Big D Energy: Vitamin D’s Effect on Sexual Happiness

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Why is No One Having Sex?​

Hormone levels are in the toilet, everyone is emotionally messed up, and no one is having much sex. Why? Here's one possible answer.​

People are having less sex. The number of men and women identifying as asexual is skyrocketing. The number of adults who haven't had sex in a year has jumped from 15% to 26% since 1989. Up to 15% of marriages are sexless and no fun at all.

The researchers don't know why. It could be video games or distracting streaming entertainment. It could be social media, stress, lack of sleep, soy protein, or porn. Maybe it's vaccines, antidepressants, hormonal birth control, or microplastics. Or maybe the alien overlords are culling the herd with libido-zapping laser beams.

As with many social patterns, the researchers and sexologists seem to be missing something: foundational health. Maybe people are too fat to fornicate. Or, more likely, their physical, hormonal, and psychological health is so poor that all the underlying mechanisms that drive us to have enjoyable sex are broken.

As the researchers remind us, there isn't likely a single cause of increasing sexlessness. But if we focus on health, we can identify a pretty big one: low vitamin D.


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Appetite for Seduction​

Wanting sex and not being able to get it is a problem. But the real issue is not wanting sex at all. Where did all the sex drive go?

Well, around 42% of Americans are deficient in vitamin D (probably more if you use progressive goals for the vitamin's blood levels) and vitamin D affects sex drive. The big D regulates our hormones and affects our moods. Vitamin D isn't really a vitamin at all; it's a pro-hormone, so that makes sense. Here are several ways that vitamin D affects sex drive:

1. Vitamin D is involved in testosterone synthesis, a hormone crucial for libido. Studies found that men with higher levels of vitamin D tend to have higher testosterone levels. Other studies show that men deficient in vitamin D get a significant boost when they supplement.
2. To have a healthy sex drive, you've gotta have plenty of "free" testosterone. Too much sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) "captures" some of our testosterone so it can't do its thing. Vitamin D3 lowers SHBG, freeing up testosterone.
3. Vitamin D helps with estrogen regulation, a hormone essential for female sexual health. Clinically, women with adequate levels of vitamin D report fewer symptoms of estrogen deficiency, including low libido. Women with elevated vitamin D3 levels score higher on factors relating to sexual satisfaction: more arousal, desire, lubrication, and toe-curling orgasms.
4. It's hard to get horny if you're anxious or depressed, and vitamin D is linked to mood regulation via its effect on serotonin, a neurotransmitter that influences mood and well-being. People with inadequate vitamin D are more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety. Supplementing with vitamin D improves mood and reduces depression, helping to ensure a healthy libido.
5. "I'm too tired" is the most common explanation for not wanting any hanky or panky, and vitamin D deficiency is associated with fatigue. In studies, when men and women correct their deficiencies, energy levels improve.
6. Vitamin D supports the immune system, reduces inflammation, helps with cardiovascular health, and boosts blood flow – all things that enhance libido and sexual performance in both sexes.
7. Vitamin D deficiency is associated with endothelial (blood vessel) dysfunction, which impairs blood flow and contributes to erectile dysfunction. Vitamin D supplementation improves ED by improving endothelial health and nitric oxide production, crucial for erections. And remember, erection drugs help men get it on when they have the desire, but they don't do anything to create that initial desire. Vitamin D, however, plays a ground-level role because it affects mood, hormone levels, and energy.

What Kind of Vitamin D Works Best?​

Doctors used to say that vitamin D blood levels of 20 ng/mL are good enough. But today, the smarter docs suggest we shoot for 50 to 70 ng/ml. Hitting those numbers – and fixing any issues causing low sex drive or poor horizontal tango performance – requires about 5000 IU of vitamin D3 per day. Even then, it's difficult to do with grocery-store capsules, which don't use pharmaceutical delivery systems to guarantee absorption.

What you want is microencapsulated ) vitamin D3. It's made by encapsulating vitamin D molecules in liposomes (solid lipid nanoparticles). That not only protects the vitamin D from temperature and oxidation, it makes it highly bioavailable and longer-lasting in the body.

Correcting mild to moderate vitamin D deficiencies takes around 8 weeks or more using 2000 IU of standard D3. Using 5000 IU should speed up that time frame, and supplement formulators expect microencapsulated D3 to work much faster.

Severe deficiencies can take 12 weeks to correct, often using weekly dosages of 50,000 IU. But that big dose involves standard D3 supplements. Microencapsulated D3 might make such mega-doses obsolete.

Horny is Healthy​

Sex drive is like the canary in the coal mine. If it dies, something is wrong with your shaft. The sexologists are right: the drop in sexual activity has multi-factorial causes. But taking care of the basic physiology of libido is a good first step to correcting the course.