How to Boost Performance, Testosterone and Immunity
Low Vitamin D levels can be detrimental to your overall health and even your athletic performance. Let’s fix that!
What’s the most painless way to get healthy? Getting enough Vitamin D.
There is a direct link between Vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency and mortality from health conditions such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. The difference between the two terms deficiency and insufficiency is only a matter of degree, like the difference between being poor and being somewhat poor.
For example, without optimal levels of vitamin D, T cells cannot fight cancer or infections, including pathogens like coronavirus and influenza. The problem is that adequate vitamin D levels are very difficult to maintain without supplements.
Apart from immune system anemia, symptoms of deficiency or dysfunction include musculoskeletal pain often diagnosed as fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome, osteoporosis, muscle weakness and smallness, decreased libido, low testosterone levels, high blood pressure, endothelial dysfunction, sudden cardiac death syndrome, and many other undesirable symptoms.
It’s not just those who are out of shape who are affected: studies have shown that nearly half of professional athletes have low vitamin D levels.
What does Vitamin D do for you?
Vitamin D is actually a prohormone, not a vitamin. When ingested, it is converted in the body to the active hormone 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol. Once converted, it plays a key role in a variety of functions, including protein synthesis, muscle and cardiovascular function, cell growth, musculoskeletal regulation, and inflammatory responses.
1. Vitamin D and skeletal muscle
When athletes have adequate vitamin D levels, their sports performance improves, they build muscle more easily and suffer fewer injuries.
This vitamin regulates skeletal muscle by activating the expression of genes that regulate muscle growth and differentiation, especially type II muscle fibers. Without vitamin D deficiency, type II fibers become thinner; with supplementation, they become thicker. Vitamin D also strengthens the interaction between myosin and actin (two muscle cell proteins), resulting in stronger muscle contractions.
More generally, optimal vitamin D levels improve muscle protein synthesis, jump height, ATP production, and your overall ability to perform both aerobic and anaerobic exercise.
2. Vitamin D and Lung Function
Low Vitamin D levels reduce lung capacity, but optimal Vitamin D levels ensure healthy lung structure, lung capacity, optimal oxygen exchange, and the ability to complete tasks without wheezing.
3. Vitamin D and the Heart
There appears to be a link between severe vitamin D deficiency and sudden cardiac death in athletes. Without adequate levels, your arteries can harden, leading to atherosclerosis.
4. Vitamin D and the Nervous System
Vitamin D directly affects serotonin and dopamine levels, which are essential for muscle coordination and avoiding fatigue.
5. Vitamin D and Sex
In general, high vitamin D levels increase circulating levels of estradiol, testosterone, FSH, LH, and DHEA in a woman’s body, which could logically lead to enhanced female orgasms. Similarly, at least one study has shown that vitamin D supplementation can significantly increase testosterone levels in men.
Why are people flawed?
We get vitamin D from certain foods and sunlight, but there are very few foods that contain it apart from fortified dairy products, eggs, mushrooms and fatty fish liver.
When it comes to sunlight, every skin cell in the body has the machinery to convert sunlight into a precursor to Vitamin D, which undergoes two rounds of hydroxylation to become metabolically active. Unfortunately, and understandably, everyone is afraid of skin cancer and wrinkles, so most people try to avoid sun exposure.
Additionally, pollution also limits the amount of UVB radiation that reaches the Earth’s surface. Also, consider the angle of the sun: in winter, vitamin D-producing UVB radiation does not reach beyond 35-37 degrees latitude (almost all of San Francisco, New Mexico, Arkansas, and North Carolina north).
Finally, there’s nature’s cruelty: the sun and vitamin D paradox. The melanin we produce to tan prevents UVB absorption, so dark-skinned athletes need to expose their skin to UVB light up to 10 times longer than light-skinned athletes to produce enough vitamin D.
So what to do?
The least risky ways are to take supplements and, if possible, regularly expose yourself to naked sunlight, but there’s no way to know for sure if you’re deficient in vitamin D without a blood test, and even then, medical opinion varies widely about what is “normal.”
The Institute of Medicine considers a blood level of 20 ng/mL sufficient. To meet this level, the RDA for vitamin D is about 600 IU. Meanwhile, the Endocrine Society recommends taking 1500-2200 IU per day, which is still a bit conservative, as it’s based on estimates.
Many biohackers and progressive nutritionists believe that we should supplement with vitamin D daily. Many believe that vitamin D levels should be kept between 50-70 ng/ml. Most recommend around 5,000 units of vitamin D3 per day.
Although it is technically possible to take too much vitamin D, it is difficult. It takes several months to intentionally “overdose,” and many people are unable to raise their blood levels even with regular vitamin D capsules.
How to Raise (and Maintain) Your Vitamin D Levels
First, forget about those vitamin D capsules you buy at the grocery store. Use microencapsulated vitamin D3. This microencapsulated form is the most bioavailable, meaning this delivery system solves the absorption problem. Biotest’s D Fix supplement contains 5000 IU of microencapsulated vitamin D3 per small softgel.
Second, vitamin D cannot be metabolized without sufficient magnesium. Without magnesium, vitamin D remains in the body, causing elevated calcium and phosphate levels, which can lead to a variety of physiological and metabolic consequences.
Not coincidentally, most Americans, especially athletes, are magnesium deficient, so take 400 mg of magnesium per day, ideally using the fully chelated magnesium found in Elite Pro Vital Minerals. (Purchase on Amazon).
References
- Uwitonze AM et al. “Role of magnesium in vitamin D activation and function.” J Am Osteopath Assoc. 2018 Mar 1;118(3):181-189. PubMed 29480918.
- Canat M et al. “Vitamin D3 deficiency is associated with sexual dysfunction in premenopausal women.” Int Urol Nephrol. 2016 Nov;48(11):1789-1795. PubMed 27522658.
- Mousa A et al. “Vitamin D supplementation increases adipokine concentrations in overweight or obese adults.” Eur J Nutr. 2020 Feb;59(1):195-204. PubMed 30649593.
- Pilz S et al. “Effect of vitamin D supplementation on testosterone levels in men.” Horm Metab Res. 2011 Mar;43(3):223-5. PubMed 21154195.
- de la Puente Yagüe M et al. “The role of vitamin D in athletes and performance: current concepts and emerging trends.” Nutrients. 2020 Feb 23;12(2):579. PubMed 32102188.
