The Science Behind Vitamin D, Our Rampant Deficiency, And Its Harmful Impact On Our Health

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In the US alone, 70% of Americans have either deficient or suboptimal levels of vitamin D. This is a massive problem given vitamin D's impact on our health and its effects on our gene regulation and expression. Vitamin D also regulates calcium and supports the functioning of the immune system, making it one of the most important biological compounds in the body. 

In today’s episode of a new series I’m calling Know Your Numbers, I dive deep into vitamin D. I discuss why vitamin D deficiency is a problem, how conventional medicine misses the mark in measuring vitamin D levels, how Functional Medicine treats vitamin D deficiency, and much more.

You can test your vitamin D levels with Function Health, a company I co-founded. It has been a lifelong dream for me. Function is the first-ever membership that includes 100+ lab tests and personalized insights from globally renowned doctors based on your results. Join Function at FunctionHealth.com.

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Here are more details from the episode (audio version / Apple Subscriber version):

• Why vitamin D deficiency is a problem (5:49 / 3:31)
• What is vitamin D and what does it do in the body? (6:24 / 4:06)
• “Normal” vs. optimal vitamin D references ranges (9:03 / 6:45)
• How much vitamin D should you take? (15:06 / 12:48)
• Root causes of low levels of vitamin D (17:23 / 15:05)
• Testing your vitamin D with the 25-hydroxy vitamin D3 test (26:04 / 23:46)
• Symptoms of and diseases associated with vitamin D deficiency (26:27 / 24:09)
• Addressing vitamin D deficiency with diet, lifestyle and supplementation (42:53 / 40:35)

References for research mentioned in this episode can be found here.