Many WNYers are Vitamin D deficient

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - On this beautiful sunny day, there's a chance that you got enough sunlight for your body to manufacture some Vitamin D, but it probably wasn't enough. News 4's Dr. Peter Ostrow reports on the epidemic of Vitamin D deficiency in western New York.

Do you get enough Vitamin D?

Gloria Gennuso said, "I just wondered whether I should be on the thousand milligrams besides."

She takes a multivitamin and she spends a lot of time in the sun and her vitamin d levels are good. But that's not the case for many of us in western New York.

Dr. David Silverstein of Kenmore Family Medicine said, "The more you test for it, the more you find it. Many people who are deficient in Vitamin D don't have symptoms, or if they do have symptoms, they're so non-specific. Typically things like fatigue, muscle aches."

About half of the people he tests are Vitamin D deficient. In order to get enough Vitamin D from sunshine, you need five to 30 minutes of exposure between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. at least twice a week on your face, arms, legs or back without sunscreen. But that amount of exposure increases the risk of skin cancer, so many physicians prescribe supplements.

"Vitamin D supplements drastically reduce the risk of falls in elderly nursing home patients and reduce the risk for osteoporotic fractures," said Dr. Silverstein.

They may also prevent prostate and colon cancer, enhance the immune system, and maybe they also help those other symptoms, like fatigue and muscle aches.

Dr. Silverstein said, "Among the patients I've treated, some have felt better with Vitamin D; some have not noticed a difference."

We don't have enough data to know yet how much benefit people can receive from Vitamin d supplements, but they're inexpensive and safe and many more people should probably be taking them.

"I'm not recommending it routinely yet for everybody, but I don't think I'm that far from it," said Dr. Silverstein.

If your Vitamin D level is low, you can't make it up with your diet, and you shouldn't try to get enough sun exposure to overcome a deficiency. High doses of Vitamin D supplements are the way to raise the amount in your body and then lower doses to continue normal levels. You can probably get enough Vitamin D from two multivitamins a day or take a 1,000 unit Vitamin D supplement.