We've all heard of Vitamin D and bone health, but did you know it can help support a myriad of perimenopause and menopause problems?
Like mood, hot flushes, vaginal health, immunity and cardiovascular health - PLUS reducing Belly Fat!
Tune in to learn about the ease of boosting your vitamin D for a healthy and vibrant life, and why it’s essential not just for managing life transitions but for overall well-being.
Are you a woman feeling stressed, flat and experiencing the challenges of perimenopause?
It’s time to reclaim your youthful energy, radiance and self-assurance (and your ideal weight).
I’m here to help with my proven method.
Here's how I can support you -
1. Hit your health and wellbeing goals this year, balance your hormones and lose weight with your own personalised protocol, based on your body's biochemistry. Sounds awesome right!! Book a free 30 minute Peri Weight Loss Assessment with me so we can discuss your health and wellbeing goals and also see how I might be able to support you. Book your call here.
2. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook - @the.perimenopause.path
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Susie Garden and this is the Ageless and
Awesome podcast.
I'm an age-defying naturopathand clinical nutritionist and
I'm here to bust myths aroundwomen's health and aging so that
you can be ageless and awesomein your 40s, 50s and beyond.
The Ageless and Awesome podcastis dedicated to helping women
(00:24):
through perimenopause andmenopause with great health, a
positive mindset and outrageousconfidence.
Hit, subscribe or follow nowand let's get started.
Hello, gorgeous one, andwelcome to this week's episode
of the Ageless and Awesomepodcast, and today we're diving
into a topic that's actuallyreally important for women in
(00:49):
perimenopause and menopause andmen, to be honest, as well.
It's really important for men,and this episode is all about
vitamin D.
Vitamin D Symptoms, from poorvaginal health to belly fat have
been linked to low vitaminD inthe research, and I'm going to
(01:10):
be covering this in today'sepisode.
So let's get straight into it,because it's actually really
important, because it seems thatvitamin D itself has been
really underestimated as to whatit can do for us.
So let's kind of start with thebasics.
(01:32):
What exactly is vitamin D?
So vitamin D is a fat solublevitamin, so that means that we
keep storage of it in our fattissue and our bodies need it
for a number of functions,including calcium absorption and
bone health, and that's wheremost of you have probably heard
about.
Vitamin D is in conjunctionwith calcium and osteoporosis,
(01:54):
particularly in peri andpostmenopausal women and also,
you may have heard, in morerecent years post-pandemic or
since the pandemic it's reallyimportant for our immune system.
It's often referred to as thesunshine vitamin because our
skin produces it in response tosunlight.
However, many of us don't getenough vitamin d from sunlight
(02:16):
because, you know, if we live incolder countries, northern
latitudes, if we spend a lot oftime indoors which, let's face
it, a lot of us do If you havedarker skin pigmentation, you
may not absorb enough of thatsunlight.
For that, get the vitamin D.
And also, just because we inAustralia particularly, we are
always slathered in sunscreenand you know we're all taught
(02:40):
the slip, slop, slap, which, ifyou're one of my American or
European listeners, it's a slipon a shirt, slap on sunscreen
and oh no, slip on a shirt, slopon sunscreen and slap on a hat.
It's an old advertisingcampaign, I think from the 80s,
but it's clearly stuck in mymind and many Australians' mind.
It was a very powerful campaignto protect ourselves from the
(03:03):
sun, because we have the highestrates of skin cancer in the
world by far.
So what's happened, of course,is now where a lot of us are
vitamin D deficient and, just togive you some numbers on that,
one in four Australians arevitamin D deficient.
So one in four, and that's justoverall.
I think if we did it by agegroup, it'd probably be in older
(03:25):
people actually more prevalentthan that.
But in Americans, oh my gosh,when I was looking at these
numbers, I'm like, wow,americans about 35% of Americans
, so over a third of thepopulation are vitamin D
deficient.
So this is really importantbecause, you know, obviously the
bone health is really importantI will get into that but
(03:48):
vitamin D can actually play acrucial role in managing our
perimenopause and menopausesymptoms.
So that's actually veryimportant.
I'm going to focus a little bitmore on that aspect of it,
given that that's the area thatI tend to play in, but I think
that you know I'm also going tomention things like, you know,
cardiovascular disease, becausestudies have linked vitamin D
(04:10):
deficiency to increasecardiovascular disease.
Metabolic syndrome, which ismetabolic syndrome, is like a
collection of conditions.
So the collection of conditionsare things like hypertension,
so high blood pressure, highcholesterol, belly fat, insulin
(04:31):
resistance, that kind of stuff.
They're called metabolicsyndromal group together Vitamin
D deficiency has also beenlinked to cancer, and there's
actually a recent study.
It's actually the reason whythat kind of triggered me to
talk about vitamin D is becauseI've just read this new study
that's come out that's shownthat in mice.
(04:53):
So you cannot just let meemphasize, you cannot take a
direct correlation from micestudies into humans.
But they've just made some veryinteresting discoveries about
noticing in mice that givingthem vitamin D actually reduces
their cancer risk.
So I'm not going to get too muchinto that today.
(05:15):
I think that's a little bitfraught with danger, but yeah,
but it's a very interestingthing given that so many of us
are vitamin D deficient and it'spretty easy to increase our
vitamin D.
It's an important point andalso, as I mentioned before,
immune system.
Vitamin D is proving to be very, very important for that.
So let's get into ourperimenopause and menopause
(05:41):
focus with this, and I'm goingto start, of course, with bone
health, because it's one of themost important things that
vitamin D can help us with.
As our estrogen levels dropduring perimenopause and
menopause, women become moresusceptible to bone loss and
osteoporosis.
