Vitamins and Minerals are the essential components of our body, and it keeps intact the smooth flowing and systematic functioning of all the organs and the mechanisms inside. A deficiency of a single vitamin could disrupt a specific organ’s functioning or arousal of a health condition that requires a particular treatment.
Winter Season has gripped everyone with its stone-cold and chilled atmosphere outside, making one want to be surrounded by heating elements and a warm environment. Winter month is known for the arrival of a range of disease, especially a deadly virus like COVID. With a spike in cases even more during the winter months, COVID-19 has made people fearful of what is next in the lot for them because things are unpredictable right now.
Women at a specific age experience a prime number of diseases due to inevitable changes in their bodies. The difference is more related to hormonal imbalance. A woman reaches the menopause stage and then begins the fight with several health conditions making things impossible and unbearable to cope specifically during the winter months of a year.
Vitamin D is one of our body’s essential vitamins, produced in our system when we direct sunlight rays or what we call UVB or Ultraviolet B rays. Experts have advised that Vitamin D is necessary for the body to properly regulate blood pressure, healthy bones, and better cardiovascular health.
But what has been observed by a group of researchers from Vanderbilt University, Nashville that vitamin D levels might fluctuate depending on the season one is primarily in women. The research related to lower levels of Vitamin D in women was presented in the American Society for Clinical Pathology’s annual meeting in 2012. The study also mentioned that women suffering from a predominant disease such as arthritis, diabetes, etc., are more likely to have their vitamin D drop down during winters.
The researchers’ final understanding was drawn from previous knowledge from many experts who mentioned that Vitamin D levels are bound to lower during the winter month, which calls for extra attention and healthcare over these women.
The Study Conducted for Validating Theory
As mentioned above in the article, a group of researchers from Vanderbilt University tried to prove this lower Vitamin D theory in women by analyzing 244 women.
These women visited the medical center beginning from 2008 September till 2009 and had complaints of various health conditions such as arthritis, diabetes, hypothyroidism, high blood pressure, etc.
Researchers marked various data and observed these women’s vitamin D levels on some standard set of figures that would analyze who has sufficient, insufficient, or deficit of vitamin D in them during the Winters. The collection of markers were based on;
Levels of vitamin D less than 20ng/mL regarded as deficient, and levels of 20-29 ng/mL as insufficient
According to these authoritative figures, what was understood that:
- 28 percent of the women had deficient levels
- 33 percent of the women had insufficient levels of vitamin D during winters
- 5 percent of the women had deficient levels during summers
- 38 percent of the women had inadequate levels of vitamin D during summers
During winters, these low vitamin D figures were influenced by other prevailing diseases in a woman, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, hypothyroidism, etc. Moreover, other factors added to it was the postmenopausal phase women who had Vitamin D less in proportion, causing weight gain.
The Risk Fator and Conclusion
We are often recommended to sit in the sun’s shades, which give our body the ability to produce vitamin D. Still since there is a relatively low level of the sun observed during winter months, it is likely to affect women.
Experts have also found that higher vitamin D levels found in women above 75 have reduced central vision loss and reduced partial vision loss in women of age 50. Winter months do not have a more vigorous intensity of sunlight, which doesn’t allow our skin to have much vitamin D.
Women who stay indoors than exposing themselves more to the sun are more likely to indulge in Vitamin D supplements or food that have a significant amount of Vitamin D, to be precise. But the researchers are further progressing into understanding the other groups of people at risk of Vitamin D deficiency and the health issues related to the same.
But doctors have mentioned that the above study has made everyone aware of how high the levels of Vitamin D deficiency are during winters and how a proper diagnosis of their disease needs to be taken.
