Vitamin D is essential for life… Not just athletes! Research continues to show that virtually every tissue and cell within the body has receptors for Vitamin D. According to numerous reports, Vitamin D is not technically a vitamin at all, but a pro-hormone. The very presence of receptors specifically for vitamin D defines it as a hormone more than a vitamin.
Since vitamin D can alter the expression of your genes like a pro-hormone, then we can postulate from research that vitamin D deficiency may be linked to numerous acute and chronic medical conditions like cancer, heart disease, arthritis, etc… However, since most our readers are athletes, let’s look at how a vitamin D deficiency can effect your acute and long term performance measures, and we will look into quality of life measures in later posts:
- Increased susceptibility to infections – vitamin D is vital for the immune system functioning and keeping you on the playing field at all times.
- Decreased adaptive immune response – if you cannot adapt to the stresses imposed on your body, you will not perform at your highest level
- Increased inflammatory related injuries – inflammation in your tissues can increase the susceptibility of non-contact injuries
- Decreased neuromuscular function – this will impact your body’s protein synthesis capabilities, causing muscle weakness, decreased strength and altered muscle functions
- Decreased bone density – vitamin D promotes calcium absorption, but it is critical to take vitamin K2 (MK7) with vitamin D3 supplementation.
As you can see, vitamin D deficiency can wreak havoc on the hard work that you are putting into your performance. As a final note, in order to take adequate dosing of vitamin D and monitor success, it is important to maintain optimum blood levels of vitamin D. The most accurate way to measure this is through a serum blood analysis for 25-hydroxy vitamin D. A trained physician or nutritional adviser can assist each client.
Vitamin D3 promotes calcium absorption. Calcium can be absorbed into the bones and teeth, or the soft tissues like the arteries. Therefore, vitamin D3 without Vitamin K2 can be a dangerous protocol. Supplementing Vitamin D3 without K2 would be analogous to riding in a car without a driver. You might end up in the right destination, but chances are you will not end up where you want to be. Taking vitamin K2 with your D3 is like adding a driver to the car. It tells the calcium where to be dropped off, into the bones and teeth and staying away from the arteries.