Why Your Vitamin D is Low, Even If You Take It

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How to Finally Get Your D Up​

Many people are still deficient in vitamin D, even when they're supplementing with it. Here's why and how to finally fix it.​

Most athletes have inadequate vitamin D status. Most are aware of the importance of vitamin D in health and performance, and some even try to bring their blood levels up to an optimal range. The problem? It's surprisingly difficult to get those levels up. Microencapsulated, high-absorption vitamin D3 solves that common problem.

Before we get into it, let's examine the benefits of D3 and why it's so difficult to get your blood levels up.

The Little-Known Benefits of Vitamin D​

Consider the following:

• Vitamin D increases muscle protein synthesis and the overall capacity to perform both aerobic and anaerobic exercise.
• Vitamin D helps maintain muscle mass during long periods of inactivity.
• Low levels of vitamin D correlate strongly with reduced lung capacity.
• Without proper levels of vitamin D, arteries get stiff.
• Women with optimal vitamin D levels have higher circulating levels of estradiol, testosterone, FSH, LH, and DHEA, all leading to better health and even better orgasms.
• Vitamin D modulates innate and adaptive immune responses.

But even if you assume responsibility for your vitamin D status, you'd have several hurdles to overcome.


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Hurdle 1: Getting Sunlight, But Not Too Much​

You can fortify vitamin D levels by lying buck naked in the sun at least twice a week for 20 minutes. However, lying in the sun has largely fallen by the wayside because of legitimate fears of skin cancer. Even if we venture out in the sun regularly, most of us wear sunscreen, which blocks the skin's ability to convert UVB radiation into vitamin D3. Besides, many people live at the "wrong" latitudes and only get therapeutic amounts of sunlight a few months out of the year. So scratch that.

Hurdle 2: It's Hard to Get Enough Vitamin D From Foods​

There aren't that many naturally rich vitamin D foods. Aside from eggs, cod liver oil, certain fatty fish (mainly the skin), some algaes, and a few varieties of mushrooms, vitamin D is generally in short supply.

Besides, the total amount of vitamin D (both D2 and D3) found in a food during chemical analyses doesn't reflect its bioavailability. A lot of the vitamin is bound up in the actual food and remains so after you eat it. Interactions between vitamin D and other fat-soluble nutrients might also be a factor, as well as a bunch of host-related issues (age, disease state, fed condition, genetics, obesity, etc.).

Then there's how you might prepare any vitamin-D-containing foods. Heat affects it. Light affects it. Moisture, oxygen exposure, and even storage conditions affect levels of vitamin D. That means that any vitamin-D-containing foods that are boiled, pressure-cooked, Insta-Potted, baked, or air-fried could end up being vitamin D compromised.

Hurdle 3: You Need a Mineral to Make It Work​

Vitamin D has a partner. If its partner isn't around, it doesn't go to work. That partner is the mineral magnesium, which is already largely deficient in the typical American diet. Some surveys calculate that 85% of Americans lack this super-important mineral.

Athletes generally have it even worse because magnesium hitches a ride on sweat. The more you sweat, the more magnesium-compromised you are, and the less probable your body will transport, synthesize, and activate vitamin D.


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What About Vitamin D Supplementation?​

Supplementation is the most efficient way to up your vitamin D game. The trouble is, vitamin D supplements manufactured in the traditional manner are prone to all the same manufacturing and absorption problems attributed to vitamin-D-containing foods – moisture, oxygen exposure, and non-optimal storage conditions.

Many take the initiative and try to elevate their vitamin D levels to optimal blood levels (at or beyond 50 ng/ml or so). They start popping conventional capsules and grimacing down sardines for months, and nothing much happens. Levels don't budge.

Recent technological advances have changed all that, though. The only form of vitamin D3 worth taking is microencapsulated, high-absorption vitamin D3.

This form of the vitamin is manufactured by encapsulating vitamin D3 molecules in liposomes or solid lipid nanoparticles. The vitamin then presents as tiny "beadlets" and is protected from moisture, oxidation, pH, temperature, and mechanical forces. The microencapsulated product is stable, water-dispersible, and, most importantly, highly bioavailable.

The effects of this form of vitamin D3 remain constant for up to 14 days, making it clearly superior to conventional vitamin D3 supplements. People who use it have reported rapid and impressive increases in blood levels of vitamin D3.