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- Vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium, supports bone health, and lowers inflammation.
- Supplementing with vitamin D can lower LDL and total cholesterol, but does not affect HDL cholesterol.
- Taking high doses of vitamin D may cause side effects like nausea, vomiting, and kidney stones.
Vitamin D supplements may lower cholesterol, but the evidence is mixed. It's important to stick to recommended doses to prevent side effects.
How Vitamin D Affects Cholesterol
Vitamin D, also called calciferol, is a fat-soluble vitamin that plays several important roles in the body, including helping with calcium absorption, strengthening bones, lowering inflammation, and influencing the way your body processes cholesterol.
People with low vitamin D levels are more likely to have abnormal cholesterol. Those with normal levels often have better cholesterol.
However, this does not guarantee that taking a vitamin D supplement will improve your cholesterol. Research on how vitamin D affects cholesterol has shown mixed results.
One study found that vitamin D supplements can help lower total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) levels, but do not affect high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels. Other studies suggest that people with a deficiency may use vitamin D supplements along with other medications to manage cholesterol.
On the other hand, other research suggests that vitamin D has no effect on cholesterol levels at all or even a negative one, significantly increasing total, LDL, and HDL cholesterol levels.
Risks of Taking Vitamin D
There's no strong evidence that vitamin D supplementation lowers cholesterol levels. In fact, vitamin D may decrease the effectiveness of statins, medications like Lipitor (Atorvastatin) and Zocor (simvastatin) meant to lower cholesterol.
Vitamin D is often recommended for people who are deficient or at risk of a deficiency. However, it's having too much in your system (the recommended maximum daily dose of vitamin D is about 4,000 international units (IU)) can be harmful.
High doses of vitamin D supplements may cause nausea, vomiting, confusion, dehydration, extreme thirst, kidney stones, and in extreme cases, kidney failure and irregular heartbeat.
Consider speaking with a doctor to avoid toxicity when using vitamin D daily, especially in higher doses.
What to Do If You Have High Cholesterol
High cholesterol is often detected through diagnostic screening, as it often does not have noticeable symptoms. A lipid profile test is a blood test that measures total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and triglyceride levels.
A doctor may recommend the following if your cholesterol level is abnormal, or above 200 mg/dL:
- Cholesterol-lowering medicines, like statins
- Lifestyle changes like dietary changes and exercise
- Monitoring your cholesterol levels regularly
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