Author: Melinda

As the April rain pours and keeps me inside, I wonder about getting my daily dose of vitamin D. Lately, I have been noticing some symptoms of vitamin D deficiency. It is easy to get vitamin D in the summer when you go outside a lot and get plenty of sunshine, but when the weather turns nasty and you just want to stay inside, it is important to be able to notice the symptoms of vitamin D deficiency in women and address them.

Causes of a Vitamin D Deficiency

While most of the time people associate a vitamin D deficiency with not enough sun, there are a number of things that can trigger a vitamin D deficiency.

1. You aren’t consuming enough vitamin D in your diet. This often happens when people are following a strict vegan diet. Most of the natural sources of vitamin D are animal-based products. Vitamin D is found in fish oils, eggs, egg yolks, fortified milk and beef liver.
2. Sunlight exposure is limited. The body naturally makes vitamin D when the skin is exposed to sunlight. Therefore, you may be at risk of a deficiency if you live in northern latitudes, are home bound, wear long robes or head coverings for religious reasons, or have an occupation that prevents sun exposure.
   
3. Darker skin. The pigment melanin in the skin reduces the skin’s ability to make vitamin D in response to exposure to the sun. Some studies show that older adults with darker skin are at high risk of vitamin D deficiency.
   
4. Your kidneys cannot convert vitamin D to its active form. Aging can decrease a person’s ability to convert vitamin D to its active form, thus increasing the risk of vitamin D deficiency.
   
5. Your digestive tract cannot adequately absorb vitamin D. There are certain medical conditions which prevent the digestive tract from adequately absorbing vitamin D. These include: Crohn’s disease, cystic fibrosis and celiac disease. .
   
6. Obesity. Vitamin D is extracted from the blood by fat cells. It alters its release into circulation. Individuals who have a body mass index of thirty or greater often have low blood levels of vitamin D.
   

Symptoms You May Need More Vitamin D

• MUSCLE WEAKNESS
  
• Decreased muscle size can be the result of not enough vitamin D in muscle and nerve tissue. If you notice that you can’t complete the same number of repetitions you’ve always done, that may be a sign you need more vitamin D.
  
• SADNESS
  
• Women with low levels of vitamin D are twice as likely to struggle with depression, according to a study in The Journal of Clinical endocrinology and Metabolism.
  
• SLEEPINESS
  
• Lower levels of vitamin D were reported in a study published in 2012 in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.
• EXTREME CRANKINESS
  
• Vitamin D impacts the serotonin in your brain, which can also affect your mood. Extreme crankiness could be a subtle indication that your vitamin D levels are getting low.
  
• DECREASED ENDURANCE
  
• Reduced aerobic capacity and overall endurance in athletes is an indicator that you may have low vitamin D levels as well.
  

Treatment for a Vitamin D Deficiency

The treatment for a vitamin D deficiency includes getting more vitamin D through diet and supplements. There currently is no consensus on vitamin D levels required for optimal health. It likely differs depending on the health and conditions. Some people are recommending a concentration of less than 20 nanograms per milliliter.

The Institute of Medicine’s guidelines increased the recommended dietary allowance of vitamin D to 600 international units (IU) for everyone up to age seventy. For individuals older than seventy, it raised it to 800 international units to optimize bone health. The safe upper limit has been raised to 4,000 IU. However, when doctors discover a vitamin D deficiency, they may prescribe more than 4,000 IU to correct it.

If you often cover your skin and stay indoors, you should speak to your doctor about taking a vitamin supplement for vitamin D. This is especially important if you have a risk factor for vitamin D deficiency.

Illnesses From a Vitamin D Deficiency

1.Dementia It was discovered that severe vitamin D deficiency in older adults was associated with a doubled risk for some forms of dementia. This includes Alzheimer’s disease. Dementia involves a decline in thinking, behavior, and memory that negatively affects daily life.

The study analyzed more than 1,600 people age 65 or older who did not have dementia at the beginning of the study. It compared the people with normal vitamin D levels to those with low levels of vitamin D. It was discovered that those with low levels of the vitamin had a 53 percent increased risk of developing dementia. Individuals who had a sever deficiency had a 125 percent increased risk of developing dementia. The authors of the study found that people who had lower levels of vitamin D were seventy percent more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than those who were severely deficient. The severely deficient were over 120 percent more likely to develop Alzheimer’s.

This study does have its weaknesses. It was observational and did not provide a direct cause and effect relationship. It is theorized that vitamin D may help to clear plaques in the brain that is linked to dementia.

