Body pain and tiredness?
Could be lack of vitamin D
October 30, 2021 by Jenni Smith
With pain in the chest, shoulders and arms, the engineer Roger Okura, 37, was worried and had an appointment with a cardiologist in July this year. He did some imaging and blood tests, which revealed a low level of D vitamin, 11.00 ng/mL – the reference for your profile is 20 ng/mL minimum. He left the office with a prescription for vitamin D tablets to be consumed for a few months and a recommendation to take the sun to enable the synthesis of vitamin D and to practice physical exercise regularly. The heart? It was great.
“I stay in the office all day on weekdays. I try to sunbathe at lunchtime, but it’s only for a few minutes and not so often,” says Roger. After a few months of supplementing with vitamin D pills, he claims the body aches are gone.Low-level cases of D vitamin in the body, like Roger’s, they are a worldwide public health problem, including in Brazil. A study carried out by the University of Cruz Alta (Unicruz) in 2018 revealed that 68.9% of the participants, aged 18 to 60 years, had vitamin D levels below the recommended level (hypovitaminosis).
The so-called “vitamin D” is actually a pre-hormone that, associated with parathyroid hormone (PTC), has an important role in bone health. Low levels can cause diseases such as osteomalacia, which makes bones brittle and brittle in adults. In children, vitamin D deficiency can result in rickets, which compromises bone development, explains orthopedist Cecília Richard, president of the osteometabolic diseases committee of the Brazilian Society of Orthopedics and Traumatology (SBOT). “It is very common to receive patients in the office with complaints of muscle pain, something that can have different causes. Vitamin D deficiency is one of them.”
Elderly people, patients who underwent bariatric surgery, people undergoing chemotherapy, obese, for example, should have their vitamin D levels monitored by a doctor, according to orthopedist Cecília. But as the problem is common across the population, she warns that everyone should be concerned about sunbathing – or supplementing with vitamins, if sunbathing is not possible. “In order to have a strong bone structure, it is necessary to take care of vitamin D from childhood, in addition to practicing strong physical exercises. This will make a difference in your skeletal health as an elderly person”, he says. According to the orthopedist, the elderly are more likely to have insufficiency or deficiency of this vitamin.
Food alone does not meet the body’s needsTo be able to synthesize vitamin D naturally, it is necessary to sunbathe directly on the skin. “Food does not meet the needs of vitamin D. Frequent exposure to the sun for 15 minutes, without sunscreen on arms and legs, around 11 am, ensures good levels of vitamin D in young and healthy people,” he explains the endocrinologist and professor Maria Lucia Fleiuss de Farias, from the Brazilian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism (SBEM). The seemingly simple solution is a challenge for society. “Environmental pollution, the use of sunscreen and lifestyle habits contribute to the lower synthesis of D vitamin in the skin. People are in front of the computer, the television”, says Maria Lúcia.
Having worked for more than 5 years in the IT area at dawn, Camila dos Santos Borda, 39, became more sensitive to sunlight and started to flee from the sun. When doing the routine exams, in 2018, he was scared: he was at 6 ng/mL, a level far below the recommended level. “I had pain in my body and an enormous amount of tiredness. The doctor said that vitamin D deficiency was the cause of these symptoms,” he says. Since then, she takes the supplement and forces herself to sunbathe often, even though she doesn’t like it. You have the right vitamin D levels – and you feel more energetic.
By being restricted to his home during the pandemic, pharmacist Felippe de Alencar Silva, 31, reduced his exposure to the sun. This resulted in a drop in her vitamin D level, which was accused in the checkup carried out in July. The blood test indicated that he was 12.49 ng/mL, while the minimum level for his profile is 20 ng/mL. Since then, he started taking vitamin D supplement pills daily. “During the week, I work until 6 pm indoors. I don’t have space to sunbathe, nor the usual. On weekends, I try to do something outdoors, like walks in the park. It is far from ideal, but it should improve as the pandemic diminishes”, he says.
