The Sunshine Vitamin: Unlocking The Secrets of Vitamin D3 for Oral Health

Hi, everybody. I'm Dr. Sandhya Moldovan, periodontist and nutritionist. Welcome to the Holistic Dentistry Podcast, the show that gives you the tips and tools to detoxify your mouth for a healthier body. As we explore together the root cause of disease. Remember, you're not healthy until your mouth is healthy. So take care of it in the most natural way. Hi, everyone. Welcome to today's Holistic Dentistry show segment. I'm your host, Dr. Satya periodontist and nutritionist. And I want to talk to you about the sunshine vitamin none other than vitamin D3 when it comes to oral health. I've gotten a lot of questions for many of you regarding vitamin D3. Should you take it alone in combination with K1, K2? What is K1, K2? Where does vitamin D come from? These are all the questions that I want to cover. Surprising fact about vitamin D is that the deficiency is very common. It affects nearly 1 billion people worldwide. Despite its crucial role in various bodily function, including oral health, many are unaware of their deficiency status. Why? Because, number one, some doctors actually don't test for it, especially traditional medicine. If you go, let's say, to an HMO hospital, they do just your regular blood test. But there's so much evidence that vitamin D3 is important not just for oral health, but it's important as a cancer prevention, you know, to prevent osteoporosis, depression, that it is an absolute must to make sure that you ask for a vitamin D3 test when you go to get a physical. A lot of the integrated physicians do it automatically. You don't have to ask for it. But it doesn't hurt that you as a patient, ask your doctor specifically that you want your vitamin D3 tested. The deficiency of vitamin D can lead to several health issues. Weakened bone health, weakened teeth increase the risk of chronic diseases, and especially it can compromise oral health, including increasing the risk for periodontal disease. A lot of you know already, periodontal disease is basically a disease that affects the bone around the teeth. The lower the level of vitamin D3, the higher the risk of periodontal disease. Vitamin D3 is termed the sunshine vitamin because our body produces it in response to sunlight exposure, specifically UVB radiation from the Sun. D3 is crucial for bone health, for immune function, for reducing inflammation. And its role in oral health is tied up to these systemic effects, particularly in calcium regulation and immune response, which are definitely vital for maintaining healthy teeth and healthy gums. Can we get enough vitamin D3 from sitting in the sun? Well, actually, no. Even in California, we have so much Sunshine. There is 80% deficiency of vitamin D for most people, so including myself. I remember first time I tested my vitamin D, I was in my early 30s. And at that time I had a lot more time to go to the beach, to be in the sun. Every chance I got, especially on the weekend, I was at the beach. And even with that, when I tested my vitamin D levels, it was actually around mid to upper 20s. That is actually considered deficient. When we look at the scale of vitamin D3, my integrated physician actually recommends the vitamin D levels are between 60 and 80 nanograms per milliliter. So if you're just around the 30s, you're definitely deficient. And why do we need our vitamin d to be 60 to 80? For optimum levels is really to keep us healthy, to not catch viruses, not catch colds, not get sick, because it really helps to strengthen our immune system. There are some natural sources of vitamin D3 besides the sun exposure. For example, dietary sources of fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel and sardines. Egg yolks. And you'll notice that at the store, at the supermarket, some of the eggs that come in, they're actually labeled Omega 3 rich. So some of them will even include the actual amount of omega 3 on the carton of eggs. Those are definitely healthier eggs. They have a richer yolk, more orange yolk, which is better for your health. Those are fortified foods. And we have other types of fortified foods such as fortified course milk contains higher levels of vitamin D because they're added. We have of course fortified orange juice and you know, fortified cereals that contain vitamin D supplements can also provide vitamin D3. And most people today have to take some form of supplementation, especially in regions with limited sunlight, such as some of the northern countries in Europe, but even some states like, you know, I lived in Ohio for many years, going to school there. And in Ohio for of the winter is very gloomy. We barely see the sunshine. So definitely it's recommended if you live in a state like this or you have this kind of weather to supplement with vitamin D3. And of course in the summertime you're more outside, you don't have to take higher levels of vitamin D. Maybe you don't need any supplementation at all. Vitamin D3, which is called also cholecarciferol, is more effective than vitamin D2, ergo concert of raising and maintaining vitamin D in the blood. Therefore, a