And vitamin D plays a reallycritical role in calcium
(06:04):
absorption and bone metabolismand without adequate vitamin D
our bodies can't actually absorbthe calcium effectively and
(06:29):
that leads to weaker bones andreduce the risk of osteoporosis
in postmenopausal women.
And, interestingly, along withthat, vitamin D has a pretty
important role in improvingmuscle mass and strength, and
(06:50):
this is really interesting, weknow.
If you've listened to thepodcast for a while, you will
have heard me talk, particularlywhen I was focusing quite a
number of episodes I think itwas the year before last on
aging well and talked quite abit about maintaining muscle
mass over a number of podcastepisodes.
(07:11):
From a couple of reasons Likethe main one from a health point
of view is that when we losemuscle mass and unfortunately
once we hit 40, our rate ofmuscle mass depletion I guess
reduction is it accelerates, andsome of you may have even
(07:31):
noticed I know I've noticedmyself that my ability to
maintain my muscle has droppedand I'm having to work harder in
the gym to get the same resultsthat I did say 10 years ago,
the same results that I did say10 years ago, and it's just
because, as our estrogen drops,our muscle mass also drops.
(07:58):
So that's really important whenit comes to things like our
movement.
And when I'm talking about that, I'm talking about things like
our quality of life, because youwant to be able to walk around,
you want to be able to go anddo the things you enjoy doing.
Most activities that peopleenjoy doing involve some element
of movement, such as walking orgoing for a swim in the ocean
or a pool or, you know, notbeing concerned that you're
(08:20):
going to hurt yourself and breaka bone just by going and riding
your bike right, and so byimproving our muscle mass, we
are less likely to fall.
We know that for sure.
We're less likely to fall andtherefore get an injury such as
a fracture.
And we want to be strong sothat we can have that great
quality of life.
So there's that aspect of it,obviously, because it keeps us
(08:44):
safer.
We don't want to be frail, wedon't want to be wobbly, we want
to be as strong as we possiblycan be to maintain our quality
of life as we move through our40s, 50s, 60s, beyond.
Particularly, you know, aswomen, we tend to to live into
our 80s.
So I don't know you, but I knowwomen in my family.
(09:05):
They live until their 90s, andI want to be as healthy and
enjoying my life as much as Ican and not be reliant on other
people to help me with basicactivities of daily life,
because I don't have thestrength in my body to stand in
the shower, for example.
So improving our muscle massand strength is really important
(09:26):
for quality of life, butthere's also, of course, an
aesthetic kind of part to thisas well, because when we have
good muscle mass, that gives ourbody form and that that makes
us look more youthful, I guess.
So that is something that formany women that's important, and
I think that that needs to beacknowledged.
(09:47):
So vitamin D is super importantfor bone health, super important
for muscle health andmaintaining our muscle mass.
So we kind of knew that already, or we probably at least knew
about the bone stuff.
But let's talk about mood andmental health.
So we know that many womenexperience mood swings, anxiety,
depression during perimenopauseand menopause, and vitamin D
(10:12):
receptors are present in areasof the brain that are linked to
mood regulation, and researchsuggests that low levels of
vitamin D are associated with anincreased risk of depression
and mood disorders and that byensuring we have adequate
vitamin D levels we may helpsupport our mental health during
(10:36):
perimenopause and menopause,but obviously this is also going
to be at any stage of our lifeand when they've done research
with vitamin D and mood, thenit's not limited just to
perimenopause and menopause.
Obviously, like, if you're ayounger person and you're
vitamin D deficient, then theremay be a link between that and
(10:58):
having anxiety or depression.
And if you think about evenyoung people at the moment
there's a lot of them arespending way more time inside in
their teenage years, even intheir childhood years perhaps,
than many of us did.
That grew up in the seventiesand eighties, right, because we
didn't spend that much time infront of the computer,
essentially, or gaming andthings like that.
(11:20):
So potentially they're going tohave lower levels of vitamin D.
We know our rates of anxietyand depression and mental health
conditions are rising in ouryounger people, so perhaps
that's something I know a lot ofmy listeners do have kids and
teenage kids.
If they are having those sortsof issues and maybe getting
their vitamin D tested could beuseful, because it's a really
(11:43):
easy thing to correct and I'mgoing to get into how to correct
it shortly, but yeah, I thinkthat's really important too.
Just for yourself, if you'renoticing you do have mood
concerns, then getting yourvitamin D checked.
It's a simple blood test.
Now, having said that, ifyou're in Australia you may need
to pay to get it done if youdon't have risk factors for
(12:04):
osteoporosis or anything likethat.
But you can always have a chatto your doctor see if they can
get it for you under Medicare.
It's not a super expensive testif you do want to get it
privately and it's pretty easyto get.
So, just FYI, if you do want tocheck it, and I do think it's
worthwhile because, I mean, forany woman that's going through
my GLOW protocol program, I testtheir vitamin D as part of the
(12:25):
blood testing we do to generatetheir personalized nutrition
plan, and I reckon 70% of thepeople that I put through the
program are vitamin D deficientand that's really important and
I'm going to get to this in aminute.
But, yeah, maintaining ahealthy weight, vitamin D does
play a role.
All right, let's get into hotflushes.
(12:47):
So you know there is still somedebate on the exact cause of
hot flushes, but one of thetheories is that it's related to
changes in blood vessel controlin response to declining
estrogen levels, and someresearch indicates that vitamin
D might play a role inregulating the body's
(13:08):
temperature control mechanisms.
So potentially having goodlevels of vitamin D may help to
reduce the frequency andseverity of hot flushes.
So that's something to consideras well.
If you're experiencing a lot ofthem, maybe get your vitamin D
checked.