It is a good idea to follow the long-standing advice of eating a healthy diet, exercising regularly and tending to your mental health to reduce your risk of dementia.

2. Breast Cancer and Low Vitamin D

Vitamin D is essential in assisting the body with calcium absorption, which is essential for good bone health. Vitamin D is also well-known to help support the immune system, muscle function and nervous systems function properly.

Most of the vitamin D in our bodies is made when an inactive form of the nutrient is activated in your skin when it’s exposed to sunlight. There are smaller amounts of vitamin D found in fatty fish, eggs, fortified milk and meat. Due to the fact that more and more people are spending most of their time out of direct sunlight or wearing sunscreen in the sun, vitamin D production has become limited and individuals are at a greater risk of deficiency.

Research suggests that women with low levels of vitamin D have a higher risk of breast cancer. Vitamin D may play a role in controlling normal breast cell growth and may be able to stop breast cancer cells from growing.

3. Autoimmune Diseases and Vitamin D

Poor vitamin D intake and low blood levels of vitamin D metabolites are associated with increased incidence and severity of several autoimmune diseases involving the T helper type 1 lymphocyte. These include multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes, systemic lupus, erythematosis, and psoriasis.

4. Vitamin D and the Risk of Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a severe brain disorder that affects about 1.1 percent of American adults. Symptoms of schizophrenia commonly appear between the ages of 16 and 30. These include hallucinations, withdrawal from others, trouble focusing or paying attention, and incoherent speech.

Individuals who are vitamin D deficient are twice as likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia compared with those who have normal levels a review published in October 2014 in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found. The researchers reviewed findings from 19 different studies analyzing the relationship between schizophrenia and vitamin D. They determined a link between the two factors.

Randomized trials are needed to determine whether vitamin D treatment may be beneficial in preventing schizophrenia.

5. Vitamin D Deficiency and Heart Disease

Heart disease has been linked to a vitamin D deficiency. Many studies have shown an association between low vitamin D levels and heart disease and related complications, as discovered by a review published in Circulation Research in January 2014. However, science has not clearly determined if supplementation can reduce these risks.

It is possible to reduce your risk of heart disease by maintaining a healthy weight, regularly exercising, and eating a diet which is rich in egg yolks, fatty fish, meat and fortified milk.

Conclusion

Increasing your exposure to the sun by taking a walk, exercising outside or eating a meal outdoors will help you ward off a vitamin D deficiency. Eating foods that are rich in vitamin D, such as fatty fish, eggs, egg yolks, meats and fortified milk will help you to raise your vitamin D levels up to normal.

While these steps may not eliminate your risk of diseases or the symptoms of low vitamin D, they can help you to feel better overall. It is a great idea to start spending more time in the sun and eating vitamin D rich foods. If you can’t eat some of these foods, you can always supplement with cod liver oil or a vitamin D supplement to make sure that you are getting enough of this vitamin.

The ketogenic diet is becoming more and more popular. However, you may be asking yourself, how do you lose weight with a ketogenic diet? Isn’t it mostly a high fat diet? How in the world can a high fat diet trigger weight loss? It seems counter-intuitive based on all the dietary advice that we have been given over the last few decades. Once you understand the diet, it becomes easier to follow and stick to! 

What is the Ketogenic Diet?

The ketogenic diet is a diet that was created in the early 1900’s to treat epilepsy. It is a diet that is high in fat, moderate in protein and extremely low in carbohydrates. The daily carbohydrate intake should be less than 20 grams, which is only a few berries or a serving of broccoli. 

Since the carbohydrates are reduced drastically, the fat is increased. When this happens, the body enters a state called ketosis, where is switches from fueling itself on glucose to burning fats. The body turns the fats into ketones, which are molecules that fuel the brain with energy. 

It can take a few days or weeks on a ketogenic diet before the body becomes efficient at burning fat and ketones for fuel instead of carbohydrates. 

In addition to burning fat as fuel, the ketogenic diet also lowers the insulin levels. Lower insulin levels and increased ketones are the reasons that the ketogenic diet has so many wonderful benefits. 

The ketogenic diet has somewhat of a cult following, and for a good reason. The ketogenic diet makes you feel great! Keto-ers feel more satiated from their foods throughout the day. They have increased energy levels, both physical and mental, leading to fewer cravings, more self-control, more physical activity, and lower caloric intake. 

How the Ketogenic Diet Helps Weight Loss

The ketogenic diet physically switches your body from fueling itself with glucose to using fats for fuel. However, there are a few other things that help with weight loss. 

The ketogenic diet has a higher protein intake.

