An Endocrinologist Reveals The Key To Achieving Optimal Vitamin D Status

While it's best known for its mood and bone benefits, vitamin D has whole-body health benefits.* Given its wide range of perks that span from gut and skin health to oral health, musculoskeletal function, and bone integrity, you'd think getting enough vitamin D would be at the top of everyone's health priority list.* 

It's ridiculously difficult (read: near impossible) to get enough vitamin D daily from diet and sunlight alone. There are a few reasons for this. Food rarely contains enough vitamin D to move the needle, thanks to an almost 100-year-old vitamin D food fortification approach. Plus, while many assume they can get enough vitamin D from the sun, this method is severely limited by one's location, season, skin tone, and levels of air pollution in their area.

The end result is that a whopping 41% of U.S. adults2 are estimated to be clinically insufficient in vitamin D [i.e., serum 25(OH)D levels greater than 20 ng/ml but less than 30 ng/ml], while another 29% are deficient in the essential vitamin (i.e., 20 ng/ml or lower)—and even those levels aren't optimal for reaping the full health benefits vitamin D has to offer. 

"[30 ng/ml] is the bare minimum level to avoid issues known to occur with vitamin D deficiency, including suboptimal bone and thyroid health," explains board-certified endocrinologist Brittany Henderson, M.D., who specializes in hormones (including vitamin D) in her clinical practice. "Higher levels of serum 25(OH)D [the biomarker for vitamin D status] have consistently been associated with healthy mood, optimal immune function, and more."*

"The majority of the world is vitamin D deficient. As an endocrinologist, I know that achieving optimal serum 25(OH)D levels in the 50+ ng/ml range is imperative for immune health, bone health, and more,"* explains Henderson.

What's more, Henderson shares that it's actually underserving clients to stop at 30 ng/ml. "Our population is heavily vitamin D deficient, and targeting an optimal level of 50 ng/ml has an enormous impact on all aspects of human health," she adds.

The most viable way to achieve or surpass that coveted 50 ng/ml status? A high-quality, effective vitamin D supplement. There's just one catch: "It's difficult for most standard vitamin D formulations to achieve this," Henderson says, adding that it can take up to 10,000 IU of daily vitamin D3 (or more) to address cases of significant vitamin D deficiency (particularly when considering individualized factors like body composition or other variables).

"Vitamin D is fat-soluble and, thus, better absorbed when administered in a fatty packaging,"* Henderson explains. "So, we typically recommend forms of vitamin D3 that are more highly bioavailable, meaning that they are packaged along with oils or fats."*

With 5,000 IU of organic, algal-sourced vitamin D3 and a trio of built-in organic oils (avocado, flaxseed, and extra-virgin olive) for enhanced bioavailability, our vitamin D supplement fits the bill and stands out from the crowd of other D options.

"mbg's vitamin D3 potency+ delivers organic plant-derived vitamin D3 packaged in a fat-soluble envelope of oils. With this innovative technology, vitamin D3 potency+ can achieve optimal D3 levels and keep them there,"* Henderson shares. 

For a bioavailable D3 supplement that delivers an efficacious dose of vitamin D (i.e., 5,000 IU of algal-derived D3) with built-in absorption technology in just one daily gelcap, mbg's vitamin D3 potency+ can't be beat.*