How Do Our Genes and Our Vitamin D Status Influence Each Other? Check Out this New Video!

Published on September 18, 2024

New Video Interview: The Influential Relationships between Vitamin D & Our Genes, with Drs. Bonnie Mallard, PhD and Neil Karrow, PhD

Key Points

Vitamin D has a key role in regulating health, specifically regulating the immune system; it is activated in that cascade of reactions, but if there is no vitamin D to be activated, the immune response genes cannot be activated and the immune cells cannot do their job properly
Certain genes are directly involved in regulating vitamin D levels, building vitamin D receptors, and in the transportation of vitamin D throughout the body; genetic variants can affect how well vitamin D binds to the vitamin D receptor and how efficient of a response is induced, as just a couple examples
Vitamin D itself is essential to the up regulation and down regulation of genes; when there is not enough vitamin D present, it can hinder the activities of our genes and limit the resulting processes within the body

Measure Your Vitamin D and Other Important Levels

We are happy to announce another video with the vitamin D experts!

In this interview, Dr. Niel Karrow, PhD and Dr. Bonnie Mallard, PhD discuss the many influences that our genetics have on our vitamin D status, how vitamin D is metabolized and used in our bodies, as well as the roles vitamin D plays in the expression of our genes. One of the key areas of our body where this relationship is especially influential is within our immune cells and our immune response, referred to as immunogenetics, and how our vitamin D status can either decrease or increase chances of illness after exposure to a pathogen (in other words, how well our immune response works).

Listen in to learn about how vitamin D deficiency (and other nutrient deficiencies) can influence the activities of our genes, how big of a role our genetics plays in how well we respond to vitamin D supplementation, what SNPs are and how they affect vitamin D metabolism and use, and so much more.

(To view the interview on Vitamin D and Vitamin K mentioned at the beginning of this video, click here.)

Thank you to Drs. Karrow and Mallard for this wonderful interview!

Watch the Video: Influential Relationships between Vitamin D & Our Genes

Questions Answered in this Video

What is immunotoxicology and immunogenetics?

What role do nutrients, especially vitamin D, play in immunotoxicology and immunogenetics?

What effect does a nutrient deficiency, specifically of vitamin D, have on our immune response?

Are certain individuals more genetically prone to a nutrient deficiency or to the body being unable to absorb, metabolize, and utilize a nutrient, such as vitamin D?

Is it true that the genetic influence on vitamin D levels is around 80%?

What are the most common genes/genetic variabilities that affect vitamin D absorption and utilization?

What are SNPs, and how can a SNP affect our vitamin D level or how our body utilizes vitamin D?

Are SNPs typically found in certain individuals or ethnic groups?

What does this information mean in terms of precision medicine for each individual? In terms of public health?

Measure Your Levels of Vitamin D and Other Important Nutrients

Having and maintaining healthy vitamin D, omega-3s, magnesium, and other nutrient levels can help improve your inflammation levels and your health now and for your future. Choose which to measure, such as your vitamin D, omega-3s, and essential minerals including magnesium and zinc, by creating your custom home test kit today. Take steps to improve the status of each of these measurements to benefit your overall health. You can also track your own intakes, symptoms and results to see what works best for YOU.

Enroll and test your levels today, learn what steps to take to improve your status of vitamin D (see below) and other nutrients and blood markers, and take action! By enrolling in the GrassrootsHealth projects, you are not only contributing valuable information to everyone, you are also gaining knowledge about how you could improve your own health through measuring and tracking your nutrient status, and educating yourself on how to improve it.

How Can You Use this Information for YOUR Health?

Having and maintaining healthy vitamin D and other nutrient levels can help improve your health now and for your future. Measuring is the only way to make sure you are getting enough!

STEP 1 Order your at-home blood spot test kit to measure vitamin D and other nutrients of concern to you, such as omega-3s, magnesium, essential and toxic elements (zinc, copper, selenium, lead, cadmium, mercury); include hsCRP as a marker of inflammation or HbA1c for blood sugar health

STEP 2 Answer the online questionnaire as part of the GrassrootsHealth study

STEP 3 Using our educational materials and tools (such as our dose calculators), assess your results to determine if you are in your desired target range or if actions should be taken to get there

STEP 4 After 3-6 months of implementing your changes, re-test to see if you have achieved your target level(s)

Enroll in D*action and Build Your Custom Test Kit!