It is so important to have sufficient levels of vitamin D because research has shown that this versatile nutrient plays a key role in keeping you in good health, not only for supporting your immune function but also for your general health. For example, it has been found to:
- be vital for bone health and osteoporosis
- play a major role in breast and bowel cancer prevention
- help with other conditions as diverse as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, joint pains and arthritis, dementia, autoimmune diseases, fertility, autism, and allergies
- help with SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder).
We now have rickets back in children which was thought to have been eliminated 40 years ago. Your body does not expect to get much vitamin D from your food as it is made by the exposure of the skin to sunlight, so at certain times of the year, your level could be generally low. That is why Public Health England recommend that all adults and children over one should be supplementing with vitamin D.
If you suffer from joint pains it is important that you are checked for vitamin D deficiency because research has shown that people who have musculoskeletal pain e.g. low back pain are often deficient in vitamin D and when the vitamin D deficiency is corrected by taking supplementation the pain is eliminated.
If you have been told that you have high cholesterol make sure you change your diet but at the same time get your vitamin D level checked. Cholesterol is used to make vitamin D so if you are deficient in vitamin D, your liver can be producing more cholesterol to try and produce more vitamin D. By correcting the vitamin D deficiency, your body does not have to produce so much cholesterol.
And if you are trying to get pregnant or having recurrent miscarriages then it is important that your vitamin D level is checked because it is known that having good levels of vitamin D helps the body maintain a pregnancy by effectively switching off the part of the immune system that could reject a baby as only half the DNA is the mother’s.
Who should take this test?
- This is such an important nutrient, that everyone should know what their vitamin D level is.
- If you have low bone density (osteopenia) or osteoporosis or just want to work on prevention of osteoporosis
- Anyone with joint pains
- Family history risk of breast cancer and/or heart disease
- Anyone who has been diagnosed with pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes
- If you have a darker colour skin or have to stay indoors for long periods of time
Test Procedure
- We will send you a kit to take a simple finger prick sample of blood at home.
- The test results will be returned to your nutritionist and the results will be interpreted by your nutritionist at the consultation and a protocol tailored accordingly.