Vitamin D levels can predict your risk of diseases, according to this study

If there is one thing that has become abundantly clear during the pandemic, it’s that our body desperately needs vitamin D to function properly. Not only does the sunshine vitamin, help strengthen our bones—its also helps the immune system to function properly. But there’s another thing that vitamin D does: it can predict your future health.

Before you accuse us of making this up, let us tell you that a research from Belgium has found that vitamin D levels in the blood may be a better predictor of future health risks in the elderly—especially men.

The study suggests that a free, precursor form of vitamin D found circulating in the bloodstream is a more accurate predictor of future health and disease risk, than the often measured total vitamin D.

Since vitamin D deficiency is associated with multiple serious health conditions as we get older, this study suggests that further investigation into vitamin D levels and their link to poor health may be a promising area for further research.

The study is European but a vitamin D deficiency is rampant even in India
Vitamin D deficiency is common in Europe, especially in elderly people. Vitamin D deficiency is on a rise in India too, with a 2019 pan-India study suggesting that about 80 to 90% of Indians don’t have the required levels of the vitamin. Yikes!

Low levels of the sunshine vitamin have been associated with a higher risk for developing many ageing-related diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer and osteoporosis.

However, there are several forms, or metabolites, of vitamin D in the body but it is the total amount of these metabolites that are most often used to assess the vitamin D status of people.

The prohormone, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D is converted to 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, which is considered the active form of vitamin D in our body. More than 99% of all vitamin D metabolites in our blood are bound to proteins, so only a very small fraction is free to be biologically active. Therefore the free, active forms may be a better predictor of current and future health.

Also, read: Here’s why vitamin D is important and how to keep its level up during lockdown

Dr Leen Antonio from University Hospitals Leuven in Belgium and a team of colleagues investigated whether the free metabolites of vitamin D were better health predictors, using data from the European Male Ageing Study, which was collected from 1,970 community-dwelling men, aged 40-79, between 2003 and 2005.

The levels of total and free metabolites of vitamin D were compared with their current health status, adjusting for potentially confounding factors, including age, body mass index, smoking and self-reported health. The total levels of both free and bound vitamin D metabolites were associated with a higher risk of death. However, only free 25-hydroxyvitamin D was predictive of future health problems and not free 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D.

Dr Antonio explains, “These data further confirm that vitamin D deficiency is associated with a negative impact on general health and can be predictive of a higher risk of death.”

The study is observational, so we need to take it a with a pinch of salt
The study makes it abundantly clear that the standard measures of checking vitamin D levels are not relevant when it comes to predicting future health risks. Healthcare professionals need to check for vitamin D metabolites, which is not the norm—at least in testing labs that we usually go to.

So getting yourself tested or popping vitamin D pills won’t help. But if you want to take care of your vitamin D levels, then spend half an hour daily in the morning sun to soak up some sunshine and eat vitamin D rich foods.