Can Lack of Vitamin D Cause Depression

Vitamin D is an inexpensive supplement that the body produces when basking outside on a sunny morning. While the skin synthesizes it naturally through sun exposure, many people are reported to have low vitamin D levels. This deficiency can lead to a debilitating disorder such as depression.

The functions of vitamin D are to keep your bones strong, enhance immune function and promote cell growth. Many people ask, can lack vitamin D cause depression? The answer is yes because this fat-soluble nutrient plays a big role in depression. Due to that, most individuals with depression tend to have lower vitamin D levels.

The sun-linked vitamin helps regulate mood because its receptors in the brain take care of mood and behavior functions which include the development of depression. However, taking its supplements can help to improve anxiety and mood. Additionally, low levels of this vitamin may contribute to seasonal affective disorder, anxiety, and other psychosocial problems.

So then, let’s review the connection between Vitamin D deficiency and depression.

What are the Symptoms of Vitamin D Deficiency Depression?

The skin produces vitamin D naturally when you expose your body to the sun. The essential nutrient has multiple benefits beyond its reputation as sunshine vitamin. For instance, this vitamin helps the body to absorb calcium. It also boosts your immune health, improves the health of your hair, aid in weight management, and much more.

Vitamin D deficiency is linked to cases of depression. In fact, the question – can lack of vitamin D cause depression? – is among the most researched topics.

Depression is defined as a mood disorder that makes a person experience persistent feelings of sadness as well as lack interest. These feelings can be mild, moderate, or severe. For instance, mild depression can simply make you feel low and disinterested in anything. Severe depression, on the other hand, is referred to as major depressive disorder or clinical depression. This level has symptoms such as suicidal actions or thoughts and feelings of hopelessness.

One of the proactive steps you can take to manage depression is lifestyle changes. This includes eating a well-balanced diet, taking appropriate supplements, regular exercise, and enough sleep. Vitamin D is one of the crucial nutrients that your diet should have. You should also expose your body to the sun to help you acquire it naturally, thus increasing your daily intake.

Your body needs vitamin D to function properly. In fact, your body has vitamin D receptors located in the brain, heart, muscles, and immune system. When the skin makes vitamin B, the body transports this nutrient to the liver and kidney to convert it into an active hormone. This helps the body to absorb calcium.

Low levels of the sunshine vitamin contribute to depression and seasonal affective disorder. Some of the vitamin D deficiency depression symptoms include:

• Mood changes.
• Feelings of sadness, hopelessness, helplessness.
• Suicidal thoughts.
• Forgetfulness.
• Fatigue.
• Anxiety.
• Trouble sleeping.

It’s advisable to check your vitamin D levels if you have these depression-like symptoms. While the blood test will not diagnose your depression, it will help identify what is causing these depressive symptoms.

How Does Vitamin D Affect My Mood?

Vitamin D has several functions in your body. The nutrient helps to maintain heart health, brain, and good bone. There is a real connection between low vitamin D levels and depression. However, this doesn’t mean that taking a lot of the sunshine vitamin will treat or prevent depression.

The deficiency has both minor and major depression symptoms. Mood disorder is one of the symptoms of impaired cognitive function. Vitamin D receptors are placed in areas of the brain that take care of behavior and mood, including the development of depression.

That means vitamin D deficiency in your body may contribute to poor mood and behavior regulation. These low levels can impair cognitive function as well as the health of your brain.

People with vitamin D insufficiency and experiencing negative emotions can take supplements to improve the symptoms. This is recommendable, especially to populations living far from the equator where they lack enough exposure to the sun. Other people at a higher risk are those with conditions such as renal disease, liver disease, celiac, obesity, those with darker skin, and the elderly.

How Can Vitamin D Deficiency Affect You Mentally?

Vitamin D is a nutrient needed at each level for your body to function properly. In fact, every tissue in your body has vitamin D receptors. It is also the only vitamin that is a hormone.

