What Does a Vitamin D Deficiency Cause?
Vitamin D works hand-in-hand with calcium to make your bones strong. In fact, it’s pretty well-known that calcium can’t do its job without the help of vitamin D. What’s less well-known is that vitamin D helps with your body’s natural immunity, muscle function and brain cell activity.
However, many people face a Vitamin D deficiency, which can lead to hormonal imbalances and unpleasant symptoms.
Vitamin D Deficiency Symptoms and Conditions
Hormonal Imbalances From Vitamin D Deficiency in Women
Vitamin D deficiency can lead to a variety of hormonal imbalances, including:
- Estrogen imbalances: Low estrogen levels can cause hot flashes, mood swings and depression.
- Pituitary imbalances: This imbalance can cause many symptoms, including headaches, menstrual problems, high blood pressure, increased sweating and sleep disorders
- Testosterone imbalances: A decrease in testosterone production can result in symptoms such as fatigue, weight gain, mood swings and hair loss.
Hormonal Imbalances From Vitamin D Deficiency in Men
While hormonal issues are often very different in men and women, hormonal issues connected to vitamin D deficiency are quite similar. Just like in women, men need proper levels of vitamin D in order to maintain their levels of both testosterone and estrogen and to maintain pituitary balance.
Along with the possibility of problematic imbalances in testosterone, estrogen and pituitary hormone levels, men can also suffer from one more imbalance due to low vitamin D levels:
- Parathyroid hormone imbalance. Because the parathyroid regulates calcium in the body, low vitamin D levels can lead to over or underproduction of calcium, leading to kidney stones, osteoporosis, and other conditions.
Conditions Caused by Vitamin D Deficiency in Women
A vitamin D deficiency can lead to some serious conditions in women. This is in part because vitamin D isn’t really so much a vitamin as it is a hormone your body naturally produces. As most women know, when their hormones are off, problems arise.
Common conditions caused by vitamin D deficiency in women can be minor or severe. Minor symptoms include:
- Bloating
- Chronic pain
- Decreased sex drive
- Depression
- Insomnia or sleep apnea
- Constipation
- General weakness
Since these are fairly common symptoms, it may be hard to connect them to a vitamin D deficiency unless the right tests are done. If your body goes for a prolonged period without adequate vitamin D, you may find yourself contending with much more serious conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers and a variety of rheumatoid diseases.
Conditions Caused by Vitamin D Deficiency in Men
Both the minor and more serious symptoms of vitamin D deficiency in men are the same as they are in women.
Men who are at risk for vitamin D deficiency are men who:
- Don’t get enough sun exposure and/or live at high altitudes
- Are elderly and/or obese
- Suffer from chronic diseases
- Stick to a strict vegan diet
- Are lactose intolerant or have dairy allergies
Address Your Vitamin D Deficiency
Knowing what your body needs is sometimes a matter of just “listening to your body,” but some things are impossible to know without having your levels checked. The caring professionals at Balance Hormone Center will work with you to figure out what your body is currently getting too much of or not enough of.
Call 480-718-9960 or send us a message to make an appointment today!
