Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition's midweek segment called Ask a Nutritionist.

I'm Brandy Burrow, a licensed and registered dietitian here at nutritional weight and wellness.

Today, I want to shine a little bit of light

on a nutrient that is often overlooked, but absolutely essential for many areas of our health.

And that is vitamin D. You may know vitamin D as the sunshine vitamin. And I think a lot of us know

that it's important to help us build strong bones.

But it is so much more than that. It plays a critical role in our immune function, our mental

health, muscle strength, reducing inflammation. And it even plays a role in coding for genes.

And even though it is so important for many areas of our

health, over half of Americans are deficient and many don't even realize it. So I wanted to

share some practical information about how to determine if you're getting enough vitamin D and the steps

you can take if you have low vitamin D or vitamin D deficiency.

Vitamin D deficiency is a topic that comes up a lot during my counseling sessions with

clients.

And it's something that I take really seriously.

Low vitamin D levels are quite common and a deficiency has been linked to

increased risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, depression, even autoimmune disorders

like multiple sclerosis. Many other health conditions can be traced back to low vitamin D.

So if I'm working with a client who's struggling with any of these concerns, or maybe they're

experiencing chronic energy and nothing seems to help, I ask them about their vitamin D levels

pretty early on in that conversation. And knowing your vitamin D level is so important,

that way you can take steps to prevent or treat a deficiency and prevent all the complications

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