The body synthesizes or absorbs it in the skin or when you consume a nutritious diet. It’s transported to organs such as the kidneys and liver that convert into an active hormone. This hormone helps the body absorb calcium, which helps build healthy teeth, bones, and muscles.

Additionally, the sunshine vitamin activates genes responsible for regulating the immune system and releasing neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine. These affect how your brain develops and functions because there are a handful of cells with vitamin D receptors in the regions of the brain linked to depression.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) cases increase during seasons when there is relatively little sunshine. This mood disorder has depressive symptoms that coincide with a drop in vitamin D levels. This nutrient is linked to mental issues such as depression and mood.

Vitamin D supplementation can help improve symptoms associated with mental issues when used as part of treatment because they are many causes of depression. Although vitamin D is a small part of the treatment, it’s critical because any deficiency can prolong and impair recovery from depression.

So then, can lack of vitamin D cause depression? Yes. There is a link between vitamin D insufficiency and mental illness. However, optimizing vitamin D levels can positively improve your psychological well-being.

Are the Symptoms of Vitamin D Associated Depression Severe?

Vitamin D is an essential, fat-soluble nutrient. It boosts immune functions and promotes cell growth. Any insufficiency of this nutrient can worsen vitamin D-associated depression symptoms. In fact, low vitamin D levels circulating in the blood is linked to postpartum depression. This type of depression happens weeks after childbirth.

Reduced vitamin D levels can increase the severity of depressive disorder because its insufficiency represents an underlying biological susceptibility to depression. Vitamin D deficiency is increasingly being linked to cognitive decline and mental health. This has become a major public health problem in recent years.

People with vitamin D-associated depression experience improvements days after taking supplements. Increasing intentional outside time can optimize vitamin D synthesis. Additionally, consuming vitamin D-rich foods such as UV-exposed mushrooms, fish such as salmon or trout, or plant-based milk can help to increase the levels of this nutrient in your body and reduce the symptoms.

What are the Symptoms of Low Vitamin D Levels?

Getting enough vitamin D can keep the body functioning properly. The safe daily maximum limit is 4,000 IU. This level is essential for strong bones because the nutrient helps the body absorb calcium from the diet.

Aside from limited exposure to sunshine, following a strict vegan diet can affect your vitamin D levels. This is likely because most of its natural sources are animal-based products such as beef liver, fortified milk, egg yolks, fish such as salmon or tuna, and fish oils.

Sufficient vitamin D levels are in the range of 20 to 50 nanograms/milliliter can protect you against several health problems. Adults between one year and 70 years should consume at least 600 IU to at most 4,000 IU every day. Persons aged 70 and above should consume at least 800 IU every day to give the body enough vitamin D.

Adults with limited exposure to the sun or those who cover their skin with sunscreen should consult their doctor about taking vitamin supplements to avoid health risks caused by its deficiency. Actually, too few levels of this nutrient in the blood – below 12 nanograms/milliliter – can lead to severe symptoms, which include:

• Bone loss and muscle weakness leading to skeletal deformities, soft bones, and muscle cramps.
• Cognitive impairments, especially in older adults.
• Severe asthmatic attack in children.
• Mood changes.
• Fatigue.
• Increased risk of getting cardiovascular disease.
• High blood pressure.
• Diabetes.
• Immune system disorders.
• Some types of cancer like breast cancer, prostate, and colon.

How Long Does It Take For Vitamin D to Improve My Mood?

As mentioned above, insufficient vitamin D in the body can negatively impact your life. The deficiency can leave you feeling weak, tired, and depressed. Unlike what most people believe, lack of sunlight can have adverse effects such as dragging your mood down.

In fact, depressed persons with too low vitamin D levels tend to attempt suicide compared to those with depression and sufficient levels. The reason behind this is that the availability of this nutrient lowers inflammation linked to suicide.  