Since the ketogenic diet limits your carbohydrate intake, it also limits your food options. This can be frustrating at first, but it will noticeably reduce your calorie intake, which is essential for fat loss. 

The body starts conerting fat and protein into carbs for fuel in a process called gluconeogenesis. This process helps you to burn even more calories each day. 

On the ketogenic diet, you feel very full. It is a very satiating diet due to the high intake of fats. This is also due to changes in hunger hormones, including ghrelin and leptin. 

The ketogenic diet will also improve insulin sensitivity which can assist in metabolism. 

There is some research that suggests that a ketogenic diet reduces lipogenesis, which is the process of converting sugar into fat. 

Some studies also indicate that the ketogenic diet rapidly increases the amount of fat that you are burning during rest, daily activity and through exercise. 

How the Ketogenic Diet Improves Overall Health

The ketogenic diet not only aids in weight loss, but it improves your overall health. It has been demonstrated to heal metabolic diseases. Some of the reasons for the improvement in metabolic markers include:

The reduction in carbohydrates on the ketogenic diet keeps the blood sugar and insulin levels under control. A high carb diet keeps these indicators constantly elevated and can lead to damage over time. 

The ketogenic diet reduces insulin resistance. Insulin resistance can cause health issues like inflammation, high triglycerides and fat gain. Additionally, the ketogenic diet can help to restore normal insulin function. Studies have demonstrated that healthy insulin function can fight inflammation, which is the underlying cause of most diseases. 

On the ketogenic diet, you increase your intake of good fats. These will improve your “good” HDL cholesterol levels. It also drasticcally reduces chronic inflammation, which is linked to metabolic syndrome. 

The combination of all these factors can remarkably improve your health and protect you against disease. 

Starting the Ketogenic Diet – What to Expect

Even though the ketogenic diet has many wonderful health benefits. The first few days and weeks of the ketogenic diet are an adaptation process. Some people feel slightly worse before they feel better. The first few days, you can expect to crave carbohydrates as you are adjusting to eating fats instead of carbohdyrates. 

In the first week of the ketogenic diet, people typically a very fast drop in weight. This can be anywhere from a few pounds to as many as ten! This is due to the fact that keto causes you to initially release water weight from drastically cutting your carb intake. 

This isn’t something to be alarmed about. It is a sign that your body is working its way to fat burning mode, or ketosis. 

After about two weeks on the ketogenic diet, weight loss will occur at a slower, but more steady pace.  This is also the time where your body is becoming keto-adapted. It is switching from burning carbs to burning fat.  

On average, fat loss is about one to two pounds per week after you become fat adapted. This can be more or less depending on how much you have to lose. The closer you are to your ideal goal weight, the slower you will notice weight loss. As your weight decreases, your total caloric needs each day decreases. This is because as your weight decreases, your total caloric needs each day decreases. 

What to Eat on the Ketogenic Diet

The ketogenic diet is roughly 75% healthy fat, 20% protein and 5% carbohydrates. Since you are using percentages, you are going to need to calculate your macronutrients (carbohydrates, proteins and fats). The best way to do this is by sing a keto calculator like MyFitnessPal. 

Fatty cuts of meat like sausage and bacon will become staples on the ketogenic diet. You should also cook liberally with butter to meet your fat intake. Leafy greens and berries will fit into a ketogenic diet. Healthy proteins such as beef, chicken, fish and seafood and eggs will become essential elements of your ketogenic diet. 

It will be important to gain a general idea of how many carbohydrates are in the foods that you eat. Once you know how many grams of proteins, fats and carbohydrates you can have, you will want to track your progress. If you don’t notice that you are losing weight, you may want to look for hidden carbohydrates in your foods and make adjustments to your diet. 

Ketogenic Diet Support

One of the best things that you can do is gain support from other people who are following the ketogenic diet. I tried to do this diet on my own and often cheated on it. However, when I joined support groups on facebook and started reading ketogenic diet blogs and watching vloggers on youtube, I found it much easier to stick with the restrictions of the ketogenic diet and start to embrace the foods and lifestyle of the ketogenic diet. 

Low carbohydrate diets such as the ketogenic diet and Atkins are becoming increasingly popular. They are extremely effective at helping people to lose weight. So, should you try a carbohydrate free diet plan? Are carbohydrates bad for you? As you start to read some studies, you realize that there are a ton of advantages to reducing your carbohydrate intake. If you are suffering from a chronic illness, you may even want to eliminate all carbohydrates until you heal and then gradually add them back into your diet.