Other diseases, in addition to bone-related ones, are related to vitamin D deficiency, says nutrologist Durval Ribas Filho, president of the Brazilian Association of Nutrology (Abran). “Hypertension, diabetes, autoimmune diseases and cancer have already been associated with vitamin D deficiency in several studies”, he says.
According to him, vitamin D insufficiency also weakens the immune system, which opens doors for pathogenic viruses and bacteria – including coronavirus. Therefore, the nutrologist recommends that people who are at greater risk for covid-19 (because they have comorbidities) seek a professional to assess the levels of supplemental vitamin E, if it is not above 40ng/mL.
“It seems sensible to recommend supplementation to reach adequate levels of vitamin D, aiming at global health”, says the endocrinologist Maria Lúcia.
The consumption of vitamin D supplements practically doubled in Brazil during the first 12 months of the pandemic: it grew 93% in Brazil between April 2020 and April 2021, according to the National Pharmaceutical Laboratories Association (Alanac). Professor Alicia Kowaltowski, from the Department of Biochemistry at the University of São Paulo, warns of the risks of excessive consumption.
“Overdose is associated with several health problems. Therefore, vitamin D supplementation should never be taken without medical advice and without prior dosage of its individual levels. In case of need for replacement due to proven lack, the dosage has to be carefully calculated as it is different for each person”, he says. The teacher explains that vitamin D is not easily eliminated in the urine and is absorbed by fat, so it accumulates in the body, offering a risk of overdose.
HOW TO GET VITAMIN D
With pain in the chest, shoulders and arms, the engineer Roger Okura, 37, was worried and had an appointment with a cardiologist in July this year. He did some imaging and blood tests, which revealed a low level of D vitamin, 11.00 ng/mL – the reference for your profile is 20 ng/mL minimum. He left the office with a prescription for vitamin D tablets to be consumed for a few months and a recommendation to take the sun to enable the synthesis of vitamin D and to practice physical exercise regularly. The heart? It was great.
“I stay in the office all day on weekdays. I try to sunbathe at lunchtime, but it’s only for a few minutes and not so often,” says Roger. After a few months of supplementing with vitamin D pills, he claims the body aches are gone.Low-level cases of D vitamin in the body, like Roger’s, they are a worldwide public health problem, including in Brazil. A study carried out by the University of Cruz Alta (Unicruz) in 2018 revealed that 68.9% of the participants, aged 18 to 60 years, had vitamin D levels below the recommended level (hypovitaminosis).
The so-called “vitamin D” is actually a pre-hormone that, associated with parathyroid hormone (PTC), has an important role in bone health. Low levels can cause diseases such as osteomalacia, which makes bones brittle and brittle in adults. In children, vitamin D deficiency can result in rickets, which compromises bone development, explains orthopedist Cecília Richard, president of the osteometabolic diseases committee of the Brazilian Society of Orthopedics and Traumatology (SBOT). “It is very common to receive patients in the office with complaints of muscle pain, something that can have different causes. Vitamin D deficiency is one of them.”
Elderly people, patients who underwent bariatric surgery, people undergoing chemotherapy, obese, for example, should have their vitamin D levels monitored by a doctor, according to orthopedist Cecília. But as the problem is common across the population, she warns that everyone should be concerned about sunbathing – or supplementing with vitamins, if sunbathing is not possible. “In order to have a strong bone structure, it is necessary to take care of vitamin D from childhood, in addition to practicing strong physical exercises. This will make a difference in your skeletal health as an elderly person”, he says. According to the orthopedist, the elderly are more likely to have insufficiency or deficiency of this vitamin.