Working with your doctor, you can improve these levels within a few months and avert severe depression cases. Actually, taking vitamin D supplements according to the plan you create with your doctor can be helpful. A high-dose vitamin D regimen is recommended in severe cases but should be derived after a blood test.

This begs the question, how long does it take for the vitamin D to improve my mood? The length of time it takes before you feel after taking vitamin D supplements may depend on how severe the deficiency was. It might take weeks to feel happy if your levels were slightly low and months if they were more depleted. Further, your doctor will continuously monitor the vitamin D levels in your blood and adjust the dose accordingly.

Additionally, following the treatment, the vitamin D levels in the blood increase at 1 nanogram/milliliter per 40 IU taken. That means your mood will start to improve once the nutrient kicks in. It’s also important to check the progress every 2-3 months, and the doctor should adjust the dose based on the improvement achieved.

It’s vital to pay attention to your body because it’s better to avoid the deficiency instead of rebuilding your system or restoring your well-being.

How Long Does It Take to Recover from Vitamin D Deficiency?

The duration of recovery from vitamin D deficiency varies based on your levels before commencing the treatment. Can lack of vitamin D cause depression? How long does it take to recover from vitamin D deficiency? Such questions and topics have led to numerous studies geared towards discovering the impact of getting too much or having too little vitamin D levels in the body.

The findings indicate that it can take 2-3 months to raise the levels, depending on how low they were before starting the treatment. Further, the recommended daily allowance for adults below 70 years is 600 IUs and 800 IUs for 70 years and above.

Any additional dose above the recommended levels has to be approved by your doctor. In other words, there is no shortcut to restoring your vitamin D levels because excessive vitamin D levels are also toxic to the body. These high levels can lead to calcification of soft tissues, renal failures, cardiac arrhythmias, etc.

Further, the nutrient is fat-soluble, and the body stores it once it has been synthesized or absorbed in the blood. The ability makes it easier to recover from a deficiency than water-soluble vitamin C. Your doctor might recommend taking the supplement every day for the next 12 months or maintenance treatment to help your body build the levels or prevent deficiency in the future.

How Can I Raise My Vitamin D Levels Quickly?

Sometimes it can be hard to tell your vitamin D levels unless you get tested. Actually, most of this nutrient deficiency early indicators are similar to those of other ailments. These include fatigue, muscle weakness, painful joints, depression, changing mood, and the like.

Maintaining appropriate vitamin D levels is vital for your body to function properly. However, the majority of people don’t get enough of it. Getting vitamin D naturally is the best and most efficient option. The following are methods of increasing your vitamin D levels.

Sunbathing

Spending 10 – 20 minutes in the sun exposes your skin to ultraviolet light, which synthesizes the vitamin and distributes it in the body. In fact, sunbathing in direct sunlight can help you get the recommended daily dose of this nutrient.

People with lighter skin absorb the vitamin faster than those with darker skin. However, the latter category can still get the recommended levels when they spend more time, such as 40 minutes in the sun.

Applying sunscreen protects your skin against skin cancer. However, sunscreen blocks vitamin D absorption. You can avoid that by first getting your daily dosage before putting on your sunscreen. Alternatively, you can apply sunscreen partially, especially to the most sensitive parts such as the face, and expose the rest to the sun.

Nutrient-Rich Diet

It’s hard to get enough sunlight in some parts of the earth. Thus people living in extreme north or south of the equator don’t get adequate sunlight. Still, there are those who get sun rash or worse when they stand in the sun, even for a few minutes, due to the makeup of their genes.

These individuals can get their daily dose naturally by consuming foods rich in vitamin D. These vitamin D-rich foods include:

• Eggs
• Sardines
• Salmon
• Tuna
• Shrimp
• Mackerel
• Fortified dairy products
• Cereals
• UV light-exposed mushrooms

While this option can give you the recommended daily dose, it’s essential to consume other vitamins and minerals that make it easy for your body to absorb vitamin D and utilize it. These include zinc, boron, magnesium, vitamins A and K. You can get these essential nutrients by consuming a lot of nuts, beans, and fish.

