Getting sufficient Vitamin D not only supports strong bones, but is critical for a healthy immune system, gut, and much more. From an integrative medicine standpoint, it’s one of the most important nutrients to prioritize—nearly every patient we test at The Marcus Institute of Integrative Health has low Vitamin D levels.
Below, Dr. Daniel Monti, co-author of Tapestry of Health and founder & CEO of the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health, explains why Vitamin D matters, how it helps us, and how to optimize your levels by co-supplementing with Vitamin K and magnesium.
Why you need Vitamin D
When we test our clinical patients’ levels, we find that Vitamin D levels are almost always low unless the patient is taking a supplement. The ideal serum blood concentration ranges from 75 to 100 ng/ml.
Yet we know that the “sunshine vitamin” is responsible for the activation of over 900 genes in the human body, and we are still discovering avenues by which Vitamin D supports our health and wellness. Here are several known ways Vitamin D is good for us:
Bone health
Adequate Vitamin D supports healthy calcium absorption and helps your body use it to make strong bones. This is why Vitamin D is added to milk and other fortified foods.
Stress and anxiety
Vitamin D isn’t traditionally thought of as a nutrient that is affected by stress, but there is actually a good deal of indirect evidence that Vitamin D supports many functions of resilience in the body. And Vitamin D deficiency may have a negative effect on your mental health. Thus, we believe that having a healthy Vitamin D level is important for resilience in the face of stress and anxiety.
Gut health
Cultivating a healthy gut microbiome requires pre- and probiotics and a diet including adequate plant-based fiber, to be sure. But Vitamin D is also critical for your gut’s health, and we have found that Vitamin D can be key when treating a leaky gut.
Immunity
Vitamin D’s role in your immune system’s function is big: numerous immune cells have Vitamin D receptors that allow them to better fight viral or bacterial infections. Research has also specifically shown that low Vitamin D can negatively affect our ability to fight Covid-19, so we consider Vitamin D to be critical for healthy immunity and resilience to pathogens.
A healthy brain
Evidence suggests that Vitamin D protects against cognitive decline, and Vitamin D deficiency (among other factors, like exposure to pesticides and cigarette smoking) may increase your chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
What foods are highest in Vitamin D?
- Mushrooms
- Certain fish, including salmon, tuna, mackerel, swordfish, rainbow trout, and sardines
- Cod liver oil
- Egg yolks
- Vitamin D-fortified milk and non-dairy milk alternatives, as well as fortified cereals, juices, and dairy products
How can I raise my Vitamin D level?
We often encourage patients to eat whole foods for their synergistic health benefits, which far exceed benefits of supplements or pills attempting to replace them. However, Vitamin D is difficult to get through even the healthiest of diets because most Vitamin-D rich foods should be eaten in moderation for reasons other than their Vitamin D content: the ideal diet contains limited animal products, and too much fish oil can give you unsafe, high doses of Vitamin A.
Nor is getting enough Vitamin D as simple as spending time outdoors in the sun—especially if you work indoors, burn easily, or have a dark skin tone which limits your ability to absorb Vitamin D via sun exposure. Additionally, excess UV exposure accelerates skin aging and is associated with skin cancer.
Vitamin D is difficult to get from food and the sun, so we recommend supplements for patients whose levels are low.
For these reasons, we recommend that patients looking to increase their Vitamin D intake consider using high-quality supplements to maintain the necessary levels for optimal body function and well-being.
How do I choose a Vitamin D supplement?
There are two kinds of Vitamin D supplements available: D2, which is derived from plants, and D3, which is derived from animals (and is the kind naturally produced in the human body). D3, also known as cholecalciferol, has been shown to more efficiently raise your Vitamin D levels.
Vitamin D dosage recommendations can be wide-ranging, but we recommend that most healthy adults we see supplement with 2,000 IU of Vitamin D3 per day. Too high a dosage may induce Vitamin D toxicity, so be sure to talk with your primary care doctor or an integrative medicine specialist who is familiar with your medical history and lab results to determine the ideal supplement dosage for your body. You may require a higher or lower dosage due to conditions such as inflammatory bowel disease, history of gastric bypass surgery, or your other medications.
At our clinic, we also typically recommend Vitamin D paired with Vitamin K—specifically, a Vitamin K2 plus Vitamin D3 combination supplement. Vitamin K facilitates Calcium from the blood vessels moving to the bones, and it also activates osteo-calcium, another element of healthy bones.
Certain patients who are older or taking certain medications, such as anticoagulants, may not be good candidates for this supplement combination, so talk with a doctor who is experienced and well-versed in supplementation before starting a regimen. Your physician will also be there to guide you in case your dosage needs adjustment.
Magnesium supports healthy Vitamin D levels
At the Marcus Institute, we have worked with numerous patients who found it difficult to get their Vitamin D levels up. Sometimes this is a result of focusing on one nutrient alone: when it comes to achieving and maintaining good Vitamin D levels, it’s also critical to have enough magnesium. As a “cofactor” for Vitamin D, magnesium is essential for its absorption and activation.
If you’re having difficulty getting your Vitamin D levels up, then consider adding magnesium-rich foods or a supplement to your diet.
Magnesium is also important for your calcium levels—if you’ve seen the two paired in the vitamin section of the store, this is why. It contributes to healthy muscle function and is a neurological modulator that improves brain function; it may also help reduce the frequency of migraine headaches.
How to get more magnesium
Magnesium is abundant in many green leafy vegetables, nuts and seeds, beans, and whole grains. While it’s more and more difficult to get an adequate amount of magnesium through your diet due to diminishing nutrients in soil, some of the most concentrated plant-based sources of magnesium include:
- Pumpkin seeds
- Almonds
- Spinach
- Cashews
- Peanuts
- Black beans
- Soybeans
- Avocado
When it comes to getting enough of magnesium-rich foods, especially leafy vegetables like spinach, we encourage you to ask yourself: how often are you eating something green? Don’t blame yourself if you have gone several days without eating plants—we’re victims of what’s available, and addictive processed foods often keep us from reaching for better choices.
The key to counteracting these lifestyle factors is building new habits that are easy yet, at the same time, offer substantial health benefits. For example, we regularly recommend patients begin their day with a generous dose of greens in a morning smoothie.
If you choose to take a magnesium supplement, we typically recommend choosing it in the magnesium citrate form for optimal absorption.
About Dr. Daniel Monti
Dr. Daniel Monti is the founding Chair of the first integrative medicine department within a United States medical school, Sidney Kimmel Medical College’s Integrative Medicine & Nutritional Sciences department at Thomas Jefferson University. He sees patients at the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health and is the co-author, along with Dr. Anthony Bazzan, of Tapestry of Health: Weaving Wellness into Your Life Through the New Science of Integrative Medicine. Learn more or schedule an appointment by contacting the Marcus Institute online or by phone today.