I mentioned beforecardiovascular health, so I did
(13:29):
want to just touch on that.
So we know that decline inestrogen during menopause and
the perimenopausal transition isassociated with an increased
risk of cardiovascular disease.
We know that cholesterol levelsstart rising and maybe, if
you've never had a cholesterolproblem before, suddenly get
into menopause or perimenopause,you may find your cholesterol
(13:54):
increasing even though you maynot have changed anything about
what you're eating and howyou're moving.
So vitamin D has been shown tohave beneficial effects on heart
health, including reducinginflammation and improving blood
vessel functions.
That's really important.
I mentioned before vaginalhealth, so let's talk a little
bit about that.
(14:15):
Vitamin D regulates the growthof vaginal epithelium.
So the epithelium is just thatlayer of cells on the surface I
want to say skin cells, butthey're kind of more of a mucous
membrane type of cells.
So the vaginal epithelium andremember that's sort of like
it's not the external genitalia,that's inside the vagina, is
(14:36):
actually like a tube that's justinside the external genitalia
and obviously, if you've everused like a tampon or a
menstrual cup or anything likethat, where you're placing that
is in the vagina.
And so vitamin D regulates thegrowth of the vaginal epithelium
and also can alleviategenitourinary tract problems in
(15:02):
menopausal women.
So there's something we alsojust refer to, vaginal dryness,
right, and they've just kind ofupgraded that term as more.
Now, when you may be noticing,there's a little bit more talk
in medical circles, inscientific circles, about
menopause and perimenopause, andso there's a little bit more
(15:24):
research going on in that areaas well.
So what used to just be calledvaginal dryness and kind of
dismissed, we now call it GSM orthe genitourinary syndrome of
menopause.
Genitourinary syndrome ofmenopause, and that includes
vaginal dryness, but also pain,vaginal pain, that is,
(15:48):
difficulty with intercourse,difficulty urinating, frequent
and urgent urinating.
So urgent just means you kindof really need to go straight
away, there's no kind of holdingon and vaginal and urinary
tract infections and that is onething that happens a lot with
women, particularlypostmenopausal, is recurrent
(16:11):
urinary tract infections, andthis is a problem because it's
really important to treaturinary tract infections and
generally that's going to beantibiotics.
And the more antibiotics youtake, the more it interferes
with your microbiomes.
So not just your gut microbiome, but we do have a genital
microbiome, we have skinmicrobiome, we have I've
(16:31):
recently found a bone microbiome.
So like we have thesemicrobiomes all over our bodies
which are really important.
And every time we take thingslike antibiotics and don't get
me wrong when you need to takethem, you need to take them, and
if you have frequent urinarytract infections, you don't want
that to become a bladderinfection or a kidney infection.
(16:51):
That gets really serious.
But the vaginal and urinarytract infections can be quite an
increased frequency of that.
I'm talking things likebacterial vaginosis and, yeah,
these frequent urinary tractinfections.
So there's some talk thatvitamin D may help with reducing
(17:15):
the frequency of those andthat's really important.
That's not the only thing thatcan help with that.
I probably should do a podcastepisode on vaginal and urinary
health, so I'll make myself alittle note to get onto that.
But yeah, vitamin D may be veryhelpful.
Yet another reason to know yourstatus when it comes to your
(17:38):
vitamin D levels and you reallywant it to be over 75.
So the normal range generallywill be anything above 50.
And depending on the lab,because some of them use
different equipment which willhave different ranges, but
generally speaking, most of thetime what I'm seeing is a 50
will be like the bottom end ofnormal and most labs will
(18:03):
suggest, even though the bottomend is 50, that 75 is actually
optimal right.
So if you're sitting at 60, Iwould suggest that you probably
need to increase that, even ifyou've been told you're normal.
When I'm working with clientswith weight loss, then I want
their vitamin D to be over 100or around 100.
(18:26):
That can be really helpful forweight loss and I'll get into
the why behind that shortly.
All right, I think that's all Iwant to say about that.
So, immune health that's areally important one and, as I
mentioned before, I think duringCOVID that really became more
publicized.
That vitamin D seemed to have areally important role in the
(18:48):
immune system.
And, interestingly, there was astudy done.
I don't know all of the ins andouts of it, but I just took
this line from it.
I thought this was reallyinteresting this particular
study looking at olderAustralians taking vitamin D
supplements, and it was kind ofan incidental finding where they
(19:09):
found that these olderAustralians taking vitamin D
supplements actually had asignificantly lower usage of
antibiotics, and they countedthat through the antibiotic
scripts, and so that's one ofthe reasons I kind of went oh,
this is interesting, thatvitamin D seems to be meaning
(19:29):
that people aren't usingantibiotics as much, and so of
course, you extrapolate.
Well, if they're not usingantibiotics, it means they're
not getting sick, and every time, as I mentioned, you're taking
antibiotics, you are impactingyour gut health and your
microbiome.
So if we can avoid, if we cankeep ourselves, well, then that
really has so many other flow oneffects in terms of avoiding
(19:52):
taking things like antibiotics.
So we know that vitamin D playsa really important role in our
immune system.
It lowers inflammation, it haseffect on something that we call
inflammatory cytokines.
As inflammation, it has effecton something that we call
inflammatory cytokines.
That's a very technical kind ofstuff.
I don't really think mylisteners want to know about
that kind of stuff.
If you do, please let me know,please message me through
(20:13):
Instagram at SusieGardenWellness, or you can email me.
I think my email is in the shownotes.
But yeah, if you want to knowmore about that technical stuff,
I'm more than happy to go intoit.
I just don't want to bore youif it's not really, if you just
want to know the cliff notes, soto speak.
Yeah, so very good for theimmune system is vitamin D.
