The Vitamin D Kidnapper
Over 70% of people have low vitamin D levels, even if they're eating D-containing foods and getting sunlight. Why? Here's the science.
The more body fat you gain, the more likely you are to have a nutritional deficiency. Ironic, isn't it? How can a person eat everything yet have basic vitamin, mineral, and omega-3 deficiencies?
This counterintuitive condition is often explained like this: Overweight people make poor dietary choices – they eat high-calorie foods containing very little actual nutrition. That's not untrue, but there's more to it than that.
For example, look at vitamin D. The more body fat you have stored away, the more likely you are to have a vitamin D deficiency… even if you're getting enough vitamin D through food and sunlight. And you don't have to be obese for this to occur. It begins the moment you get chubby. In other words, over 70% of U.S. adults.
That vitamin D deficiency, in turn, contributes to low testosterone, chronic inflammation, depression, anxiety, metabolic disorders, cardiovascular problems, fatigue, sexual issues, and more.
Wait, How is Body Fat Related to Vitamin D?
Vitamin D is fat-soluble, so it's absorbed and stored in fat cells. The more body fat you have, the more vitamin D is sequestered in that adipose tissue, making it less available to your body. So, your body has enough vitamin D, but it's been "kidnapped" by your gut and love handles, leading to lower circulating levels in the blood.
To add insult to injury, excess body fat influences liver and kidney function, the organs responsible for converting vitamin D into its active form (calcitriol). Impaired conversion leads to lower levels of active vitamin D, further contributing to deficiency.
The problem here is bidirectional, meaning that excess body fat leads to low vitamin D, and low vitamin D makes it easier to gain even more fat.
How Fat Do I Have to Be for This to Happen?
Sequestration of vitamin D begins once you hit the "overweight" category. Let's put some numbers on that:
- A BMI of 25 or above
- A body fat percentage of 18% or above for men, 25% for women
- A waist circumference of 37 inches or more for men, 31.5 inches for women
(Yes, BMI isn't a great diagnostic for people who lift weights, so measure your waist or get your body fat percentage checked. But be honest – you already know if you're too fat.)
Once a person hits the obese ranges (class I, II, and III), sequestration of vitamin D worsens to the point where even standard supplementation and plenty of sunlight don't help. And remember, vitamin D isn't the only fat-soluble vitamin. Vitamins A, E, and K also suffer from the sequestration problem.
How Do I Fix This?
The obvious answer: Don't get too fat or lose fat if needed. Fat loss releases sequestered vitamin D and increases its availability in the bloodstream.
Beyond that, supplementation can correct the problem, but it gets tricky. Studies suggest that obese people need two to three times more vitamin D than healthy-weight folks to achieve the same blood levels. But you don't have to pop a dozen capsules of vitamin D daily.
Whether you're overweight, obese, or just someone who wants to keep your blood levels of vitamin D healthy, the solution lies in microencapsulated D3.
This process involves using caprylocaproyl polyoxyl-8 glyceride, which acts as a non-ionic surfactant. Pharmaceutical companies use it to enhance the absorption and bioavailability of drugs, and it's also used in some vitamin D supplements.
Microencapsulation reduces the amount of vitamin D sequestered in fat and enhances the amount absorbed into the bloodstream, even if you're carrying too much body fat. D Fix High Absorption Vitamin D (Buy at Amazon) contains a high dose (5000 IU) of microencapsulated D3 in each softgel.
How Do I Know If I'm Low in Vitamin D?
Get a blood test to be sure. Anything under 30 ng/mL is deficient or insufficient; 30-60 ng/mL is okay; 60 ng/mL or above is optimal (up to about 100 ng/mL.) In recent years, more experts recommend shooting for around 80 ng/mL. But there are signs and symptoms to watch out for, too. More info here.