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This is a reader-friendly overview of Vitamin D. For more details, see our wellness professional fact sheet on Vitamin D.

For information on vitamin D and COVID-nineteen, run into Dietary Supplements in the Time of COVID-nineteen.

What is vitamin D and what does information technology do?

Vitamin D is a food you demand for good health. It helps your body absorb calcium, ane of the main edifice blocks for stiff basic. Together with calcium, vitamin D helps protect yous from developing osteoporosis, a disease that thins and weakens the basic and makes them more likely to break. Your torso needs vitamin D for other functions too. Your muscles need it to movement, and your nerves need it to deport letters between your brain and your body. Your immune arrangement needs vitamin D to fight off invading bacteria and viruses.

How much vitamin D do I need?

The amount of vitamin D you need each solar day depends on your age. Boilerplate daily recommended amounts are listed below in micrograms (mcg) and International Units (IU):

Life Stage	Recommended Amount
Birth to 12 months	ten mcg (400 IU)
Children 1–13 years	15 mcg (600 IU)
Teens 14–18 years	15 mcg (600 IU)
Adults 19–seventy years	15 mcg (600 IU)
Adults 71 years and older	xx mcg (800 IU)
Pregnant and breastfeeding teens and women	15 mcg (600 IU)

What foods provide vitamin D?

Very few foods naturally contain vitamin D. Fortified foods provide nearly of the vitamin D in the diets of people in the U.s.. Check the Nutrition Facts label for the amount of vitamin D in a nutrient or beverage.

Nearly all of the U.S. milk supply is fortified with about 3 mcg (120 IU) vitamin D per cup. Many constitute-based alternatives such equally soy milk, almond milk, and oat milk are similarly fortified. Merely foods made from milk, like cheese and ice foam, are usually not fortified.
Vitamin D is added to many breakfast cereals and to some brands of orange juice, yogurt, margarine, and other food products.
Fatty fish (like trout, salmon, tuna, and mackerel) and fish liver oils are amidst the best natural sources of vitamin D.
Beef liver, egg yolks, and cheese accept minor amounts of vitamin D.
Mushrooms provide a little vitamin D. Some mushrooms have been exposed to ultraviolet light to increase their vitamin D content.

Tin I go vitamin D from the sun?

Your body makes vitamin D when your bare skin is exposed to the sun. Most people go at to the lowest degree some vitamin D this mode. Nevertheless, clouds, smog, old age, and having dark-colored skin reduce the amount of vitamin D your pare makes. As well, your pare does not make vitamin D from sunlight through a window.

Ultraviolet radiation from sunshine can cause skin cancer, so it's important to limit how much time you spend in the sun. Although sunscreen limits vitamin D production, wellness experts recommend using sunscreen with a dominicus protection factor (SPF) of 15 or more when you're out in the sun for more a few minutes.

What kinds of vitamin D dietary supplements are bachelor?

Vitamin D is plant in multivitamin/multimineral supplements. It is besides available in dietary supplements containing only vitamin D or vitamin D combined with a few other nutrients. The two forms of vitamin D in supplements are D2 (ergocalciferol) and D3 (cholecalciferol). Both forms increase vitamin D in your blood, just D3 might raise it higher and for longer than D2. Because vitamin D is fatty-soluble, it is best captivated when taken with a meal or snack that includes some fatty.

Am I getting enough vitamin D?

Because you get vitamin D from food, sunshine, and dietary supplements, 1 way to know if you're getting enough is a blood test that measures the amount of vitamin D in your blood. In the claret, a form of vitamin D known as 25-hydroxyvitamin D is measured in either nanomoles per liter (nmol/L) or nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL). One nmol/L is the same as 0.4 ng/mL.

Levels of 50 nmol/L (20 ng/mL) or above are adequate for most people for bone and overall wellness.
Levels below 30 nmol/L (12 ng/mL) are too depression and might weaken your bones and bear upon your health.
Levels higher up 125 nmol/Fifty (50 ng/mL) are too high and might cause health bug.

