HOW VITAMIN D CAN HELP INTERSTITIAL CYSTITIS AND UTIS
A SIMPLE STEP YOU CAN TAKE IN PREVENTING ANOTHER UTI OR BLADDER FLARE
Ever considered vitamin D as your secret weapon against UTIs and to boost your urinary health? If you haven’t, you’re not alone there, most people don’t realise the power of this vitamin.
Maybe you have stumbled across some internet wisdom around vitamin D and dismissed it, thinking that you already get enough vitamin D from the sun - I mean you spent 2 weeks in Tenerife in July so you’re good, right? Actually, that might not be enough if you were wearing SPF and practising sun safety.
You might also have dismissed this as a good option, thinking that you have a healthy diet so your D levels are probably OK. Actually, we wouldn’t rely on foods for vitamin D, as it’s technically a hormone our skin makes when it reacts with the sun, which has to be at the right angle.
No client of mine has ever had vitamin D at optimal (125 nmol/l), even when they have been supplementing. When we dig into this, we find they’re either not supplementing the right amount, they aren’t consistent with taking their supplement, or they are not absorbing it very well.
Take my client Sarah. Sarah came to see me feeling confident her vitamin D was OK, because she had been taking the NHS recommended 400iu daily for 3 months. We tested her D and her levels were only 50 nmol/l. That’s OK if you just want to scrape by, but we wanted to prevent UTI infection and, for that, D levels closer to 125 nmol/l are optimal**.
It might be that when you tentatively raised the idea of using vitamin D to protect from UTIs with your GP, they said everyone should just supplement and told you to take Adcal. GPs tend to give a standard recommendation, like everyone should just take 400iu, without considering their skin colour, age, or lifestyle. The problem with this advice is that:
It doesn’t tailor the dose to keep levels optimal for UTI prevention.
It may not be enough vitamin D to rectify an existing deficiency.
You might have taken the plunge, after reading an article online about vitamin D deficiency when you live in a rainy, cloudy country, and started taking a multivitamin or mega dosing with vitamin D supplements.
Actually, you can have too much of a good thing, and unlike water soluble vitamins like vitamin C, you don’t pee vitamin D out, it’s stored in your liver so you don’t want to overdo it. Long term mega dosing with 5000 or 10,000iu is not recommended, especially without testing.
None of this is to suggest that vitamin D isn’t a good thing. Vitamin D could well make a huge difference to your bladder health - if taken correctly.
How? Well, you probably already know that vitamin D enhances the immune system's ability to fight off infections. It helps stimulate the production of antimicrobial peptides, which are natural components of the immune system that can help protect against invading pathogens, including bacteria responsible for UTIs. That’s the part we’re especially interested in here, of course. It’s why I include vitamin D testing as standard in the Heal your Bladder programme.
Inflammation can damage the lining of the urinary tract and make it more susceptible to infection. By modulating the inflammatory response, vitamin D can contribute to a healthier urinary tract
There’s also the fact that vitamin D can increase the body's production of cathelicidin, an antimicrobial peptide that can help defend against bacterial infections, including those in the urinary tract. Optimal levels of vitamin D3 have the ability to stimulate production of anti-microbial substances in the urinary lining, which may help to strengthen the mucosal immunity of the urinary tract and make it more resilient to infection^.
This is why functional testing that includes vitamin D is so important when it comes to getting answers - and solutions - to your painful bladder issues. Knowing what your vitamin D levels are really like, means you can supplement appropriately and help defend against a UTI. In the UK the recommended supplement intake for vitamin D3 is 400 iu. However if you are currently deficient, spend most of your day inside (an office or your home), have dark skin, or avoid the sun, this may not be sufficient to resolve an existing vitamin D deficiency, or reduce your risk of UTI.
Working with a nutritional therapist who is uniquely trained in the use of nutritional supplements means you can ensure your levels are optimised to reduce your risk of urinary tract infection safely. If we test first, we can calculate how much vitamin D you need to maintain optimal levels based on your weight and ensure you have robust levels to prevent UTI.
Keen to get real answers and interested in how functional testing could help you heal your bladder?
Book a call now and let’s discuss how the Heal your Bladder programme could be the perfect fit for you.
References:
**Vitamin D Council: https://www.vitamindcouncil.org/i-tested-my-vitamin-d-level-what-do-my-results-mean/
^Gombart, A.F. (2009) “The vitamin D-antimicrobial peptide pathway and its role in protection against infection.” Future Microbiology, 4(9), pp. 1151–1165. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19895218
