Vitamin D: The Menopause Connection and Its Impact on Mood – Are You Getting Enough?

Often referred to as ‘the sunshine vitamin’ because it’s predominantly made on the skin in the presence of sunshine, vitamin D is ubiquitous throughout the body.  This means there’s not much that goes on within the body that isn’t affected by vitamin D, in some way.  And it becomes even more important during the menopause years.

One fact that many people don’t realise is that vitamin D is also needed for good mood: and this can sometimes be challenged when struggling with other menopause symptoms. The difficulty is that during the winter months, it’s not possible to get sufficient vitamin D, as many parts of the world don’t have enough sunshine, and food is not a great source either. And during the summer months, we’re not always outside much, its absorption is blocked by sun cream and there’s mixed research on just how much the liver and kidneys can store.

What else does it do?

Although it’s called a vitamin, this key player works more like a hormone.  Research has found that long term deficiency may also lead to heart disease, some cancers, asthma, rickets in children, osteomalacia, type 2 diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and depression.  Quite a list for sure.

Recently, research has discovered an inextricable link between people suffering more serious outcomes from COVID-19  when they had low blood levels of vitamin D. Importantly though, having sufficient vitamin D can improve the quality of everyday life in general.

What about foods?

The skin is where the body prefers to get its vitamin D from.  However, a small number of foods do provide vitamin D including red meat, oily fish such as sardines, mackerel, salmon, egg yolk, fortified foods and mushrooms.  The problem is that demand for vitamin D is huge all around the body, and just relying on foods is not going to provide sufficient.

What about mood?

Whilst we know that vitamin D is essential for strong bones and teeth and a healthy immune system, we’re now learning more about how it affects mood.

Certainly, a correlation between low mood and depression has been linked to a lack of vitamin D.  There are several potential reasons for this and there are still parts of the jigsaw puzzle to be uncovered. 

We do know that if we increase our blood levels of vitamin D, this raises levels of serotonin. Serotonin is often referred to as our ‘happy hormone’ because it works in the brain to provide good mood and to manage anxiety.  We know that low estrogen (during menopause), correlates to low serotonin. Additionally, there are vitamin D receptors in the brain, which means the brain certainly needs plenty. We also understand that it works like an antioxidant in the brain, protecting it from damage and keeping it working as it should.  There’s still more to know from a research perspective but one thing is for sure…

Taking a vitamin D supplement is a very easy fix so do make sure you take it as a normal part of your daily routine and menopause care.