(20:34):
So it's not a magic bullet.
I don't want to be kind ofgiving that impression, but
maintaining adequate vitamin Dcan be part of a really healthy
lifestyle during and aftermenopause.
So how do we do this?
All right, so I mentionedsunlight.
So it's sunlight.
(20:54):
It's really hard to give arecommendation of how much
sunlight you need to get to getadequate vitamin D levels,
because it's really not researchto support an exact amount of
time.
Now, reading a whole bunch ofdifferent sources, you know it's
(21:15):
around 10 to 20 minutes ofsunlight, generally speaking.
In Australia we say earlier inthe morning or later in the
afternoon, so we kind of like toavoid the middle of the day
sunlight.
So I know for me, I, when I'mwalking my dogs in the morning,
I don't wear sunscreen on myarms and legs and but the thing
(21:41):
is, in winter I'm covered fromhead to toe.
So I make sure that I have alittle break in the morning and
I get out into my either mybackyard or one of the rooms in
my house that gets sunlight andjust pop my arms in the sunlight
.
I have.
Often, if you find that you geta lot of sun exposure on your
arms through driving and thingslike that, you may wish to use
(22:04):
another part of your body justto avoid excess sort of sun
damage.
So you might want to use, like,your upper legs, you might want
to use your belly or your backand just pop that towards the
sun for, say, 10 minutes once ortwice a day.
And that's, from what I read,probably all you need to do 10
(22:27):
to 20 minutes once or twice aday.
I mean it actually sounds likequite a bit, particularly if
you're living in a country thathas a lot of darkness.
You know, I was having dinnerwith some friends on Saturday
night and some of them lived inEngland or from the UK and were
saying you know, in winter youmight get six hours of daylight.
(22:48):
So you know it's not a lot andyou're probably going to be at
work and it's really cold orsnowing so you're not really
getting outside at all.
So you know, if that's you,then you really need to
seriously consider how can I getmy vitamin D?
Now you can get it from diet,but there's not a lot of foods
that have vitamin D.
So things like fatty fish, likesalmon and mackerel, egg yolks,
(23:12):
fortified dairy so it's got thevitamin D added in.
There's probably, I think,vitamin D fortified other foods
like breads.
Maybe I'm not 100% sureMushrooms also have vitamin D,
but, geez, you have to eat a lotof these foods to actually get
it.
So there's very few vitamin Drich foods.
(23:33):
So if you're not getting enoughvitamin D from sunlight and
diet, perhaps a vitamin Dsupplement will be of value to
you.
It's always a good idea todiscuss this with your
healthcare practitioner.
I'm not going to tell you torun out and get it and, honestly
(23:53):
, you can actually have too muchvitamin D, so you do need to be
careful.
I would always prefer tovitamin D test my patients
before I prescribe any vitamin D, just in case, because if
they're already got a vitamin Dlevel of over 100, I wouldn't be
supplementing, becauseexcessive vitamin D can become
(24:18):
toxic.
You can actually become toxicfrom too much vitamin D and I
have actually had a patient thathas had vitamin D toxicity.
It's extremely unusual.
I think they possibly had somesort of genetic issues that led
to that because they'd also hada very severe nickel allergy and
(24:39):
I think they may have even hadvitamin A toxicity as well.
You can become toxic from someof the fat-soluble vitamins
because they're stored in yourfat tissue.
So vitamin D toxicity kind oflooks like nausea, weakness,
kidney problems and that's a bigdeal.
(24:59):
So it's really essential tostick to the recommended dosage,
or the dosage that's beenrecommended for you,
specifically based on your bloodtesting and your medical
history, because if you do havethings like autoimmune
conditions or you do have canceror you do have other medical
(25:21):
conditions where vitamin D canbe a good thing or not such a
good thing, you know it'simportant If you're a very
uncomplicated person medicallyand, yeah, you're probably fine
to have it.
But I'm not going to sit hereand say that because this is not
medical advice.
This is simply a suggestionthat you may want to get to know
(25:42):
what your vitamin D level is,so that you can either have some
vitamin D supplemented or youdon't need to, and then you know
that all your bones are goingto be looked after and your
immune system is going to begood and your mood is good, et
cetera, et cetera.
So that's the big warning Iguess about vitamin D is you can
(26:04):
get toxic.
Another question I often get,obviously how do I know if I
have vitamin D deficiency?
Is the blood test okay?
But the symptoms of deficiencycan be things like fatigue, bone
pain, muscle weakness and moodchanges.
So if you think you might bedeficient, if you're someone
that's always getting sick, ifyou're someone that doesn't
(26:27):
spend much time in the sun, ifyou live in a really cold place
and you're always covered then,or if your religion has
requirements for you to becovered as well, we know that in
certain religious and culturalgroups that the vitamin D
deficiency can be more prevalentjust because the skin's not
(26:49):
getting exposed to the sun.
Another question are there anyother vitamins or minerals that
work well with vitamin D,particularly during menopause?
Absolutely so.
Calcium and magnesium.
Calcium and magnesium are vitalfor bone health and they work
synergistically with vitamin D,so it's really important to take
them together.
Also omega-3 fatty acids.
(27:11):
So that's like your fish oil,your flaxseed oil, hemp oil.
They can also support hearthealth and reduce inflammation,
and a balanced diet rich inthese sort of nutrients can make
a significant difference duringmenopause and perimenopause.
So I think that's all I want tocover off on vitamin D.
(27:32):
If you do have any questions,please do let me know, and I can
.
I can do a bit of asupplementary episode in the Q
and A on Thursday.
Um, and, yeah, please, I'm soglad you joined me today on the
podcast.
I always love, um doing thesepodcasts, so if you would love
to leave me a review, I wouldreally appreciate it.