lot of the supplements today contain vitamin D3. D3 is the form naturally produced by the body when exposed to sunlight, making it more potent and longer lasting in the body, which is particularly beneficial for oral health as it ensures a consistent regulation of oral and bone health. Now, some of the supplements today you might have seen that contain vitamins K1, K2 and especially a lot of, you know, I have a natural oral health company or asana, so I constantly do research on what is going on. You know, what is the best absorption, how can we get the most out of our supplements? So our vitamin D3 contains the K1 and K2. Why vitamin K1 is primarily involved in blood clotting, while K2 plays a crucial role in calcium metabolism, what it actually does, it directs the calcium that the vitamin D3 help to absorb, Whether it's from diet, dark leafy greens or salmon, takes the calcium to the bones and teeth. Why? Because teeth are bones and away from the arteries. You might have heard of some studies that say, oh my God, if you take calcium supplementation, it's going to end up in the arteries and actually will create plaque on the arteries, which is detrimental to the health. But what we do know is when you take vitamin D3, if you take it with K1, K2, it actually helps to take the calcium and direct it to the bone, bone and teeth where it is actually needed. So it doesn't hang around in your arteries where you don't need it. Vitamin D3 and vitamin K work together to support calcium metabolism. Vitamin K2 directs calcium to the bones and teeth and D3 enhances calcium absorption. This synergy between these two vitamins is crucial to maintain oral health. Calcium is essential for tooth and bone density. And there's a lot of calcium deficiencies today, especially as, you know, people are not eating enough dark leafy greens or perhaps they're eliminating dairy from the diet. So it is important to make sure that some calcium supplementation, and it can be natural forms of calcium is taken when you're actually taking vitamin D3. I like my vitamins actually in liquid format. So what I actually do, I take our liquid vitamin, which is almost like a thicker liquid and I actually put five to six drops either if I'm eating an egg or maybe on some avocado toast, you could put on a little bit of cheese. So now you're getting that calcium with vitamin D3 with vitamin K for optimum calcium absorption and utilization. This combination is particularly beneficial for oral health, preventing dental issues such as cavities. A lot of you might not know that people who are prone to cavities are probably low in Vitamin D. And studies have shown that when we increase the level of vitamin D for someone, their rate of cavities go down, the rate of periabdomal disease goes down, decreases the rate of bleeding of the gums as well as it lowers the risk of losing teeth. And especially for those of you that are clenching and grinding out there now, your teeth are getting micro cracks, they're getting weaker. And if you have a lower level of vitamin D, you increase your risk to fracturing your teeth. So it's highly recommended that you keep your vitamin D in at optimum, not just for your health, for your immune system, for your bones, but also for for your oral health. Now, where does vitamin D3 come from? A lot of actually vegan and vegetarians were asking me, oh, is this of animal source? Well, the good news is that in order for us to produce vitamin D3, we produce this by taking the 7 dehydrocholesterol from the lanolin obtained from the wool of sheep. So it doesn't hurt anyone. The sheep get a haircut and we get the benefits of vitamin D3 for our health. Now let's talk about how vitamin D3 and oral health go hand in hand. D3 supports oral health by enhancing calcium absorption. It also possesses antibacterial properties that might be surprising to some of you. These antibacterial properties help to reduce the risk of periodontal disease by inhibiting the growth of harmful oral bacteria. So maybe in the future, as studies come out about vitamin D, we might formulate some kind of mouthwash or we might put vitamin D in your toothpaste, but stay tuned on that one as well. Most of the studies right now are focused on lowering the risk of gum disease, cavities and oral health issues such as cancer. What we do know that higher level of vitamin D is actually decreasing oral cancer as well as other cancer rates in the body, not just the mouth. One of the first line of defense for oncologists when somebody is diagnosed with cancer is to give them high doses of vitamin D, up to 50,000 IUs in one dose on a weekly basis. A study published in a journal of periodontology found a significant correlation between vitamin D3 levels and the incidence of gingivitis and periodontitis. So you have bleeding gums. The two main vitamins that are responsible for bleeding gums are vitamin C and D3. Those are my top rated vitamins that I recommend for oral health. Let's talk about some home testing for vitamin D3. A lot of you think, oh, you Know what? I don't want to go to my physician. It takes a long time to get an appointment. But