Private MD News

Lifestyle factors may contribute to vitamin D deficiency

Category: Vitamin D Deficiency-Diagnosis and Treatment

The majority of individuals may benefit from vitamin D testing and possibly supplementation, as people today spend far less time in the sun where their bodies are able to produce the nutrient naturally, according to one expert.

Dr. Michael Holick, a professor at Boston University, told WBUR that the lifestyles lived by people today are vastly different from what they were thousands of years ago, when we first began evolving our ability to produce vitamin D from sun exposure.

"My argument is that our hunter gatherer forefathers were making thousands of units of vitamin D a day that played an important role in their overall health," he told the news source. "As a result, throughout evolution humans required several thousand international units of vitamin D either from sun exposure or diet to maximize their overall health and well-being."

However, these days, people spend most of their time indoors, away from the sun. This may contribute to vitamin D deficiencies. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than one-third of adults in the U.S. have low levels of the nutrient.