{"id":822270,"date":"2026-05-26T02:05:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T02:05:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/822270\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T02:05:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T02:05:18","slug":"sunlight-isnt-enough-to-treat-vitamin-d-deficiency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/822270\/","title":{"rendered":"Sunlight isn’t enough to treat Vitamin D deficiency"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPROFESSIONAL AT MERCY MEDICAL CENTER ABOUT WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW. WHEN YOU THINK OF GETTING VITAMIN D, YOU PROBABLY THINK, JUST GO OUTSIDE IN THE SUN. WELL, THAT\u2019S NOT ALWAYS ENOUGH TO FIX A VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY. MERCY MEDICAL CENTER PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT JAYLEN HEYLIGER SAYS BEING OUT IN THE SUN COMES WITH A SKIN CANCER RISK, AND SHE SAYS PEOPLE WITH DARKER SKIN TONES DON\u2019T ALWAYS ABSORB VITAMIN D AS WELL. SO WHILE SITTING ON THE SUN CAN HELP, IT\u2019S NOT A TOTAL FIX. VITAMIN D IS ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT BECAUSE BONE HEALTH IS A MUCH BIGGER PROBLEM IN WOMEN, AND WOMEN ARE FOUR TIMES MORE LIKELY TO DEVELOP OSTEOPOROSIS THAN MEN. HEYLIGER ALSO SAYS MENOPAUSE CAN CAUSE WOMEN TO HAVE A LOWER BONE MINERAL DENSITY. SO WITH THE DOCTOR\u2019S GUIDANCE, YOU CAN GET YOUR NUMBERS IN CHECK. IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHERE YOU\u2019RE AT. IF YOU TRULY ARE VITAMIN D DEFICIENT BASED ON YOUR LEVELS, SOMETIMES YOU\u2019RE TAKING LIKE A 5000 UNIT WEEKLY. SOMETIMES IF YOU\u2019RE JUST KIND OF ON THAT FINE LINE, OR YOU ARE SOMEONE WHO, LET\u2019S SAY MAYBE YOU\u2019RE A LITTLE VITAMIN D DEFICIENT, BUT YOU DO WORK OUTSIDE, THEN MAYBE WE WOULD HAVE YOU TAKE LIKE A LESSER UNIT. IT\u2019S HARD TO KIND OF JUST GIVE A, A ONE FIT ALL. HEYLIGER SAYS A VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY IS HARD TO DIAGNOSE. SHE SAYS SOME PEOPLE EXPERIENCE SYMPTOMS LIKE FATIGUE, MUSCLE ACHES OR WEAKNESS, AND EVEN BONE PAIN, BUT TESTING CAN CONFIRM A DEFICIENCY, HEYLIGER SAYS. A HEALTHY AMOUNT OF VITAMIN D TO TAKE EVERY DAY WOULD BE THE AMOUNT IN A MULTIVITAMIN. AND SHE SAYS, IF YOU\u2019RE TAKING JUST VITAMIN D, CHECK WITH YOUR DOCTOR TO MAKE SURE YOU\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Woman’s Doctor: Sunlight isn’t enough to treat Vitamin D deficiency<\/p>\n

Vitamin D supports bone health; women 4 times more likely to develop osteoporosis than men<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"WBAL<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tUpdated: 5:35 PM EDT May 25, 2026\n\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\tEditorial Standards \u24d8<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\tVitamin D is a crucial nutrient that maintains bone health, but some women are deficient.When thinking about Vitamin D, some may think simply about going outside in the sunlight, but that’s not always enough to fix a deficiency.While sitting out in the sun can help, it’s not a total fix. Mercy Medical Center physician assistant Jaelyn Heyliger told WBAL-TV 11 News that sunlight exposure comes with a risk for skin cancer and that people with darker skin tones don’t actually absorb Vitamin D as well.Vitamin D is especially important because bone health is a much bigger problem in women, who are four times more likely to develop osteoporosis than men.Heyliger also said menopause can cause women to have a lower bone mineral density, so women may need to get their numbers in check with a doctor’s guidance.”It all depends on where you’re at. If you truly are Vitamin D deficient based on your levels, sometimes you’re taking 50,000 units weekly. Sometimes, if you’re just kind of on that fine line or you are someone who, let’s say, maybe you’re a little Vitamin D deficient, but you do work outside, then maybe we would have you take a lesser unit. It’s hard to kind of just give a one (size) fits all,” Heyliger told WBAL-TV 11 News.Heyliger said that while Vitamin D deficiency is hard to diagnose, testing can confirm it. She said some people experience symptoms like fatigue, muscle aches or weakness and even bone pain.Heyliger also said that a healthy amount of Vitamin D to take daily would be the amount in a multivitamin. She said if you take just Vitamin D, check with your doctor to ensure it’s a dose that is most beneficial for you.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tBALTIMORE \u2014<\/strong> \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Vitamin D is a crucial nutrient that maintains bone health, but some women are deficient.<\/p>\n

When thinking about Vitamin D, some may think simply about going outside in the sunlight, but that’s not always enough to fix a deficiency.<\/p>\n

While sitting out in the sun can help, it’s not a total fix. Mercy Medical Center physician assistant Jaelyn Heyliger told WBAL-TV 11 News that sunlight exposure comes with a risk for skin cancer and that people with darker skin tones don’t actually absorb Vitamin D as well.<\/p>\n

Vitamin D is especially important because bone health is a much bigger problem in women, who are four times more likely to develop osteoporosis than men.<\/p>\n

Heyliger also said menopause can cause women to have a lower bone mineral density, so women may need to get their numbers in check with a doctor’s guidance.<\/p>\n

“It all depends on where you’re at. If you truly are Vitamin D deficient based on your levels, sometimes you’re taking 50,000 units weekly. Sometimes, if you’re just kind of on that fine line or you are someone who, let’s say, maybe you’re a little Vitamin D deficient, but you do work outside, then maybe we would have you take a lesser unit. It’s hard to kind of just give a one (size) fits all,” Heyliger told WBAL-TV 11 News.<\/p>\n

Heyliger said that while Vitamin D deficiency is hard to diagnose, testing can confirm it. She said some people experience symptoms like fatigue, muscle aches or weakness and even bone pain.<\/p>\n

Heyliger also said that a healthy amount of Vitamin D to take daily would be the amount in a multivitamin. She said if you take just Vitamin D, check with your doctor to ensure it’s a dose that is most beneficial for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PROFESSIONAL AT MERCY MEDICAL CENTER ABOUT WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW. WHEN YOU THINK OF GETTING VITAMIN D,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":822271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[37],"tags":[18570,338005,242513,81820,24292,1726,44154,134955,338006,9223,29669,210,20738,338008,338007,2089,564,47451,26325,338009,50,61506,1182,1724,3546,98922,104814,67,132,68,2801,1734,19423,338004,242523,232450,11459,26326,16966],"class_list":["post-822270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-baltimore","tag-baltimore-health","tag-baltimore-news","tag-bone","tag-bone-density","tag-bone-health","tag-bones","tag-deficiency","tag-deficient","tag-doctor","tag-fatigue","tag-health","tag-health-news","tag-healthy-amount","tag-heyliger","tag-man","tag-maryland","tag-maryland-news","tag-mercy-medical-center","tag-muscle-ache","tag-news","tag-nutrient","tag-nutrition","tag-osteoporosis","tag-people","tag-sunlight","tag-symptom","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-vitamin","tag-vitamin-d","tag-vitamin-d-deficiency","tag-vitamin-d-deficient","tag-wbal-news","tag-wbal-tv","tag-woman","tag-womans-doctor","tag-women"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/822271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}