Hello my name is s c how can I help you today hi doctor recently I got my vitamin D levels checked and a dexus skin and I was told that my results were very low I’m currently diagnosed with lupus and I was wondering how these would affect my current condition I’ve
Been feeling very exhausted and weak and I’m just really tired tired and want some sort of solution to all of my problems mhm no definitely I completely get that and I’m really sorry you’ve been feeling this way but I think that we can work together and help to improve
Some of your symptoms um aside from being tired and weak are there any other symptoms you feel that kind of have been impacting your day-to-day life well recently I’ve been having longer and larger episodes of inflamation and I fractured my hip from a fall but the repair and my bones had
Been growing as they normally have mhm okay I see um I actually have the results from your lab test here as you can see it looks like your levels indicate a moderately severe deficiency in vitamin D um it actually is a nutrient that plays a very important role in combating inflammation in your
Body um it helps to recruit anti-inflammatory proteins that will help reduce your symptoms of inflammation um however since your lab results show that your vitamin D levels were low this could be a cause of your increased intensity and duration of inflammation episodes so I have a vitamin D deficiency causing my
Inflammations and pain but how does this relate to my hip fracture and repair okay so first I’m just going to kind of explain in general terms what kind of is happening in your body and kind of what leads to vitamin D deficiency in general so normally in normal processes what happen
Is you get vitamin D either from the diet so you can get vitamin D3 from animal products so fish milk dairy cheese or there’s another less biologically active form called vitamin D2 which you can find in plant Foods so like mushrooms so you can either get
Vitamin D from the diet or from the Sun typically from the sun it’s absorbed as UVB rays um these are then absorbed through the skin and you have vitamin D in your body now now vitamin D in the kidney is then converted to its active
Form so this is kind of the form of vitamin D that you need to kind of carry out any process in your body that’s important for kind of some of the symptoms you’re experiencing so once you have this active form of vitamin D it’s going to be stimulated in the intestines to
Absorb calcium now calcium is very important again for bone formation um it’s one of the most important minerals for creating the crystal layer that is important for any formation in your bones now what’s happening is if you don’t get enough again Sun from the environment or diet if you’re low on
Either of these you’re not going to have enough vitamin D you’re going to have a low vitamin D3 or D2 levels so in the kidney you won’t be able to get the active form of D so this is going to decrease in your body and then that’s
Going to lead to low calcium levels now as I explained before low calcium levels is going to lead to a lot of holes and your bones will not be forming as they usually do and that may be leading to the explanation for your bone weakness your bone pain and your exhaustion I see
That’s very interesting but how does this relate to my lupus and autoimmune issues well I’m actually so glad you asked so vitamin D doesn’t just play a role in regulating other nutrient levels such as calcium but it also has a role at the micro level at the cellular level
And it actually does this by alterating your gene expression so what happened is the active war of vitamin D as I explained earlier attaches to your DNA and this then regulat Ates a lot of anti-inflammatory processes in your body so it kind of helps to lower these
Immune cells that are high in your body but I was always told that these were good and that they would help me fight my infection especially tea cells so why are we lowering them well you are right that these typically can be good for your body but with a condition such as
Lupus these types of cells are kind of on their pro-inflammatory version so they kind of have like a pro-inflammatory set pro-inflammatory te- cell and so on so when these are pro-inflammatory it’s leading to kind of some of the symptoms that you experience with licus and that leads me into my
Next point if you kind of increase your vitamin D levels and we work on increasing these levels in a consistent manner then we can kind of switch this to have anti-inflammatory effects in your body and resolve your symptoms wow vitamin D is really important so how
Should I get more of them what are your recommendations so the best way to improve your vitamin D status would be to consume more foods that are rich in Vitamin D so I know I mentioned fish and dairy products before but there’s also a large amount of
Vitamin D in cabbage kale and collard so there’s a lot of options that you can choose from um also you can engage in rigorous weightbearing exercise which should help to strengthen your muscles and your bones and these are extremely important when considering the your values of vitamin D deficiency and when
Considering your L this as well oh no but I’m an office worker and I barely get out in the sunlight and also I don’t have time for exercise let alone picking and hand choosing healthy vegetables that are extremely expensive in the store is there anything else that I
Could possibly do MH yeah don’t worry there are many ways you can get an adequate intake of vitamin D um first I would definitely recommend taking every taking a little bit of time every day to be in the Sun so for example if you’re working and maybe you’re on a lunch
Break maybe you can try eating lunch outside or if you’re going on a walk with friends or family maybe just considering taking a walk outside as opposed to maybe on a treadmill inside any small way is again a good way to get that intake of vitamin D as well um it’s
Also especially important because we’re living in the north we’re in Maine and we overall have a lot higher in of vitamin D deficiency as opposed to for example people that live in Florida ah I see okay I will definitely try to get more exposure in my day-to-day MH however you also mentioned
The diet and I’m a little bit concerned about my own so are there any other options that I could do MH yeah of course well in addition to animal and plant products that I mentioned earlier um there’s also fish liver fish oils are both very good sources of vitamin D um
Here in the US actually milk and dairy products are fortified so consuming these are also going to be beneficial and getting that extra boost that you need oh no but I don’t like liver or fish oils they’re really not for me in my diet well I completely understand
That a lot of people don’t really like those that’s definitely a very selective thing to be consuming but in addition to just those products you can also um have a oral supplement so I can prescribe you an oral supplement of vitamin D which I would recommend because you’re
Pretty low in those levels and so that will be a good way to boost your intake um and Studies have shown that vitamin D can exert a protective effect for progression of your condition so this addition will likely be to benefit you oh wow thank you so much Dr Camas of
Course so here are some key takeaways consuming adequate amounts of vitamin D in your diet helps with reducing symptoms of autoimmune diseases such as inflammation and preventing the onset of diseases such as Osteo perosis animal products as well as certain PL foods are excellent ways to incorporate vitamin D
Into your diet if you are able to spending adequate amounts of time in the sun is beneficial due to the aforementioned properties of UV rays benefits from UV exposure are impacted by where you live skin color clothing amount and age these can impact the duration that you may need to be out in
The sun for example senior individuals need three to five times more exposure than younger individuals supplementation of vitamin D should be considered as needed however this should not be the sole source of vitamin D in your diet nor should it be in excessive amounts high amounts of vitamin D can
Actually result in high blood calcium levels increasing your risk of kidney stones remember to ask your physician and or dietitian what the recommended dose is if you are considering supplementation thank you for watching
