Vitamin D: Which is the best way to supplement?

Hello dear Reader,

I hope this finds you well.

Today’s article is about why sometimes - in fact quite often - having a vitamin D injection is more effective than taking oral supplements.  Now just to recap, there are many many people in the world who are in desperate need of vitamin D during the fall and winter months, and this article right here tells why.  But Healthy World Nutrition has started offering vitamin D jabs, which we think for most people this is the very best way to get your vitamin D, and that comes down to 3 reasons.

Reason number one: injections are more fully absorbed than oral supplements, and they last longer. When you take a vitamin D pill, it has to go through digestion where it is broken down, then it has to go through absorption where it goes through the lining of the stomach and intestines - into the tissues - and finally into the blood.  There are quite a few genetically driven enzymatic processes that make this happen.  If anything is wrong with the lining in the stomach or intestines (as we'll talk about shortly) the amount of vitamin D absorbed into the bloodstream can be dramatically decreased.  However, even if a person’s digestion is working extremely well, that person will only absorb about 50% of oral vitamin supplements.  On the other hand, an injection of vitamin D into the muscle does not have to go through digestion and is absorbed almost entirely from the muscle into the bloodstream.  Injections also last up to 3 months and do not require oral supplementation at all.

Reason number two: there are several fairly common health conditions that make it difficult to digest and absorb vitamin pills. Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), such as Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, both damage the intestinal tract and that reduces the surface area which is needed for absorption of nutrients.  Coeliac disease is another condition that causes nutrient absorption to be less effective, by damaging the lining of the small intestine.  Cystic fibrosis patients also are normally vitamin D deficient because (among other problems it causes) CF produces a thick sticky mucus that block the intestines, which decreases fat absorption and, consequently, fat soluble vitamins like vitamin D.  Also, people who have had bariatric surgery to reduce the size of the stomach can have trouble absorbing vitamin D.

And finally, reason number three: vitamin D pills can interact with quite a few common medications which again affects the digestion and absorption of vitamin D tablets or capsules.  Which medications you ask? The answer is very common drugs within these categories - anticonvulsants, corticosteroids, some weight loss drugs, proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), certain types of diuretics, some type types of statins, and some types of laxatives.  The reasons behind these are all varied, some having to do with regulation of calcium, or stomach acid, or liver metabolism.  If you're curious, please get in touch with me and we can have a chat about your own unique situation.   

I hope this article has shed some light on how vitamin D shots can be so much better than oral supplements.  To see if vitamin D shots are right for you, or to book with us, please visit my www.healthyworldnutrition.co.uk.  To your very good health!

References:

1. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6631968/

2. https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/cf-nutrition.html

3. https://www.goodrx.com/conditions/vitamin-d-deficiency/interactions