Uh, yeah, I will see you onThursday and please let me know
(27:55):
if you have any questions.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
Thanks so much for joining metoday on the Ageless and Awesome
podcast.
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(28:19):
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I'd love to connect with you.
Hi, I'm Susie Garden and this is the Ageless and
Awesome podcast.
I'm an age-defying naturopathand clinical nutritionist and
I'm here to bust myths aroundwomen's health and aging so that
you can be ageless and awesomein your 40s, 50s and beyond.
The Ageless and Awesome podcastis dedicated to helping women
(00:24):
through perimenopause andmenopause with great health, a
positive mindset and outrageousconfidence.
Hit, subscribe or follow nowand let's get started.
Hello, gorgeous one, andwelcome to this week's episode
of the Ageless and Awesomepodcast, and today we're diving
into a topic that's actuallyreally important for women in
(00:49):
perimenopause and menopause andmen, to be honest, as well.
It's really important for men,and this episode is all about
vitamin D.
Vitamin D Symptoms, from poorvaginal health to belly fat have
been linked to low vitaminD inthe research, and I'm going to
(01:10):
be covering this in today'sepisode.
So let's get straight into it,because it's actually really
important, because it seems thatvitamin D itself has been
really underestimated as to whatit can do for us.
So let's kind of start with thebasics.
(01:32):
What exactly is vitamin D?
So vitamin D is a fat solublevitamin, so that means that we
keep storage of it in our fattissue and our bodies need it
for a number of functions,including calcium absorption and
bone health, and that's wheremost of you have probably heard
about.
Vitamin D is in conjunctionwith calcium and osteoporosis,
(01:54):
particularly in peri andpostmenopausal women and also,
you may have heard, in morerecent years post-pandemic or
since the pandemic it's reallyimportant for our immune system.
It's often referred to as thesunshine vitamin because our
skin produces it in response tosunlight.
However, many of us don't getenough vitamin d from sunlight
(02:16):
because, you know, if we live incolder countries, northern
latitudes, if we spend a lot oftime indoors which, let's face
it, a lot of us do If you havedarker skin pigmentation, you
may not absorb enough of thatsunlight.
For that, get the vitamin D.
And also, just because we inAustralia particularly, we are
always slathered in sunscreenand you know we're all taught
(02:40):
the slip, slop, slap, which, ifyou're one of my American or
European listeners, it's a slipon a shirt, slap on sunscreen
and oh no, slip on a shirt, slopon sunscreen and slap on a hat.
It's an old advertisingcampaign, I think from the 80s,
but it's clearly stuck in mymind and many Australians' mind.
It was a very powerful campaignto protect ourselves from the
(03:03):
sun, because we have the highestrates of skin cancer in the
world by far.
So what's happened, of course,is now where a lot of us are
vitamin D deficient and, just togive you some numbers on that,
one in four Australians arevitamin D deficient.
So one in four, and that's justoverall.
I think if we did it by agegroup, it'd probably be in older
(03:25):
people actually more prevalentthan that.
But in Americans, oh my gosh,when I was looking at these
numbers, I'm like, wow,americans about 35% of Americans
, so over a third of thepopulation are vitamin D
deficient.
So this is really importantbecause, you know, obviously the
bone health is really importantI will get into that but
(03:48):
vitamin D can actually play acrucial role in managing our
perimenopause and menopausesymptoms.
So that's actually veryimportant.
I'm going to focus a little bitmore on that aspect of it,
given that that's the area thatI tend to play in, but I think
that you know I'm also going tomention things like, you know,
cardiovascular disease, becausestudies have linked vitamin D
(04:10):
deficiency to increasecardiovascular disease.
Metabolic syndrome, which ismetabolic syndrome, is like a
collection of conditions.
So the collection of conditionsare things like hypertension,
so high blood pressure, highcholesterol, belly fat, insulin
(04:31):
resistance, that kind of stuff.
They're called metabolicsyndromal group together Vitamin
D deficiency has also beenlinked to cancer, and there's
actually a recent study.
It's actually the reason whythat kind of triggered me to
talk about vitamin D is becauseI've just read this new study
that's come out that's shownthat in mice.
(04:53):
So you cannot just let meemphasize, you cannot take a
direct correlation from micestudies into humans.
But they've just made some veryinteresting discoveries about
noticing in mice that givingthem vitamin D actually reduces
their cancer risk.
So I'm not going to get too muchinto that today.
(05:15):
I think that's a little bitfraught with danger, but yeah,
but it's a very interestingthing given that so many of us
are vitamin D deficient and it'spretty easy to increase our
vitamin D.
It's an important point andalso, as I mentioned before,
immune system.
Vitamin D is proving to be very, very important for that.
So let's get into ourperimenopause and menopause
(05:41):
focus with this, and I'm goingto start, of course, with bone
health, because it's one of themost important things that
vitamin D can help us with.
As our estrogen levels dropduring perimenopause and
menopause, women become moresusceptible to bone loss and
osteoporosis.
And vitamin D plays a reallycritical role in calcium
(06:04):
absorption and bone metabolismand without adequate vitamin D
our bodies can't actually absorbthe calcium effectively and
(06:29):
that leads to weaker bones andreduce the risk of osteoporosis
in postmenopausal women.
And, interestingly, along withthat, vitamin D has a pretty
important role in improvingmuscle mass and strength, and
(06:50):
this is really interesting, weknow.
If you've listened to thepodcast for a while, you will
have heard me talk, particularlywhen I was focusing quite a
number of episodes I think itwas the year before last on
aging well and talked quite abit about maintaining muscle
mass over a number of podcastepisodes.
