You know when you constantly feel tired, struggle with low mood, and your skin and hair just slip into ruin with no direct reason why? Well, the reason is probably vitamin deficiency. And don’t worry, it’s surprisingly common in the UK; thanks to our grey weather, busy lifestyles, and sometimes less-than-perfect diets. In fact, many people don’t even realize that they’re missing out on key nutrients until strange symptoms start popping up. So if you’ve unexplainably been feeling a bit “off” lately, it could be your body’s way of telling you that it needs more vitamins and minerals. We’ll help you break down the top 5 signs that you’re missing essential vitamins, so you can spot the clues early and get back to feeling your best.
Top 5 Vitamin Deficiency Signs
Vitamin deficiency symptoms vary according to the vitamins or nutrients you’re lacking. But there are some common or overarching signs that you might be deficient in certain vitamins or nutrients.
1. Sudden Spike in Hair Loss
Losing about 100 strands of hair everyday is normal. But if you notice a clump of hair on your pillow when you wake up or all over the floors of your house, it’s a cause for concern. Hair loss is one of the most common multivitamin deficiency symptoms, signaling a lack of:
• Iron is vital for producing hemoglobin, which carries oxygen to hair follicles to maintain their health. Lack of iron causes hair follicles to weaken, leading to excessive hair fall.
• Vitamin C is essential for collagen production, which strengthens the hair and scalp and prevents hair breakage. It’s also vital for iron absorption. So vitamin C deficiency is not the primary reason for hair loss, but it plays a big role in it.
• Vitamin D is important to ensure a regular hair growth cycle. Vitamin D helps keep hair in the growth phase for longer, so deficiency of it leads to thinning.
2. Brittle or Weak Nails
As trivial as they may seem, your nails are actually a good tell of your nutritional health. Nearly all nutritional deficiencies can impact nail growth and cause various nail issues (1). But some major deficiencies are:
• Vitamin B7 (Biotin) promotes cell growth, especially for our hair and nails. Although it’s not common to lack this vitamin, weak nails are one of the visible symptoms of deficiency of vitamin B7, because that makes them prone to breakage. So biotin supplementation will help improve our nail strength (2).
• Iron is responsible for transporting oxygen to the nails, which is essential for their healthy development. Without iron, there isn’t proper oxygen supply to the nails, leading to ridges in your nails.
• Calcium is a key component of our bone and nail structure. It’s commonly believed that those white lines you sometimes get on your nails are a sign of calcium deficiency, but that’s a myth! Calcium deficiency will manifest as your nails becoming thinner and weaker, rather than appearance changes.
3. Bone Pain
This is majorly a sign and symptom of Vitamin D deficiency. This vitamin is crucial for our bone and muscle health. It plays an important role in our musculoskeletal system, increasing bone density and muscle strength, and is needed to better absorb calcium into the body, which is the primary building block of our bones. Lack of vitamin D can lead to softening of the bones, rickets (bone deformities), and all sorts of nonspecific bone pain (3). What’s concerning is that vitamin D deficiency is quite prevalent around the UK, with the NHS reporting that about 20% of adults have low vitamin D levels (4). It’s because the primary source of this vitamin is sunshine, and we don’t get enough sun exposure throughout the year because of long winters and seasonal rains. So it’s important to maximise vitamin D supplementation specifically during the winter, and maintain a diet including D-rich foods (like fortified products like breakfast cereals, fatty fish like salmon and mackerel, red meats, egg yolks).
4. Slow Healing of Wounds
The most obvious way to know that your wounds are slow to heal is if you bruise easily, or if your gums swell up or bleed easily. That happens because your body isn’t able to immunise itself against wounds or prevent cell damage. And that means you are deficient in the vitamins responsible for those functions:
• Vitamin C plays several roles in wound healing – as an antioxidant it protects cells from further oxidant damage, and it supports collagen synthesis (the structural framework of our skin, tissue, and bone cells). So more collagen is able to heal our wounds faster by accelerating the cell development process. A lack of vitamin C also impairs the immune system, making us more susceptible to wounding and infections.