In the United states, about people have adequate blood levels of vitamin D. Yet, well-nigh one out of iv people have vitamin D claret levels that are also low or inadequate for os and overall health.

Some people are more likely than others to have trouble getting enough vitamin D:

Breastfed infants. Breast milk alone does not provide infants with an adequate corporeality of vitamin D. Breastfed infants should be given a supplement of 10 mcg (400 IU) of vitamin D each solar day.
Older adults. As y'all age, your skin's ability to make vitamin D when exposed to sunlight declines.
People who seldom expose their pare to sunshine considering they practice non go outside or considering they go along their body and head covered. Sunscreen too limits the corporeality of vitamin D your skin produces.
People with dark pare. The darker your skin, the less vitamin D you lot make from sunlight exposure.
People with conditions that limit fat absorption, such as Crohn's disease, celiac disease, or ulcerative colitis. This is considering the vitamin D yous consume is absorbed in the gut forth with fat, and then if your torso has trouble arresting fat, it will likewise have trouble absorbing vitamin D.
People who are obese or take undergone gastric bypass surgery. They may need more vitamin D than other people.

What happens if I don't become enough vitamin D?

In children, vitamin D deficiency causes rickets, a illness in which the bones become soft, weak, deformed, and painful. In teens and adults, vitamin D deficiency causes osteomalacia, a disorder that causes bone pain and muscle weakness.

What are some furnishings of vitamin D on health?

Scientists are studying vitamin D to better understand how information technology affects health. Here are several examples of what this research has shown:

Bone wellness and osteoporosis
Long-term shortages of vitamin D and calcium cause your basic to become fragile and pause more easily. This condition is called osteoporosis. Millions of older women and men accept osteoporosis or are at take chances of developing this status. Muscles are as well of import for healthy basic considering they help maintain balance and forbid falls. A shortage of vitamin D may atomic number 82 to weak, painful muscles.

Getting recommended amounts of vitamin D and calcium from foods (and supplements, if needed) will aid maintain healthy basic and forbid osteoporosis. Taking vitamin D and calcium supplements slightly increases bone force in older adults, but it's non clear whether they reduce the take chances of falling or breaking a bone.

Cancer
Vitamin D does not seem to reduce the run a risk of developing cancer of the breast, colon, rectum, or lung. Information technology is not clear whether vitamin D affects the gamble of prostate cancer or chance of surviving this cancer. Very high claret levels of vitamin D may even increase the risk of pancreatic cancer.

Clinical trials propose that while vitamin D supplements (with or without calcium) may not affect your take chances of getting cancer, they might slightly reduce your risk of dying from this illness. More inquiry is needed to improve empathise the role that vitamin D plays in cancer prevention and cancer-related death.

Heart disease
Vitamin D is of import for a good for you centre and claret vessels and for normal blood pressure. Some studies bear witness that vitamin D supplements might aid reduce claret cholesterol levels and loftier blood pressure—ii of the main take chances factors for heart disease. Other studies show no benefits. If you are overweight or obese, taking vitamin D at doses to a higher place 20 mcg (800 IU) per day plus calcium might really heighten your blood force per unit area. Overall, clinical trials find that vitamin D supplements do not reduce the gamble of developing heart disease or dying from it, fifty-fifty if you have depression blood levels of the vitamin.

Depression
Vitamin D is needed for your encephalon to part properly. Some studies accept plant links between depression blood levels of vitamin D and an increased take a chance of low. However, clinical trials prove that taking vitamin D supplements does not foreclose or ease symptoms of depression.

Multiple sclerosis
People who live near the equator accept more sun exposure and college vitamin D levels. They also rarely develop multiple sclerosis (MS), a disease that affects the nerves that behave messages from the brain to the rest of the body. Many studies find a link between low blood vitamin D levels and the risk of developing MS. However, scientists have non actually studied whether vitamin D supplements can prevent MS. In people who have MS, clinical trials evidence that taking vitamin D supplements does not keep symptoms from getting worse or coming back.

