I’m sure everyone remembers the nutrients graph that would be posted all over the school cafeteria, your vitamin A’s and B’s, Calcium and iron, and all sorts of other food information to make sure all the kids were watching what they ate. One that I remember most is Vitamin D, mainly because my parents would always bark about not going outside enough and that I’ll get brittle bones because of it.
Well funnily enough today I get to reverse the roles on them with this blog, why you ask? Because they were very right when they said it was an important vitamin. So let’s take a little trip into what makes vitamin D so important to lots of young adults today and how you can get yourself a quick boost.
What is Vitamin d?
Most will remember vitamin D as the one vitamin that makes everyone feel like a plant as the most common place to get it is from the sun, well, getting the sun to help your body naturally make it. Although you can also get it from things such as oily fish, red meat and breakfast cereals. Surely with all these different places to get it people must have some to spare right? Well that couldn’t be further from the truth… It is estimated that upward of 50% find themselves deficient in this vital life source and not at all by their fault.
With the current changing environment it can be very difficult for the sun to come out and help our bodies along in synthesising Vitamin D, many diets too have omitted vitamin D, not on purpose though. This along with less people being outside because of covid and a growing obesity rate leads to a lot of people being deficient, even those who are very active and sporty can find themselves lacking just because their body struggles to make and take it in.
This can be very detrimental as Vitamin D is a key part in a growing body and healthy skin as a deficit can cause things like rickets, Osteoporosis, aching and weak bones plus it can hamper your skin’s ability to repair and protect against free radicals.
How can vitamin D help?
Vitamin D helps mainly by keeping your bones and teeth healthy since it helps regulate the calcium and phosphate in your body which everyone will know is important to keep your teeth and bones from falling to ruin. This means it can keep many bone related issues like osteoporosis and osteomalacia at bay making it vital to a growing, healthy body.
Skincare wise though it is also very useful to keeping a healthy metabolism, skin cell growth and repair making it a big thing in repair and restore as well as protecting actually as it has been shown to have effects against free radicals from uv radiation.
What are the signs of low vitamin D levels?
The signs for a vitamin D deficiency can be rather easy to spot. Alongside the usual aching bones you can start to experience nausea, confusion, fatigue and constipation, which are all rather uncomfortable in their own right.
How can you get vitamin D when you’re deficient?
Well most people will know of the usual Vitamin D supplements that you have prescribed from your doctors but you can actually get it another way. Us here at Arden Clinic have an injection called Ergocalciferol and despite the tongue twister it can be to say it is an incredibly quick working injection.
Downtime and side effects
There is no real downtime when it comes to Ergocalciferol but it may make your arms feel a little sore for a day or two, like most injections. Side-effects aren’t very common either, you may experience mild nausea, tiredness and a headache, otherwise the only other side effect occurs if you take too much and end up overdosing on vitamin D, although this will only become apparent if you continue to overdose and can eventually lead to Hypervitaminosis. How many times can I have it done?
Usually you would have this injection once every 3-6 months to keep the levels healthy. This can vary depending on the individual but expect a 6 month wait between injections as that is the norm for most people.
How much is a vitamin D injection?
A vitamin D injection at Arden clinic is £35.