the good news is you can now do a home test for vitamin D. And it's not actually, you know, you don't have to go draw your blood somewhere. You can actually order a home kit online. It's a blood spot test. So it's a finger prick. You squeeze a couple of droplets of blood, you put in on blotting paper and within a couple weeks you actually get the results, which are very accurate. Regular testing, I believe it's crucial for maintaining optimum level of vitamin D3. So especially with the changing seasons, I usually test my vitamin D level twice a year, once in the summertime and once in the winter time because the levels are going to tend to fluctuate based on the levels of your blood test. Now we can regulate the amount of supplementation that you need. So let's say that I'm taking, you know, five drops of vitamin D. So that's 5,000 IUs, or international units of vitamin D, and it does my blood levels. And let's say it's only, let's say 50 nano. So what do I need to do to raise it higher? Another Maybe to go 20 more points, you need to take an additional thousand IUs for every 10 nanograms per milliliter that you're trying to go up. That's kind of like a rule of thumb, so to speak, for vitamin D supplementation. But also there's actually some people that don't absorb the regular vitamin D3. So you might need to take a different form of vitamin D. In that case, you will need to test yourself. You cannot just tell this. People think, oh, you know, let me just take vitamin D and I never test myself is not okay. We need to know your vitamin D levels in order to achieve, you know, optimum health and oral health. Monitoring levels of vitamin D can help tailor dietary and lifestyle intervention to ensure adequate intake and synthesis of vitamin D3. And these tests could be quite inexpensive. I know there are some companies out there that offer vitamin D blood spot tests, which the fingerprint testing for, let's say maybe 50 to $90. We offer it in our office. Actually, we can even help you do it as part of our, you know, panel, our inflammatory panel, which I think it's so important as dentists, before we start any type of procedure, let's say, especially implant placement, there are studies to show the higher level of vitamin D influences the bone to implant content, meaning the implants integrate Better when the vitamin D are at optimum levels. So the reason why I started to offer this test in our practice because the epidemic of vitamin D deficiencies, I've also had patients that I placed ceramic implants on. They were not integrating well when we were testing it with the ISQ values. And then when I was testing D3 levels, they were suboptimal only in the maybe 19 or 20. So now I made it a general rule that people were actually getting implants. They either are on vitamin D supplementation or if you're not, we have to test it. Why we have to test it because a lot of people coming my way say I sit in the sun a lot, my vitamin D is fine. Okay, let's test it. We don't know until we test. I'm a big proponent of doing testing to determine the level of different nutrients and vitamin D3 with K1, K2, definitely important to take it in that combination for optimum absorption. Now, how do you choose a high level supplement? I get this question a lot. Very important to see that your supplement of choice actually has the good manufacturing practices certification or gmp. Not all facilities have this. So what happens is this label is actually given to ensure that your supplement has good manufacturing practices just as it states. If it doesn't, you don't know how they manufacture it. And then sometimes there's a lot of adulteration of the supplements and in the industry there's not as much regulation as they say, you know, in the drug industry. So if you take vitamin D3 from one source, it could be full of oils and it might not get absorbed versus source that actually has a GMP certification. Surely. One time my husband decided to buy a vitamin D3 just from a local shop. Said, okay, well you can go ahead and consume it since you bought it. And when we actually tested her vitamin D levels, it didn't go up at all. So we ended up switching him to the actually the orasana liquid vitamin Ds and of course his vitamin D went up within a month. So it's very, very important that you use a quality supplement when you take any supplement for that matter, not just vitamin D. I think that's what I wanted to say about vitamin D. For those of you that want to leave a comment, you can go to my YouTube channel at Ask Doctor Sanda and leave us a comment. Any other suggestions for the episode that you might want to listen to? Until next time, stay healthy. Thank you so much for joining me this week. Please make sure you check out the show notes for any links mentioned in the show. If you'd like today's show, please invite your friends to listen as well. That would mean a lot to me. Do you have a question you'd like me to answer? Message me on Instagram at.com Dr. Sandha this is Dr. Sandha. And remember, your mouth is the gateway to your health. So take care of it in the most natural and best way possible.