You Might Need Even More Vitamin D As You Age — Here's How To Tell

Specifically, you might need even more of the essential micronutrient as you grow older: Here's how age plays a significant role and what you might want to change on your vitamin D journey.

"As we age, our cutaneous production, or the skin synthesis, goes down naturally," mbg's vice president of scientific affairs Ashley Jordan Ferira, Ph.D., RDN, says on the mindbodygreen podcast. That skin synthesis process is how we get vitamin D from the sun: The sunshine hits exposed skin and, after a few conversion steps, creates vitamin D3. As Ferira notes, this process simply slows as you grow older, so your skin doesn't create as much of the sunshine vitamin. 

And sunshine aside, there's another way age is limiting our vitamin D potential. Ferira explains that "when we're older, conversion of the circulating 25(OH)D form of vitamin D to its doubly hydroxylated form—the active, hormone form—is blunted in the body. Thus, a sufficient daily dose of D3 is essential to overcome these age-related mechanics."*

But for those wondering how to get their vitamin D levels back up to par, we highly recommend 5,000 IU (the most efficacious dose) of vitamin D3 (your body's preferred form) from a sustainable source (we believe organic algae is the highest-quality plant source available).* mindbodygreen's vitamin D3 potency+ also includes a built-in trio of organic, virgin oils from avocado, flaxseed, and olives, so you can take it any time of the day, with or without a meal. A smart, well-rounded supplement no matter your personal vitamin D metabolism and response.*

A slew of factors can affect your response to vitamin D—one of which is your age. Again, everyone is a unique individual, and you might be dealing with multiple factors here (body composition can affect your vitamin D status, too, for example). But by making sure you have enough vitamin D (via a high-quality D3 supplement), chances are you can overcome those personal nuances.*