Vitamin D Osteopenia, Osteoporosis

Vitamin D Osteopenia, Osteoporosis research shows that this is an essential vitamin for anyone wanting to build strong bones.  In fact studies place Vitamin D 'center stage' for  bone building. Why? Because Vitamin D is the key to calcium absorption.  If you do not have enough D, you will not build strong bones.

In fact when children have a deficiency it can lead to rickets. In adults, a deficiency in this vitamin, they can develop osteomalacia. This is a softening of the bones that often leads to misshapen bone, or bowed legs.

Vitamin D has three main forms and all three are important:

First, is the sunlight form that is absorbed - either through our intestines or from our skin through ultraviolet rays in sunlight.  Second is a form created in our liver from the first absorbed form. This second form is called 25 hydroxy-vitamin D5. Our bodies have more of this 2nd form of Vitamin D than any other.  The third form is the most important. It is made in our kidneys from the 2nd form:25 hydroxy-vitamin D.

This 3rd form is the active form and it is called calcitriol (1.25 dihydroxy-Vitamin D). This is the form that helps in the absorption of calcium.

(Note our liver and kidneys are important for the transformation from the first into the third form. This Vitamin D use of liver and kidneys is the main reason why excess alcohol often leads poor bone building  It is also the reason why kidney disease is often a precursor to Osteopenia or Osteoporosis. (See: Osteopenia Osteoporosis risk factor

Calcium supplements are only helpful if there is enough Stage 3 Vitamin D in the body to ensure that the calcium can be absorbed.  Without Vitamin D, in particular Vitamin D3, you will not have strong bones. That is why Vitamin D Osteopenia, Osteoporosis is such an important topic.

Using Vitamin D Osteopenia, Osteoporosis can be complicated.

First, you do not want to  take too much of this vitamin.

Why? When you are in the process of converting stage 2 Vitamin D into the stage 3 form needed for bone building, it is your parathyroid hormone (PTH) that stimulates your kidneys to do the conversion. If you have too much  Vitamin D in your body, it can cause your body to release of too much parathyroid hormone (PTH).

AND because PTH  stimulates osteoclasts - the cells that dissolve bone, releasing too much PTH will lead to bone loss, not bone building.  You do not want too much PTH in your system - especially if you have Osteoporosis or Osteopenia. It can sabotage your whole plan for Osteoporosis or Osteopenia treatments.                                             Sounds complicated? Well in some sense it is. There needs to be a real balancing act. You need enough Vitamin D Osteopenia Osteoporosis ...but not too much or it can make things worse.   

This is the reason I get a bit nervous when I see web sites and/or newsletters advising readers to take very high doses of this important vitamin without ever getting their Vitamin D levels tested.  Please, if you are going to take Vitamin D, ask your health care provider to test your current levels of this important vitamin. You do not want too much in your system....no matter what all the ads say.

Talk with your health care provider

There is a simple blood test that will measure your Vitamin D levels - including the all important Vitamin D3. Why not ask your health care provider to order this test so you know 'exactly where you stand' on the Vitamin D Osteopenia Osteoporosis scale.

If your test shows below normal Vitamin D3, then you will want to consider a supplement and your health care provider ought to be able to suggest how much you need to take each day to bring your levels back to normal.  Please, it is worth getting medical advice on this Vitamin D Osteopenia, Osteoporosis issue.

You do not want your levels to be too low because that is not good for bone building.  BUT you also do not want to take so much that your Vitamin D levels are too high. since very high levels can lead to a serious heart condition called atrial fibrillation.  A blood test is not complicated and it can set you in the right Vitamin D Osteopenia, Osteoporosis direction.

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