GoodRx Guide
Vitamin D Deficiency: Your GoodRx Guide
Comprehensive information for you or a loved one — including treatment options and discounts on popular medications.
What is vitamin D deficiency?
Vitamin D is an important nutrient that plays a number of important roles in the body, especially in bone health. You get vitamin D from two main sources: food and sunlight. And for many people, this is enough to keep their vitamin D at adequate levels.
When someone is not getting or absorbing enough vitamin D, it can start to impact their health. Vitamin D deficiency is when their levels fall below what their body needs to stay healthy.
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What causes vitamin D deficiency?
Some people develop vitamin D deficiency when they don’t get enough vitamin D in their diet. This can happen for a number of different reasons:
Foods that are naturally high in vitamin D — like liver, oily fish, and mushrooms — aren’t staples of most people’s diets.
Many foods that are fortified with vitamin D may only have 10% to 15% of the recommended daily intake of vitamin D per serving.
Restrictive diets, especially vegan diets, are often very low in vitamin D.
Infants who only receive breast milk can become vitamin D deficient.
Certain digestive conditions can affect someone’s ability to absorb vitamin D through the intestines. Examples include inflammatory bowel disease, cystic fibrosis, and people who have had bariatric surgery.
People can also develop a vitamin D deficiency if they have limited sun exposure. This can happen when someone:
Spends most of their time indoors
Lives in a cold climate, where their skin is covered most of the time
Lives in a cloudy climate or a northern latitude with reduced hours of UV (ultraviolet) rays
Has a darker skin tone, which means their skin makes less vitamin D with sun exposure
Is an older adult, who produces 75% less vitamin D from sun-exposed skin than young people
There are other health conditions that can also contribute to vitamin D deficiency. For example, liver or kidney conditions can cause it. This is because the liver and kidneys convert vitamin D to its active form so your body can actually use it.
What are the symptoms of vitamin D deficiency?
Most people with low vitamin D levels don’t notice any symptoms. But if you have very low levels of vitamin D, you may experience:
Bone pain
Muscle pain
Weakness
Trouble walking
Slow wound healing
Depressed or irritable mood
Fatigue and tiredness
Hair loss
Issues with memory or concentration
If you think you may have a low level of vitamin D, don’t wait until you have symptoms. Your healthcare provider can check your level with a simple blood test.
Can vitamin D deficiency cause other health problems?
Vitamin D deficiency can cause a number of different problems in the body, especially in the bones. Examples include:
Osteomalacia (in teens and adults) and rickets (in children): These are the direct result of vitamin D deficiency. In both conditions, bone becomes weak, soft, or deformed.
Osteoporosis and osteopenia: These come from the loss of bone density with age. Vitamin D deficiency is one of the contributing factors.
Low calcium levels: Low vitamin D levels make it difficult to absorb calcium from the foods we eat.
Secondary hyperparathyroidism: Low calcium levels can raise parathyroid hormone levels. This triggers calcium to be released from bones, which weakens them.
There are other health problems that have been associated with low vitamin D levels. But researchers are still trying to figure out how vitamin D deficiency is related to:
Autoimmune disease
Infections
Cancer
High blood pressure
Heart health
Diabetes
Depression
How do you diagnose vitamin D deficiency?
Vitamin D deficiency is diagnosed with a simple blood test. More specifically, the blood test will measure 25-hydroxyvitamin D. The normal range is 30 ng/mL to 100 ng/mL. The exact level experts consider “deficient” varies, but most agree that a level below 20 ng/mL affects your health.
What is the treatment for vitamin D deficiency?
Experts recommend that most people take in 600 IU (15 mcg) of vitamin D per day. For many people, they get this amount or more from sunlight and their diet. But if you have been diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency, you may need a higher dose to get your levels back to normal.
Vitamin D supplementation comes in oral pills or an injection. Vitamin D supplements can easily be found over the counter (OTC). But people with a deficiency may need a prescription to get a higher dose.
The exact dosage that someone needs to correct their deficiency varies from person to person. It’s based on their vitamin D level and what is causing the problem. You can supplement vitamin D daily, weekly, or even monthly, depending on which supplement you are taking.
Too much vitamin D can be toxic, so it’s important to get guidance from your provider on dosing and for them to recheck your level.
Common concerns
Vitamin D deficiency is more common than you might think. In certain populations, as many as half of people who visit their healthcare provider have low vitamin D levels. And among people who live in northern latitudes, up to 3 out of 4 have a vitamin D deficiency in the winter due to limited sun exposure.
There are certain medications that can cause vitamin D deficiency. Some examples include:
Seizure medications
Blood pressure medications
Steroids
Antibiotics
Vitamin D supplements are available in two different forms: D2 and D3. Both vitamins D2 (ergocalciferol) and D3 (cholecalciferol) are available as OTC supplements. Most healthcare providers recommend vitamin D3 over D2 because research suggests it’s more effective at raising vitamin D levels. But both of them can do the job.
References
Asif, A., et al. (2022). Vitamin D toxicity. StatPearls.
Kennel, K. A., et al. (2010). Vitamin D deficiency in adults: When to test and how to treat. Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
Pepper, K. J., et al. (2009). Evaluation of vitamin D repletion regimens to correct vitamin D status in adults. Endocrine Practice: Official Journal of the American College of Endocrinology and the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists.
Sizar, O., et al. (2023). Vitamin D deficiency. StatPearls.
Tripkovic, L., et al. (2012). Comparison of vitamin D2 and vitamin D3 supplementation in raising serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D status: A systematic review and meta-analysis. The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
U.S. Office of Dietary Supplements. (2022). Vitamin D.
