Experiencing This Sensation Is A Sign Of Vitamin D Deficiency

• Vitamin D is one of the essential vitamins needed by the body
• A deficiency from this vitamin could lead to certain behavioral changes
• One of these changes concerns a person's mood

Your body contains varying amounts of phosphate and calcium which needs to be regulated, a job which is performed by vitamin D. calcium and phosphate are nutrients in the body that help keep your muscles, teeth, and bones healthy.

Vitamin D is produced as a result of direct contact with sunlight whenever you are outdoors. This means that starting late March or early April up to the end of September, you would be able to get all the vitamin D you need. When the winter season starts, however, when days are shorter, the risk of becoming deficient in vitamin D is a bit higher.

Disconcerting changes may occur when your body lacks this nutrient. In children, they are at risk of having rickets, a type of bone deformity disorder. On the part of adults, they may develop osteomalacia, an ailment characterized by bone pain.

Aside from physical changes, the inadequacy of the sunshine vitamin can also cause some mood changes.

Behavioral Changes

Studies have shown that the symptoms of vitamin D deficiency are not confined to only physical changes or indications. Increasing evidence of review studies shows that becoming vitamin D deficient may lead to depression, particularly among older adults.

In one study, researchers found that vitamin D deficient individuals are at a considerable risk of becoming depressed. The study, which was published in The Journal of Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine or JAMDA, examined the relationship between depression and vitamin D in older Irish adults.

Researchers then checked on the volunteers after four years to see whether their insufficiency of vitamin D somehow influenced the development of depression. The results stunned the researchers as they were able to establish that vitamin D deficiency is linked to a 75% increase in the risk of developing depression.

The findings were the same after several variables like chronic disease burden and cardiovascular disease, depressive symptoms, and physical activity was factored in. They hypothesized that vitamin D deficiency directly affects the brain and causes these mood changes to occur.

Affecting the Mood

Dr. Eamon Laird, a TILDA research fellow and a senior author of the study, said their findings showed vitamin D causes other types of health conditions other than bone problems. He admitted all of them were surprised at the huge effect vitamin D had on a person’s mood even after factoring in some other variables.

On the positive side, other controlled studies show that taking vitamin D helps improve depression. This would include seasonal depression that usually occurs during winter.