Supplements

Standing in the sun and eating a nutritious diet may at times not help you to get the required amounts of vitamin D into your system. Further, it might be hard to measure how much you’re getting through the natural way. Testing your levels constantly may also be impractical. Taking supplements is the only sure way of tracking your daily intake and recovery from vitamin D deficiency.

Supplements are also the easiest way to recover from vitamin D deficiency and the sure way to know how much you’re adding to the body. This method prevents sunburns, and you can incorporate it into your diet. This gives you control of your daily vitamin D consumption ensures measurable and consistent intake by eliminating guesswork.

How Much Vitamin D Should I Take If I Am Deficient?

The recommended vitamin D daily intake for adults under 70 years, pregnant women, and children is 600 IU, and 800 UI for 70 and above. Infants below a year should consume 400 UI. Individuals with extremely low vitamin D levels might consume more to help them restore the levels to the recommended amounts. However, this can only be done with the doctor’s approval.

While extremely low vitamin D levels are dangerous, the opposite end is also toxic. Overdosing vitamin D can cause hypercalcemia, where the body deposits calcium in the soft tissues and organs. This is painful and damaging.

Because of such dangers, it’s important to take the recommended amounts of vitamin D even when building the nutrient level in the body. You should also not make a significant change in your vitamin intake without consulting your doctor, especially if you have depression.

Can Vitamin D Deficiency Cause Serious Problems?

Vitamin D is a major player in the well-being of humans. It has a potential contribution to people’s good health. Actually, there are nearly 36 organ tissues in your body that have cells that biologically respond to vitamin D.  These include the colon, intestine, lungs, kidneys, bone marrow, prostate, breast, uterus, stomach, retina, and skin.

The sunshine vitamin is strongly linked to many diseases and has a broad influence on the body. It’s therefore important to reevaluate your daily the amount you consume every day. In fact, you need an adequate amount of vitamin D to support the huge demand by the 36 organs. That means you should balance your sunlight exposure with dietary intake.

Vitamin D deficiency has a negative impact on your health, such as muscle strength decrease, increased risk of getting major cancers, high risk of falls due to bone loss, depression, impaired wound healing, hair loss, anxiety, fatigue, tiredness, etc.

As mentioned above, vitamin D plays a critical role in role in the body such as:

• Secretion and regulation of insulin
• Regulation of the blood pressure and the heart
• Supports brain activities
• Improve muscle strength
• Reduces the risk of cancer
• Treatment of depression
• Helps with weight loss

On the other hand, excessive consumption of vitamin D has a negative impact as well. High vitamin D levels cause hypercalcemia, a condition where your blood’s calcium level is remarkably higher than normal.

Therefore, it’s crucial to maintain sufficient vitamin levels of 20 to 50 nanograms/milliliter to avoid serious health problems.

Conclusion

Vitamin D deficiency is common across the world due to limited exposure to sunlight, wearing sunscreen when stepping outside, not eating a healthy diet rich in vitamin D, and having chronic conditions like liver, kidney, or celiac disease.

Sadly, the majority of people are unaware that they have an insufficient level of sunshine vitamin D because it has subtle and nonspecific symptoms. As a result, there is a surge in the number of online searches about, can lack of vitamin D cause depression?

Low vitamin D level is linked to depression, mood changes, fatigue, tiredness, and a host of conditions and illnesses. Filling your vitamin D tank can help relieve most of the symptoms linked to major diseases.

Ensure that your Vitamin D level is in the range of 20 to 50 nanograms/milliliter by consuming 600 nanograms/milliliter every day if you’re aged below 70 years and 800 nanograms/milliliter above 70 years.

It’s recommendable to consume enough of this nutrient if you have depression because the vitamin D receptors are located in areas of the brain that regulate emotion and behavior. Having sufficient levels will have a huge difference in how you feel.