Hi everyone! It’s Nurse Marissa, and today I’m here to talk to you about our newest service, Vitamin D Testing. Now you might be wondering, Nurse Marissa, why do I even need to check my Vitamin D levels? Well, let’s read on to find out more.

­So what is Vitamin D?

Vitamin D is a vitamin that is essential for our bodies. It ensures that our bodies are able to use calcium and phosphorus to build strong bones & teeth.¹ Vitamin D has also been found to play a role in skin health and skin conditions.⁴

Vitamin D can be found through a couple of different ways. The first way is through food such as fortified milks/other beverages, fatty fish, and egg yolks. Our bodies can also produce Vitamin D when exposed to the sun (but make sure it’s safe 😉). However, despite all these options, about 40% of Canadians are still low in Vitamin D! This can be due to environmental factors such as smog, season (winter vs summer), time of day, cloud cover, sunscreen use, limited outdoor time, and the amount of skin exposed to sunlight.²

Having low levels of Vitamin D can present in multiple ways, such as:

• Fatigue or tiredness
• Bone, muscle, or joint pain
• Depression or Anxiety
• Weakness
• Being sick, or getting sick more often than usual
• Inflammatory skin conditions, such as psoriasis or atopic dermatitis ⁴

Why should I get tested?

As we can see, there are a few symptoms that could be caused by low levels of Vitamin D. If you suffer from any of them, you may want to get tested to find out if low Vitamin D levels are contributing to them. As well, anyone that is:

• Following a plant-based diet
• Doesn’t have the opportunity to spend time in natural sunlight
• Living with asthma
• Living with Crohn’s disease
• Living with Celiac disease
• Going through menopause
• At risk of developing osteoporosis

Should also be tested. This is due to the fact that you may be more at risk for having lower Vitamin D levels.

How does the Vitamin D test work? ³

The Vitamin D test is a quick blood test via finger poke, that can be done here in clinic at Ageless Living. The test is performed by one of our nurses and gives you results in 10 minutes! Click here for a quick video of Sarah, our First Impressions Coordinator, getting hers done. Our test will give 3 different options for your results: sufficient, insufficient, or deficient. What does this mean?

1. Sufficient – This means that your blood Vitamin D levels fall in the range of 30-100ng/mL.
2. Insufficient – This means that your blood Vitamin D levels fall in the range of 10-30 ng/mL.
3. Deficient – This means that your blood Vitamin D levels are less than 10ng/mL.

I’ve got my results…. Now what?

If you fell into the sufficient category, keep it up! You can continue your usual routine of Vitamin D intake. If you fell into the insufficient or deficient categories, then you should think about increasing your Vitamin D intake. Our nurses will provide you with some recommendations from Health Canada on how to do that.

If you would like to find out what your Vitamin D levels are, give us a call here at the clinic! Our nurses would be more than happy to help you out 😊

References:

1. https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/food-nutrition/healthy-eating/vitamins-minerals/vitamin-calcium-updated-dietary-reference-intakes-nutrition.html
2. https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/nutrients/vitamin-d.html
3. https://medisure.ca/howtotest/
4. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29306952/#:~:text=Vitamin%20D%20deficiency%20is%20associated,these%202%20inflammatory%20skin%20disorders