One Third Of Americans Are Vitamin D Deficient

Thu, October 13, 2011

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KMUW / Carla Eckels

If you don’t receive proper sun exposure or supplement with adequate amounts of vitamin D, there’s a chance you are vitamin D deficient.

About one third of Americans are affected by vitamin D deficiency. Many do not realize they have low levels of the sunshine vitamin and may be at risk for additional health problems. 

Frankie Howard Mason noticed her lack of energy but chalked it up to the endless hours of caregiving for her mother.

The 65-year-old retired teacher says she started to notice various symptoms including aches and weakness in her bones, and she was dropping things.

Mason: One day both of my hands just started trembling and shaking like Parkinson’s, and I said “Oh my goodness, maybe I have Parkinson’s like Muhammad Ali. I must call my doctor and go in.”

Mason was given a blood test and discovered her vitamin D level was 11, a low count. Her doctor prescribed 50,000 units of vitamin D to take once a week.

Vitamin D aids in the absorption of calcium, helping to form and maintain strong bones. Numerous health problems have been linked to low vitamin D levels, including bone fractures, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, certain cardiovascular outcomes, cancers and autoimmune diseases.

Dr. Rhea Rogers, obstetrician and gynecologist at the Mid-Kansas Women’s Health Center says many people don’t see any signs and are unaware that they are vitamin D deficient.

Roger: That’s the problem. Many people have no symptoms or the symptoms they have, they don’t recognize because it’s very subtle. Most women are lacking in vitamin D levels that are sufficient and what the labs call normal. Some things that people experience and may not recognize would be like in the winter time when they become very, very sluggish and they say -they- without the sunlight they feel different. That’s a little red flag about vitamin D deficiency.

There are many reasons for the increase in low levels of vitamin D.  With skin cancer scares, people tent to slather on suncreen to eliminate exposure to the sun, which is a natural source of vitamin D. Other risk factors include dark skin, obesity and taking a multivitamin that doesn’t have enough vitamin D in it.

Scientist Bill Combs is the lab manager at Affiliated Medical Services laboratory in Wichita, owned by Via Christi Health Systems. Two years ago AMS Labs sent more than 7000 vitamin D tests to the Mayo Clinic for results. Now all tests are run in house on specialized high-tech machinery.

AMS Labs Manager Bill Combs talks with medical technologist Byron Burke about Vitamin D test results.

Combs: Actually, 25 Hydroxyl vitamin D is the substance that you measure when people talk about measuring vitamin D, and we do that by LCMSMS. That’s a mass spec technique, and as far as I know, we are the only lab in the state of Kansas that does it by that. It’s considered the gold standard methodology for vitamin D testing.

And patients don’t have to wait on a doctor’s order before requesting a vitamin D test at AMS labs, they can take the test on site. The laboratory encourages consultation with a physician regarding test results.

Combs says vitamin D is present in two forms.

Combs: D3 is what’s naturally occurring. That’s when your skin is exposed to sunlight. Your body will naturally will naturally produce D3. D2 is a supplement that, oh it’s in, added to cereal and milk. You can buy it over the counter in pill form, and there’s actually a therapeutic dose when a doctor gives the massive dose for Vitamin D therapy. There’s a D2 treatment, also.

Dr. Rogers says normal range for vitamin D levels is 32 nanograms per milliliter to 100.

Rogers: What they’re telling us is that they really want levels to be around 50 and not higher than 50, although there’s some research that suggests especially in people with breast cancer that it should be even higher around 70. There’s other research that suggests we don’t know what’s a safe level, and that in fact, all that you need really for the protection of bones is greater than 20 nanograms per milliliter, although what’s considered normal is greater than 30 or 32.

Since taking the supplement, Mason says she feels better and is now waiting to see if her test results are back to normal levels. She’s been sitting in the sun 10 to 15 minutes a day, soaking up the UV rays.

Mason: I’ve sometimes just sat down and read the newspaper or a book to have me outside to get the sunshine that I need, and I understand that 10 to 15 minutes of natural sunshine is sufficient even though some of us take, you know, supplements.

Mason says to alleviate any future health problems, it’s important to get tested to be sure you’re not low on vitamin D.

Funding for KMUW’s Sound Mind & Body series is made possible, in part, by Via Christi Health.