Does Vitamin D Help Build Muscle?

Is your muscle strength influenced by your D3 levels?

Are you losing muscle strength?

Were you stronger when you were younger?

Could your vitamin D3 status be causing your muscle weakness?

It’s unfortunate that with age can come the loss of muscle strength. But maybe you feel less strong and you’re under 40. It’s too soon to blame aging.

Can you regain muscle strength?

The majority of Americans are deficient in vitamin D3. This isn’t new data but unfortunately, the numbers aren’t improving. Even with all the talk about the advantages to your bone, heart, immune system, endocrine system, and cancer prevention, we still have too many Americans deficient in D.

As if the list of benefits of vitamin D3 wasn’t already impressive, new research points to muscle strength as another benefit of optimal D3 levels.

The study was titled: “Supplemental vitamin D may enhance muscle function”1

Is your vitamin D3 active or inactive?

One datum to know is that inactive vitamin D is a marker of D deficiency.

The researchers discovered that women who had healthy body composition and lower levels of body fat were less likely to have high levels of inactive vitamin D.

Conversely, the women with more body fat had less of the inactive vitamin D or lower levels of the vitamin in their blood.

Is body fat an indicator of D3 levels?

The researchers were quick to point out that while the findings could suggest a relationship between body fat and vitamin D3 levels, that wasn’t what they discovered.

Instead, it was the lean body mass that had a direct correlation with vitamin D activity.

Higher lean mass correlates with muscle mass and, from this study’s results, higher levels of active vitamin D. The conclusion was the active vitamin D may help optimize muscle strength, something we all desire.

While previous studies have made a link between lack of muscle mass and low vitamin D3, the author, Dr. Hassan-Smith, states:

“It may be that body fat is linked to increased levels of inactive vitamin D, but lean mass is the key for elevated levels of active vitamin D. It is vital to understand the complete picture, and the causal mechanisms at work, so we can learn how to supplement vitamin D intake to enhance muscle strength.”

Leaner bodies have more active D

Vitamin D3 has long been associated with strong bones, it’s exciting to learn a new aspect of its benefits, strong muscle.

There is more to learn, but appreciating that moving your body to a higher lean mass percentage can activate your vitamin D and help you reap the multitude of benefits associated with an optimal level.

Risk of breast cancer

The risk of breast cancer rises with overweight or over-fat, as it does with low vitamin D levels.

Optimal vitamin D levels are associated with lowered risk of breast cancer. And now we learn, so too is lean body mass. Are the two more tightly linked than we realized?

More research needs to occur, but I think the causality is in an interesting one.

How’s your health?

Do you suffer from overweight? Is your body less lean than you’d like it to be?

Are your vitamin D levels remaining low despite supplementation?

If you or anyone you know is suffering from less than optimal health we would love to help you. The good news is we have excellent success in this area.

Each program is tailored to you and your particular imbalances that are creating your unique symptoms.

Contact us for a Free Consultation – Call (408) 733-0400.

If you are not local to us you can still get help; our Destination Clinic treats patients from across the country and internationally.

We help the world’s busiest people regain, retain, and reclaim their health, energy, and resilience.

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