The conversation often starts like this: "What's my vitamin D level, Doc?" or "I'd like to check my vitamin D level?"
A big part of my job is interpreting lab results for patients, and almost irrespective of the condition, the journey usually begins at the interpretation of the complete blood count, or CBC for short, and typically culminates at the vitamin D test. Less by design, and more by default — it's just how labs are typically reported.
Working through this interpretation is a nuanced discussion, requiring a significant amount of compelling education on my part and concentration on the patient's part. Even the best of them can sometimes get "glassy-eyed" through some of the deeper dives.
"…and finally, your vitamin D levels."
Everyone seems to perk up at this point of the show. For most living at northern latitudes, vitamin D levels are going to be absolutely abysmal.
A note on the numbers
Vitamin D status is assessed by measuring 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD). The score is reported in nmol/L in Canada and ng/mL in the US. Reference range is 75–250 nmol/L. The US equivalent would be 30–100 ng/mL. But because of its enormous impact on general health, immunity, and hormone health, most functional medicine practitioners generally like to keep vitamin D levels above 125 nmol/L (50 ng/mL).
"How bad is that?" asked one gentleman this past week when told of his 39 nmol/L reading.
"It's pretty sh*t," I replied. (I find that a gentle cuss word occasionally thrown into the conversation helps tap into the limbic part of the brain, which facilitates long-term learning.)
A patient the very following day had a reading of 20 nmol/L — a decent level for a human cadaver or a vampire.
My patients are not alone. Vitamin D deficiency affects over 1 billion people by some estimates, and up to half of the global population by others.
Vitamin D deficiency is part of a group of overlooked healthcare pandemics that actually underlie the pandemic.
The COVID link
"We cannot ignore evidence in a recent 'individual patient data' meta-analysis that vitamin D supplementation protects against acute respiratory infections," urged researchers in a recently published article in the Journal of Global Antimicrobial Resistance.
The truth is, our healthcare policy makers have ignored the evidence. Our politicians and media have become so fixated on the roadkill that they've taken their eyes off the proverbial road.
People get sick for a multitude of reasons, and most of the reasons are related to modifiable disease factors — not just viral exposure. Until we begin to direct our resources on these underlying causative factors, we're cooked.
Vitamin D status is one of these modifiable factors.
People that are vitamin D deficient are more likely to get respiratory infections, more likely to test positive for COVID-19, and are more likely to suffer severe pneumonia from COVID-19. 82.2% of hospitalized patients in a small but recently popularized study in Spain were vitamin D deficient. Being vitamin D deficient quadruples your death rate from COVID-19.
The point
Underlying most deaths associated with this pandemic is poor health. Period. The corollary of poor health is decreased immune system integrity. Nutrient deficiencies are critical to both, and the modifiable factors associated with poor health can no longer be ignored.
This is true for antioxidant status, which includes nutrients such as vitamin C, glutathione, selenium, and zinc.
This is true of protein and macronutrient status.
And this is especially true for vitamin D status.
So while you may have to wait to have your ND administer a vaccine in the province of Ontario, you don't have to wait to have them test and boost your vitamin D levels.
