Women looking to experience a high quality of life after 40 should be concerned about their Vitamin D levels. Vitamin D is important for women because it has far-ranging effects on health, from how well your genes can do their jobs to building healthy bones to supporting the immune system.  Ensuring you have the proper levels of Vitamin D will keep your body in good working order.

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Why is Vitamin D important for women?

There are three significant reasons women should pay attention to their Vitamin D levels:

• bone health
• immune system function
• genetic expression

Each of these three reasons is important on its own. But taken together, we can see how Vitamin D has far-reaching effects on nearly every system in the body.

BONE HEALTH

Bone health deteriorates a women move through perimenopause and menopause.  Osteoporosis is a scary sounding disease marked by brittle bones. When you think of little old ladies hunched over their walkers, you’re thinking of someone with osteoporosis.

Poor bone health isn’t just about a hunchback! That compromised posture affects emotions, breathing capacity, and ease of movement.

Women with poor bone health often fear falling– and for good reason! Hip fractures in women over 50 have a mortality rate of 14%-58% in the year following the fracture. Even just being afraid of falling compromises quality of life. Who wants that?!

Now that we understand a bit about bone health, let’s ask why is Vitamin D important to women.

Most women know that Vitamin D is somehow related to osteoporosis. But they don’t really understand how or why.

Often people are surprised to learn that it’s not really Vitamin D itself that is good for bones. Rather, Vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium. Calcium is the mineral that is necessary for bone growth. So if you do not have enough Vitamin D, your body cannot most effectively absorb and use the calcium needed for strong bones.

Keeping your Vitamin D within an optimal range allows your body to absorb the calcium that is necessary for bone health. There are also bone strengthening activities you can do at home to keep your skeleton strong.

IMMUNE SYSTEM FUNCTION

Vitamin D plays a crucial role in supporting optimal function of your immune system. In order to keep your body’s natural defenses working their best, you need to make sure you have enough Vitamin D.

As we age, many women are diagnosed with autoimmune disorders. Often, these are women who have suppressed levels of Vitamin D. Having optimal Vitamin D levels is directly related to improved autoimmunity. So if you are looking to ward off autoimmune disorders or minimize symptoms, Vitamin D is especially important!

Even if you don’t have an autoimmune disorder, Vitamin D levels mirror immune system function. When your Vitamin D levels are low, your immune system cannot function well. This is because your body’s Vitamin D receptors are located on immune system cells. So when these cells capture and synthesize Vitamin D, they are bolstered.

And that means you get sick less often.

IT’S IN THE GENES

Did you know that just because your genes carry a certain code to do a particular job, it doesn’t always happen?

Gene expression is the process by which instructions in our DNA (genes) are converted into a functional product necessary for optimal health. So if our gene expression isn’t working well, that communication is delayed or thwarted altogether. The result is that the necessary bodily process is incomplete or doesn’t happen at all.

Yikes!

Vitamin D has a direct effect on over 2,000 genes in the human body– that’s about 10% of your entire genetic code. So if you don’t have enough Vitamin D, your gene expression could be reduced by up to 10%.

Yikes again!

Ensuring that your Vitamin D levels are in the optimal range (according to Harvard University) can help your genes to carry out their hard work as effectively as possible. Genetic expression is the very foundation of your health!

So, why is Vitamin D important to women?

Now you know three reasons: bone health, immune system function, and proper, complete gene expression. Now that you’re convinced Vitamin D is important to women, try these five easy ways to increase your Vitamin D levels.

Karen Shopoff Rooff is a certified health coach. The Well Balanced Women blog is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Please discuss your health issues with a licensed medical practitioner.