Type 2 diabetes
Vitamin D helps your body regulate blood saccharide levels. Still, clinical trials in people with and without diabetes show that supplemental vitamin D does non improve blood carbohydrate levels, insulin resistance, or hemoglobin A1c levels (the average level of blood sugar over the past 3 months). Other studies show that vitamin D supplements don't stop most people with prediabetes from developing diabetes.

Weight loss
Taking vitamin D supplements or eating foods that are rich in vitamin D does not help you lose weight.

Can vitamin D be harmful?

Yes, getting besides much vitamin D can be harmful. Very high levels of vitamin D in your blood (greater than 375 nmol/50 or 150 ng/mL) tin can cause nausea, airsickness, muscle weakness, confusion, pain, loss of ambition, aridity, excessive urination and thirst, and kidney stones. Extremely high levels of vitamin D can cause kidney failure, irregular heartbeat, and even expiry. High levels of vitamin D are almost always acquired by consuming excessive amounts of vitamin D from dietary supplements. Y'all cannot get too much vitamin D from sunshine considering your peel limits the amount of vitamin D it makes.

The daily upper limits for vitamin D include intakes from all sources—food, beverages, and supplements—and are listed below in micrograms (mcg) and international units (IU):

Ages	Upper Limit
Birth to 6 months	25 mcg (1,000 IU)
Infants seven–12 months	38 mcg (i,500 IU)
Children 1–three years	63 mcg (two,500 IU)
Children four–8 years	75 mcg (iii,000 IU)
Children nine–eighteen years	100 mcg (iv,000 IU)
Adults 19 years and older	100 mcg (4,000 IU)
Pregnant and breastfeeding teens and women	100 mcg (4,000 IU)

Does vitamin D interact with medications or other dietary supplements?

Yes, vitamin D supplements may interact with some medicines. Here are several examples:

Orlistat (Xenical® and alli®) is a weight-loss drug. Information technology can reduce the amount of vitamin D your body absorbs from nutrient and supplements.
Cholesterol-lowering statins might non work likewise if you have high-dose vitamin D supplements. This includes atorvastatin (Lipitor®), lovastatin (Altoprev® and Mevacor®), and simvastatin (FloLipid™ and Zocor®)
Steroids such as prednisone (Deltasone®, Rayos®, and Sterapred®) tin can lower your blood levels of vitamin D.
Thiazide diuretics (such equally Hygroton®, Lozol®, and Microzide®) could raise your claret calcium level as well high if you accept vitamin D supplements.

Tell your doctor, pharmacist, and other healthcare providers near any dietary supplements and prescription or over-the-counter medicines you take. They can tell you if the dietary supplements might interact with your medicines. They can as well explicate whether the medicines y'all take might interfere with how your body absorbs or uses other nutrients.

Vitamin D and healthful eating

People should go nigh of their nutrients from food and beverages, according to the federal regime'due south Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Foods contain vitamins, minerals, dietary cobweb, and other components that do good wellness. In some cases, fortified foods and dietary supplements are useful when it is non possible otherwise to meet needs for one or more nutrients (e.1000., during specific life stages such as pregnancy). For more information nigh building a healthy dietary pattern, come across the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the U.South. Department of Agriculture'south MyPlate.

Where can I observe out more than virtually vitamin D?

Disclaimer

This fact sheet by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Role of Dietary Supplements (ODS) provides information that should non take the place of medical advice. We encourage you lot to talk to your healthcare providers (doctor, registered dietitian, pharmacist, etc.) about your interest in, questions about, or use of dietary supplements and what may be best for your overall health. Any mention in this publication of a specific product or service, or recommendation from an arrangement or professional person society, does not represent an endorsement past ODS of that production, service, or expert advice.