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57% of adults in the UK have low vitamin D. Find out how I increased my levels from low to optimal in just 30 days.
Written by Jamie Braithwaite
July 18, 2024
I first tested my vitamin D levels back in January 2022. I was shocked to find out they were seriously low – just 28.1 nmol/L. For context, the healthy range for vitamin D levels is between 80-100 nmol/L.
Over the next 2 years, I tested my vitamin D levels a further 4 times. The levels barely moved, despite changing my diet and exercising more. Until, in July 2024, my levels finally increased after only 30 days of trying something new. I’ll explain what I did below.
After my first blood test back in 2022, I started digging into what each biomarker was and how they were important for my health.
It turns out vitamin D is important for a lot of things. Energy, muscle function, bone strength, my immune system (which I’ll cover in more detail), mental health, skin…and the list goes on.
It’s one of those vitamins I never gave much thought to. I just thought I got enough from the sun and so didn’t need to take a daily vitamin or eat specific foods.
How wrong I was. Over the next 2ish years I tried many different ways of improving my vitamin D level.
I’ve always been fairly active; running 2-3 times a week, rock climbing, walking – but in February 2022 I decided, for the first time, to join a gym and start strength training.
Armed with new knowledge of the benefits of vitamin D for muscle and bone strength, I decided to start taking a daily vitamin to support my new gym activity.
I opted for one that had other vitamins and minerals too, to support overall health. It included things like magnesium (which I was told was good for joints), zinc, vitamin B12, folic acid and others.
This meant the dosing for vitamin D was too low to increase my levels much, which resulted in a pretty stagnant level across the next 2 years.
This particular supplement had 2.5μg of vitamin D per tablet – around 100IU. The NHS recommends 10μg (400IU) a day for adults. So this was way below what I needed.
I also tried adding vitamin D-rich foods into my diet, such as salmon (also high in protein so a double win!). But again, this didn’t do much to move the needle. The image below is my vitamin D levels from Jan 2022 to May 2024. You can see there is very little change, despite it rising into the ‘healthy’ zone.
But a ‘healthy’ level isn’t an ‘optimal’ level, so more work was needed.
So, how did I actually increase my vitamin D levels?
The below graph shows a steep increase in my levels in July compared to May (and every other month I’ve tested).
This increase happened in around 30 days and only required 1 very small change.
I mentioned above that the amount of vitamin D in my daily supplement was far below the recommended level. So, after my blood test in May, I ordered a vitamin D spray which had a dose of 4000IU.
Yes – that’s ten times what the NHS recommends we need per day, but after speaking to the clinical lead at Forth, Dr Thom Philips, he advised that it’s beneficial to take a higher dose for a short period of time to boost levels into the healthy and optimal range, before dropping back down to a lower dose to maintain levels.
The combined convenience of a spray (I often forgot to take my tablets) and the higher dose meant my vitamin D levels skyrocketed into the optimal range in just one month.
My last test on the 5th of July revealed my levels were up at 88 nmol/L. The optimal range for adults is between 80-100 nmol/L.
"Despite the blanket NHS advice to take 400iu daily, when the levels are low like Jamie's the advice is to complete a loading period. There are several recommended dosing levels that are used by health professionals:
It’s hard to pinpoint any health benefits down to just my vitamin D levels and all the positives I can put forward are purely anecdotal.
That being said, I have been feeling more energetic and have been able to push harder at the gym. It feels as though I’ve been able to recover faster from intense exercise and generally feel better in myself.
One of the benefits of vitamin D which I mentioned at the start of this was the immune system. Although my levels have been somewhat low since my first test, they were in the healthy range. And since then, I’ve barely been poorly. And when I was poorly, it did not last as long as before and the symptoms were far less severe. I think this is the biggest benefit of having an optimal vitamin D level – especially during the colder months when everyone has a cold!
Now my levels are optimal, I’m going to find a daily supplement that has at least 400IU of vitamin D to manage my levels, and I may resort back to a spray in the winter when there is less sun to boost my levels ‘naturally’.
If you’re curious or concerned about your health, a blood test is the best place to start to find answers. If, like me, it reveals a deficiency in a specific vitamin, you can take easy steps to fix the problem and regain your health.
I’d advise doing research into recommended levels, daily intake and pros and cons before buying supplements – and make sure you only buy a supplement if you really need it. Simply getting more sunlight in the spring and summer might be enough to boost your levels (in the case of vitamin D).
Research by Forth found that 57% of adults in the UK have a low vitamin D level – so it’s always worth a check.
Do you often feel tired or rundown? Have you been catching colds more often than usual? These could be signs of a vitamin D deficiency. Our vitamin D test kit will tell you if your levels are too low and could be causing symptoms such as low mood, fatigue or frequent illness.
Do you often feel tired or rundown? These could be signs of a vitamin D deficiency. Check your vitamin D levels with our home blood test.
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