Vitamin D Deficiency - Symptom, Treatment And Causes

Hypovitaminosis D or Vitamin D deficiency, can happen from inadequate nutritional intake of this vitamin or/and inadequate exposure to sunlight. There are also certain hereditary disorders that limits vitamin D absorption in the body. Impaired vitamin D conversion into active metabolites can lead to several kinds of bone diseases. Like rickets in children or osteoporosis in the adults. Less vitamin D in your body can also play a vital role in development of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

It is often becomes very difficult to find that whether a newborn or an adult is suffering from Hypovitaminosis D. However, a swift diagnosis of vitamin D deficiency can be made if someone has a sweaty forehead. So if you find that you are ‘glowing’ while your temperature is around 98.6°F and your activity level is remaining steady you may consider doing a vitamin D test. Another sign of vitamin D deficiency is feeling overly exhausted easily. Research on this vitamin has shown that vitamin D supplementation increases muscle control.

Deficiency of vitamin D also results in mood swings and depressions as adequate vitamin D in the metabolism helps in proper secretion of hormones like serotonin.Generally your doctor will start by jotting down the patient’s history to determine if the patient has been experiencing signs and symptoms that can indicate deficiency of this mineral in the patient’s body.

Primarily the doctor can order for a blood test for find the serum concentration of 25(OH)D in the patient. This is the type of vitamin D that circulates in our body. So taking a test of this profile, is considered as a good reflection of how much of vitamin D the patient has absorbed from daily diet and from the rays of the sun.

Levels of this vitamin are expressed in nmol/L (nanomoles/liter) or ng/mL (nanograms/milliliter).

Doctors can also ask the patient for undergoing a special bone density scan, if the patient is suffering from brittle bones or symptoms of osteoporosis. Food that are naturally rich in vitamin D are fatty fishes like salmon, tuna and mackerel. Other than these beef, cheese, fish liver oil, egg yolks, mushrooms are also enriched with vitamin D.Some of the food manufacturers also sometimes fortify foods with vitamin D, especially foods that are often eaten by children, to reduce the risk of vitamin D deficiency in infants.

Such foods that are found in the market are yogurt, breakfast cereals, baby milk, orange juice, marmalade and others.