(07:11):
From a couple of reasons Likethe main one from a health point
of view is that when we losemuscle mass and unfortunately
once we hit 40, our rate ofmuscle mass depletion I guess
reduction is it accelerates, andsome of you may have even
(07:31):
noticed I know I've noticedmyself that my ability to
maintain my muscle has droppedand I'm having to work harder in
the gym to get the same resultsthat I did say 10 years ago,
the same results that I did say10 years ago, and it's just
because, as our estrogen drops,our muscle mass also drops.
(07:58):
So that's really important whenit comes to things like our
movement.
And when I'm talking about that, I'm talking about things like
our quality of life, because youwant to be able to walk around,
you want to be able to go anddo the things you enjoy doing.
Most activities that peopleenjoy doing involve some element
of movement, such as walking orgoing for a swim in the ocean
or a pool or, you know, notbeing concerned that you're
(08:20):
going to hurt yourself and breaka bone just by going and riding
your bike right, and so byimproving our muscle mass, we
are less likely to fall.
We know that for sure.
We're less likely to fall andtherefore get an injury such as
a fracture.
And we want to be strong sothat we can have that great
quality of life.
So there's that aspect of it,obviously, because it keeps us
(08:44):
safer.
We don't want to be frail, wedon't want to be wobbly, we want
to be as strong as we possiblycan be to maintain our quality
of life as we move through our40s, 50s, 60s, beyond.
Particularly, you know, aswomen, we tend to to live into
our 80s.
So I don't know you, but I knowwomen in my family.
(09:05):
They live until their 90s, andI want to be as healthy and
enjoying my life as much as Ican and not be reliant on other
people to help me with basicactivities of daily life,
because I don't have thestrength in my body to stand in
the shower, for example.
So improving our muscle massand strength is really important
(09:26):
for quality of life, butthere's also, of course, an
aesthetic kind of part to thisas well, because when we have
good muscle mass, that gives ourbody form and that that makes
us look more youthful, I guess.
So that is something that formany women that's important, and
I think that that needs to beacknowledged.
(09:47):
So vitamin D is super importantfor bone health, super important
for muscle health andmaintaining our muscle mass.
So we kind of knew that already, or we probably at least knew
about the bone stuff.
But let's talk about mood andmental health.
So we know that many womenexperience mood swings, anxiety,
depression during perimenopauseand menopause, and vitamin D
(10:12):
receptors are present in areasof the brain that are linked to
mood regulation, and researchsuggests that low levels of
vitamin D are associated with anincreased risk of depression
and mood disorders and that byensuring we have adequate
vitamin D levels we may helpsupport our mental health during
(10:36):
perimenopause and menopause,but obviously this is also going
to be at any stage of our lifeand when they've done research
with vitamin D and mood, thenit's not limited just to
perimenopause and menopause.
Obviously, like, if you're ayounger person and you're
vitamin D deficient, then theremay be a link between that and
(10:58):
having anxiety or depression.
And if you think about evenyoung people at the moment
there's a lot of them arespending way more time inside in
their teenage years, even intheir childhood years perhaps,
than many of us did.
That grew up in the seventiesand eighties, right, because we
didn't spend that much time infront of the computer,
essentially, or gaming andthings like that.
(11:20):
So potentially they're going tohave lower levels of vitamin D.
We know our rates of anxietyand depression and mental health
conditions are rising in ouryounger people, so perhaps
that's something I know a lot ofmy listeners do have kids and
teenage kids.
If they are having those sortsof issues and maybe getting
their vitamin D tested could beuseful, because it's a really
(11:43):
easy thing to correct and I'mgoing to get into how to correct
it shortly, but yeah, I thinkthat's really important too.
Just for yourself, if you'renoticing you do have mood
concerns, then getting yourvitamin D checked.
It's a simple blood test.
Now, having said that, ifyou're in Australia you may need
to pay to get it done if youdon't have risk factors for
(12:04):
osteoporosis or anything likethat.
But you can always have a chatto your doctor see if they can
get it for you under Medicare.
It's not a super expensive testif you do want to get it
privately and it's pretty easyto get.
So, just FYI, if you do want tocheck it, and I do think it's
worthwhile because, I mean, forany woman that's going through
my GLOW protocol program, I testtheir vitamin D as part of the
(12:25):
blood testing we do to generatetheir personalized nutrition
plan, and I reckon 70% of thepeople that I put through the
program are vitamin D deficientand that's really important and
I'm going to get to this in aminute.
But, yeah, maintaining ahealthy weight, vitamin D does
play a role.
All right, let's get into hotflushes.
(12:47):
So you know there is still somedebate on the exact cause of
hot flushes, but one of thetheories is that it's related to
changes in blood vessel controlin response to declining
estrogen levels, and someresearch indicates that vitamin
D might play a role inregulating the body's
(13:08):
temperature control mechanisms.
So potentially having goodlevels of vitamin D may help to
reduce the frequency andseverity of hot flushes.
So that's something to consideras well.
If you're experiencing a lot ofthem, maybe get your vitamin D
checked.
I mentioned beforecardiovascular health, so I did
(13:29):
want to just touch on that.
So we know that decline inestrogen during menopause and
the perimenopausal transition isassociated with an increased
risk of cardiovascular disease.
We know that cholesterol levelsstart rising and maybe, if
you've never had a cholesterolproblem before, suddenly get
into menopause or perimenopause,you may find your cholesterol
(13:54):
increasing even though you maynot have changed anything about
what you're eating and howyou're moving.
So vitamin D has been shown tohave beneficial effects on heart
health, including reducinginflammation and improving blood
vessel functions.
That's really important.
I mentioned before vaginalhealth, so let's talk a little
bit about that.