Advantages of Low-Carbohydrate Diets

Eliminating carbohydrates has the biggest impact on regulating your blood sugar and insulin levels. Carbohydrates increase your blood sugar more rapidly than anything else. High blood sugar levels play an important role in all chronic diseases, type 2 diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular disease and dementia.

Lowering your carbohydrate intake is one of the best steps that you can take. Blood sugars will stabilize and insulin levels will reduce.

Satiation

Going low or zero carbohydrate will balance blood sugar levels. Without carbohydrates in your diet, your blood sugar and insulin doesn’t spike throughout the day. This keeps your energy levels fairly even.

There was a comprehensive study, which analyzed food cravings and appetite. Participants on a low-carb diet were directly compared to participants on a typical low-fat diet. The results demonstrated that low carbohydrate group had much lower cravings and were a lot less bothered by hunger. I have noticed this in my own experimentation with low carbohydrate diets. I find that I’m not constantly craving food when I’m restricting carbohydrates.

A diet that is high in healthy fats will keep you satiated longer.

Reduce risk of heart disease

Low-carb diets have a beneficial impact on a whole host of heart disease risk factors. Specifically, they reduce triglycerides (a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease) and increase the concentrations of HDL (known as the “good” cholesterol).

Additionally, they lead to reduced blood sugar, insulin, and inflammation in the body; all of these things can be damaging to the heart. As well as this, another big advantage is weight loss, since heavier weights and obesity increase cardiovascular risk.

Weight Stabilization

Eliminating carbohydrates seems to have a very stabilizing effect on your weight. If you are underweight, eating a meat based low carbohydrate diet will help you to gain some weight. Many people who are overweight are able to lose weight and get to an ideal weight rapidly on it.

Disadvantages of a Carbohydrate Free Diet

The biggest disadvantage to the carbohydrate free, all meat diet is that there is simply no variety. You eliminate grains, so all of your baked goods are out. You eliminate vegetables and there goes any creative substitutions that you may have for your fun to eat baked goods.

The biggest disadvantage of going zero carbohydrate is that it can be boring and we’ve become a society that is obsessed with food. There are internet sites that are completely dedicated to food and what to eat next. However, when you are focused in on healing and eating a carbohydrate free diet, your options become limited to meats and animal products.

What to Eat on a Zero Carbohydrate Diet

A zero carbohydrate diet is going to be only fat and protein. For a zero carbohydrate diet, you will be consuming mostly meats. For many people, it can be difficult to wrap your head around the idea of eating only animal products. We have heard from so many people that a plant-based diet is ideal and vegetables have many healing nutrients. For many years, I believed this theory.

When you start to examine the studies that tell you plants are healthy for you, it becomes clear that the research and evidence is incomplete. While it may be vital for you to have vitamin C or vitamin D, these are available in meat. Not only are they available in meat, they are bio available. Your body is better able to utilize the nutrients contained in meat. It doesn’t require the breakdown of fiber by the bacteria that is in your gut to use the nutrients in meat.

Vegetables are full of fiber. Many people tout fiber as being something that is healthy and good for digestion, but you may want to question that. As a few of my friends’ started to suffer from irritable bowel syndrome, one of the biggest culprits to their pain was fiber rich vegetables. That stunned me. I was one of the people who believed that fiber was good for you.

As a society, we have changed our agricultural practices. Pesticides are commonly used in agriculture now. Glyphosate is one of the pesticides that is popularly used now. The biggest problem with using glyphosate on our crops is that it is water soluble. Not only does it get onto the plants, but it also gets onto the crops and into the water supply.

Glyphosate impacts the bacteria in the gut. It blocks their shikamate pathway. In order to break down vegetables in your body, you need a healthy gut flora. However, with an increasing use of the glyphosate on our crops, an increasing amount of damage is being done to our gut microbiome. This impacts your ability to break down the fiber in vegetables. More and more people are being diagnosed with IBS.

Meat is nutritionally complete food. All the nutrients that are needed to support life are there. Meats are not broken down by the bacteria in your gut, but by the hydrochloric acid in your stomach.

A zero carbohydrate meal plan

• Breakfast – bacon and eggs
  
• Lunch – chicken salad or tuna salad (try to use a healthy mayonnaise)
  
• Dinner – Hamburger, steak, fish
  

Most people struggle to stick with such a restrictive diet. However, it can be very healing if you can tackle a zero carbohydrate diet for a few days at a time. Give your gut a break from breaking down fiber and feeling irritated from the phytates and antinutrients that are in vegetables. I have discovered that I can handle zero carbohydrate for a few days at a time and then go back to the ketogenic diet with a little more variety. A ketogenic diet is much easier to follow when you eat out with friends.