Food alone does not meet the body’s needsTo be able to synthesize vitamin D naturally, it is necessary to sunbathe directly on the skin. “Food does not meet the needs of vitamin D. Frequent exposure to the sun for 15 minutes, without sunscreen on arms and legs, around 11 am, ensures good levels of vitamin D in young and healthy people,” he explains the endocrinologist and professor Maria Lucia Fleiuss de Farias, from the Brazilian Society of Endocrinology and Metabolism (SBEM). The seemingly simple solution is a challenge for society. “Environmental pollution, the use of sunscreen and lifestyle habits contribute to the lower synthesis of D vitamin in the skin. People are in front of the computer, the television”, says Maria Lúcia.
Having worked for more than 5 years in the IT area at dawn, Camila dos Santos Borda, 39, became more sensitive to sunlight and started to flee from the sun. When doing the routine exams, in 2018, he was scared: he was at 6 ng/mL, a level far below the recommended level. “I had pain in my body and an enormous amount of tiredness. The doctor said that vitamin D deficiency was the cause of these symptoms,” he says. Since then, she takes the supplement and forces herself to sunbathe often, even though she doesn’t like it. You have the right vitamin D levels – and you feel more energetic.
By being restricted to his home during the pandemic, pharmacist Felippe de Alencar Silva, 31, reduced his exposure to the sun. This resulted in a drop in her vitamin D level, which was accused in the checkup carried out in July. The blood test indicated that he was 12.49 ng/mL, while the minimum level for his profile is 20 ng/mL. Since then, he started taking vitamin D supplement pills daily. “During the week, I work until 6 pm indoors. I don’t have space to sunbathe, nor the usual. On weekends, I try to do something outdoors, like walks in the park. It is far from ideal, but it should improve as the pandemic diminishes”, he says.
Other diseases, in addition to bone-related ones, are related to vitamin D deficiency, says nutrologist Durval Ribas Filho, president of the Brazilian Association of Nutrology (Abran). “Hypertension, diabetes, autoimmune diseases and cancer have already been associated with vitamin D deficiency in several studies”, he says.
According to him, vitamin D insufficiency also weakens the immune system, which opens doors for pathogenic viruses and bacteria – including coronavirus. Therefore, the nutrologist recommends that people who are at greater risk for covid-19 (because they have comorbidities) seek a professional to assess the levels of supplemental vitamin E, if it is not above 40ng/mL.
“It seems sensible to recommend supplementation to reach adequate levels of vitamin D, aiming at global health”, says the endocrinologist Maria Lúcia.
The consumption of vitamin D supplements practically doubled in Brazil during the first 12 months of the pandemic: it grew 93% in Brazil between April 2020 and April 2021, according to the National Pharmaceutical Laboratories Association (Alanac). Professor Alicia Kowaltowski, from the Department of Biochemistry at the University of São Paulo, warns of the risks of excessive consumption.
“Overdose is associated with several health problems. Therefore, vitamin D supplementation should never be taken without medical advice and without prior dosage of its individual levels. In case of need for replacement due to proven lack, the dosage has to be carefully calculated as it is different for each person”, he says. The teacher explains that vitamin D is not easily eliminated in the urine and is absorbed by fat, so it accumulates in the body, offering a risk of overdose.
HOW TO GET VITAMIN D
- Best time: Sunbathing is primarily responsible for the availability of vitamin D in the body. UVB rays are those that allow the substance to be synthesized in the skin. They fall more heavily between 10am and 4pm. However, UVB rays can also cause redness and skin cancer. So don’t go much further than 15 minutes of daily exposure at this time. The further away from the Equator, the longer the exposure time should be.
- Little clothes are better: Sun directly on the skin, which will only synthesize vitamin D if it is not covered by clothes or a hat. So, roll up your sleeves and expose the largest area of skin whenever you’re in the sun. And open the window, because the glass blocks UVB rays.
- Sunscreen: The use of sunscreen prevents skin cancer and prevents its premature aging. But if your whole body is covered with the lotion, it won’t be possible for UVB rays to strike to promote vitamin D synthesis.
- Food helps but doesn’t solve: Food sources can correspond to 20% of the vitamin D present in the body – the rest is promoted by sun exposure. Tuna, salmon, egg yolks and whole milk are rich in vitamin D.