(14:15):
Vitamin D regulates the growthof vaginal epithelium.
So the epithelium is just thatlayer of cells on the surface I
want to say skin cells, butthey're kind of more of a mucous
membrane type of cells.
So the vaginal epithelium andremember that's sort of like
it's not the external genitalia,that's inside the vagina, is
(14:36):
actually like a tube that's justinside the external genitalia
and obviously, if you've everused like a tampon or a
menstrual cup or anything likethat, where you're placing that
is in the vagina.
And so vitamin D regulates thegrowth of the vaginal epithelium
and also can alleviategenitourinary tract problems in
(15:02):
menopausal women.
So there's something we alsojust refer to, vaginal dryness,
right, and they've just kind ofupgraded that term as more.
Now, when you may be noticing,there's a little bit more talk
in medical circles, inscientific circles, about
menopause and perimenopause, andso there's a little bit more
(15:24):
research going on in that areaas well.
So what used to just be calledvaginal dryness and kind of
dismissed, we now call it GSM orthe genitourinary syndrome of
menopause.
Genitourinary syndrome ofmenopause, and that includes
vaginal dryness, but also pain,vaginal pain, that is,
(15:48):
difficulty with intercourse,difficulty urinating, frequent
and urgent urinating.
So urgent just means you kindof really need to go straight
away, there's no kind of holdingon and vaginal and urinary
tract infections and that is onething that happens a lot with
women, particularlypostmenopausal, is recurrent
(16:11):
urinary tract infections, andthis is a problem because it's
really important to treaturinary tract infections and
generally that's going to beantibiotics.
And the more antibiotics youtake, the more it interferes
with your microbiomes.
So not just your gut microbiome, but we do have a genital
microbiome, we have skinmicrobiome, we have I've
(16:31):
recently found a bone microbiome.
So like we have thesemicrobiomes all over our bodies
which are really important.
And every time we take thingslike antibiotics and don't get
me wrong when you need to takethem, you need to take them, and
if you have frequent urinarytract infections, you don't want
that to become a bladderinfection or a kidney infection.
(16:51):
That gets really serious.
But the vaginal and urinarytract infections can be quite an
increased frequency of that.
I'm talking things likebacterial vaginosis and, yeah,
these frequent urinary tractinfections.
So there's some talk thatvitamin D may help with reducing
(17:15):
the frequency of those andthat's really important.
That's not the only thing thatcan help with that.
I probably should do a podcastepisode on vaginal and urinary
health, so I'll make myself alittle note to get onto that.
But yeah, vitamin D may be veryhelpful.
Yet another reason to know yourstatus when it comes to your
(17:38):
vitamin D levels and you reallywant it to be over 75.
So the normal range generallywill be anything above 50.
And depending on the lab,because some of them use
different equipment which willhave different ranges, but
generally speaking, most of thetime what I'm seeing is a 50
will be like the bottom end ofnormal and most labs will
(18:03):
suggest, even though the bottomend is 50, that 75 is actually
optimal right.
So if you're sitting at 60, Iwould suggest that you probably
need to increase that, even ifyou've been told you're normal.
When I'm working with clientswith weight loss, then I want
their vitamin D to be over 100or around 100.
(18:26):
That can be really helpful forweight loss and I'll get into
the why behind that shortly.
All right, I think that's all Iwant to say about that.
So, immune health that's areally important one and, as I
mentioned before, I think duringCOVID that really became more
publicized.
That vitamin D seemed to have areally important role in the
(18:48):
immune system.
And, interestingly, there was astudy done.
I don't know all of the ins andouts of it, but I just took
this line from it.
I thought this was reallyinteresting this particular
study looking at olderAustralians taking vitamin D
supplements, and it was kind ofan incidental finding where they
(19:09):
found that these olderAustralians taking vitamin D
supplements actually had asignificantly lower usage of
antibiotics, and they countedthat through the antibiotic
scripts, and so that's one ofthe reasons I kind of went oh,
this is interesting, thatvitamin D seems to be meaning
(19:29):
that people aren't usingantibiotics as much, and so of
course, you extrapolate.
Well, if they're not usingantibiotics, it means they're
not getting sick, and every time, as I mentioned, you're taking
antibiotics, you are impactingyour gut health and your
microbiome.
So if we can avoid, if we cankeep ourselves, well, then that
really has so many other flow oneffects in terms of avoiding
(19:52):
taking things like antibiotics.
So we know that vitamin D playsa really important role in our
immune system.
It lowers inflammation, it haseffect on something that we call
inflammatory cytokines.
As inflammation, it has effecton something that we call
inflammatory cytokines.
That's a very technical kind ofstuff.
I don't really think mylisteners want to know about
that kind of stuff.
If you do, please let me know,please message me through
(20:13):
Instagram at SusieGardenWellness, or you can email me.
I think my email is in the shownotes.
But yeah, if you want to knowmore about that technical stuff,
I'm more than happy to go intoit.
I just don't want to bore youif it's not really, if you just
want to know the cliff notes, soto speak.
Yeah, so very good for theimmune system is vitamin D.
(20:34):
So it's not a magic bullet.
I don't want to be kind ofgiving that impression, but
maintaining adequate vitamin Dcan be part of a really healthy
lifestyle during and aftermenopause.
So how do we do this?
All right, so I mentionedsunlight.
So it's sunlight.
(20:54):
It's really hard to give arecommendation of how much
sunlight you need to get to getadequate vitamin D levels,
because it's really not researchto support an exact amount of
time.
Now, reading a whole bunch ofdifferent sources, you know it's
(21:15):
around 10 to 20 minutes ofsunlight, generally speaking.
In Australia we say earlier inthe morning or later in the
afternoon, so we kind of like toavoid the middle of the day
sunlight.