• Vitamin A is needed for wound healing as it stimulates skin cell growth, which leads to growth of newer skin over wounds. It also influences and controls the inflammatory phase of wound healing, and contributes to collagen synthesis. But luckily, vitamin A deficiency is not really common in the UK.
• Vitamin D is also surprisingly vital for wounds. It enhances the immune system so the body can fight off infections, and controls inflammation during wound healing. We know that there’s an undersupply of vitamin D in the UK, so it’s important to get its levels up with supplements and foods to support our body’s healing process.
5. Poor Vision
Lack of certain nutrients also harms our vision – leading to blurred vision, poor night vision, or even vision loss. Poor night vision, or night blindness, occurs when your ability to see in low light or darkness is affected. Untreated night blindness can develop and lead to a condition of total blindness called “xerophthalmia”. So we should get these vitamins up to prevent this:
• Vitamin A is required to produce “rhodopsin”, a pigment in our retina that enhances our vision in the dark. Vitamin A deficiency is generally rare in the UK, and so are night blindness and xerophthalmia. But if diagnosed with a vitamin A deficiency, you should make sure to raise its levels.
• Vitamin B12 (Folate) maintains the health of the nervous system, which includes the optic nerve. Inadequate amounts of folate can lead to damage to the optic nerve, which transfers visual information from the eyes to the brain. This is how folate deficiency can result in blurred or impaired vision.
Foods to Fight Deficiency
The best way to fight nutrient deficiency is of course to enrich your diet with the right foods. Most of the multivitamin deficiencies are not common in the UK – the general population gets enough vitamin A from our food, and vitamins C and B-complex deficiencies are mostly age-related. Foods for vitamin C include citrus fruits, berries, kiwi, guava, vegetables like broccoli and Brussel sprouts, potatoes, peppers, etc. And foods for vitamin B12 are mostly animal products like meats, fish, eggs, and some fortified plant-based options.
But major nutrient concerns in the UK are:
1. Vitamin D: UK’s climate naturally limits our vitamin D supply. So include these foods – fatty fish like salmon and mackerel, canned tuna, egg yolks, red meats like beef, mushrooms, foods fortified with vitamin D (certain breakfast cereals yogurt, etc.).
2. Iron: Lack of iron is also fairly common in the UK, particularly among women and people with dietary restrictions. Foods for iron are – red meats like beef and pork, fish, legumes (beans, peas, lentils), dark green veggies, nuts and seeds (almonds, sesame seeds, flaxseeds), raisins and prunes, and iron-fortified foods (breakfast cereals, bread, etc.).
Final Thoughts
Knowing the major signs of lacking essential vitamins and nutrients can help you identify your deficiencies faster and work to fix it. Including the right foods which will supply those nutrients to you is the best way to prevent multivitamin deficiency. We in the UK mostly lack vitamin D and iron, so these should be our foremost matters to tend to. And for the part of our population that’s vulnerable due to age, gender differences, or dietary habits, try to keep your vitamins A, C, and B-complex levels up. Read the signs your body is telling you, so you can better protect your health.
FAQs
Q1. What are the symptoms of nutrient deficiency?
Common signs of nutrient deficiency include feeling tired, having brittle nails, and experiencing hair loss. Major signs are bone pain and vision problems. A loss of appetite is a general sign of malnutrition.
Q2. What are the signs of vitamin D deficiency?
A lack of vitamin D manifests itself as tiredness, bone pain, and weak muscles. Slow healing of wounds can also mean your vitamin D levels are low.
Q3. Which vitamin deficiency causes hair loss?
Vitamin D and Vitamin B7 are the major vitamins whose deficiency causes hair loss. But B7 deficiency is very rare, and is mostly because of genetic disorders and sometimes pregnancy.
Q4. What to do for vitamin deficiency?
The best way to reverse vitamin deficiency is to make dietary changes. Identify what vitamins you’re lacking, and create a diet plan which includes foods rich in those vitamins. Also take supplements.
Q5. How do you know if you are nutrient deficient?
It’s important to recognize signs of being nutrient deficient – common signs include frequent fatigue or weakness, bone pain, muscle weakness, slow wound healing. Always get a blood test done to be sure.