So I know for me, I, when I'mwalking my dogs in the morning,
I don't wear sunscreen on myarms and legs and but the thing
(21:41):
is, in winter I'm covered fromhead to toe.
So I make sure that I have alittle break in the morning and
I get out into my either mybackyard or one of the rooms in
my house that gets sunlight andjust pop my arms in the sunlight
.
I have.
Often, if you find that you geta lot of sun exposure on your
arms through driving and thingslike that, you may wish to use
(22:04):
another part of your body justto avoid excess sort of sun
damage.
So you might want to use, like,your upper legs, you might want
to use your belly or your backand just pop that towards the
sun for, say, 10 minutes once ortwice a day.
And that's, from what I read,probably all you need to do 10
(22:27):
to 20 minutes once or twice aday.
I mean it actually sounds likequite a bit, particularly if
you're living in a country thathas a lot of darkness.
You know, I was having dinnerwith some friends on Saturday
night and some of them lived inEngland or from the UK and were
saying you know, in winter youmight get six hours of daylight.
(22:48):
So you know it's not a lot andyou're probably going to be at
work and it's really cold orsnowing so you're not really
getting outside at all.
So you know, if that's you,then you really need to
seriously consider how can I getmy vitamin D?
Now you can get it from diet,but there's not a lot of foods
that have vitamin D.
So things like fatty fish, likesalmon and mackerel, egg yolks,
(23:12):
fortified dairy so it's got thevitamin D added in.
There's probably, I think,vitamin D fortified other foods
like breads.
Maybe I'm not 100% sureMushrooms also have vitamin D,
but, geez, you have to eat a lotof these foods to actually get
it.
So there's very few vitamin Drich foods.
(23:33):
So if you're not getting enoughvitamin D from sunlight and
diet, perhaps a vitamin Dsupplement will be of value to
you.
It's always a good idea todiscuss this with your
healthcare practitioner.
I'm not going to tell you torun out and get it and, honestly
(23:53):
, you can actually have too muchvitamin D, so you do need to be
careful.
I would always prefer tovitamin D test my patients
before I prescribe any vitamin D, just in case, because if
they're already got a vitamin Dlevel of over 100, I wouldn't be
supplementing, becauseexcessive vitamin D can become
(24:18):
toxic.
You can actually become toxicfrom too much vitamin D and I
have actually had a patient thathas had vitamin D toxicity.
It's extremely unusual.
I think they possibly had somesort of genetic issues that led
to that because they'd also hada very severe nickel allergy and
(24:39):
I think they may have even hadvitamin A toxicity as well.
You can become toxic from someof the fat-soluble vitamins
because they're stored in yourfat tissue.
So vitamin D toxicity kind oflooks like nausea, weakness,
kidney problems and that's a bigdeal.
(24:59):
So it's really essential tostick to the recommended dosage,
or the dosage that's beenrecommended for you,
specifically based on your bloodtesting and your medical
history, because if you do havethings like autoimmune
conditions or you do have canceror you do have other medical
(25:21):
conditions where vitamin D canbe a good thing or not such a
good thing, you know it'simportant If you're a very
uncomplicated person medicallyand, yeah, you're probably fine
to have it.
But I'm not going to sit hereand say that because this is not
medical advice.
This is simply a suggestionthat you may want to get to know
(25:42):
what your vitamin D level is,so that you can either have some
vitamin D supplemented or youdon't need to, and then you know
that all your bones are goingto be looked after and your
immune system is going to begood and your mood is good, et
cetera, et cetera.
So that's the big warning Iguess about vitamin D is you can
(26:04):
get toxic.
Another question I often get,obviously how do I know if I
have vitamin D deficiency?
Is the blood test okay?
But the symptoms of deficiencycan be things like fatigue, bone
pain, muscle weakness and moodchanges.
So if you think you might bedeficient, if you're someone
that's always getting sick, ifyou're someone that doesn't
(26:27):
spend much time in the sun, ifyou live in a really cold place
and you're always covered then,or if your religion has
requirements for you to becovered as well, we know that in
certain religious and culturalgroups that the vitamin D
deficiency can be more prevalentjust because the skin's not
(26:49):
getting exposed to the sun.
Another question are there anyother vitamins or minerals that
work well with vitamin D,particularly during menopause?
Absolutely so.
Calcium and magnesium.
Calcium and magnesium are vitalfor bone health and they work
synergistically with vitamin D,so it's really important to take
them together.
Also omega-3 fatty acids.
(27:11):
So that's like your fish oil,your flaxseed oil, hemp oil.
They can also support hearthealth and reduce inflammation,
and a balanced diet rich inthese sort of nutrients can make
a significant difference duringmenopause and perimenopause.
So I think that's all I want tocover off on vitamin D.
(27:32):
If you do have any questions,please do let me know, and I can
.
I can do a bit of asupplementary episode in the Q
and A on Thursday.
Um, and, yeah, please, I'm soglad you joined me today on the
podcast.
I always love, um doing thesepodcasts, so if you would love
to leave me a review, I wouldreally appreciate it.
Uh, yeah, I will see you onThursday and please let me know
(27:55):
if you have any questions.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
Thanks so much for joining metoday on the Ageless and Awesome
podcast.
If you liked today's episode,please make sure you click the
little plus button if you're onApple podcasts, or the follow
button if you're on Spotify, sothat you get each new episode
delivered to you every week.
If you like free stuff, thenhead to the show notes and click
(28:19):
the link to receive my freeRadiant Reset Hormone Detox
Guide for Perimenopausal Women.
Or, if you'd like to continuethe discussion, head over to
Instagram and DM me atSusieGardenWellness.
I'd love to connect with you.
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