Could Low Vitamin D Be Affecting Your Team’s Energy and Focus?

Vitamin D is linked to a number of important health benefits and, similarly, a lack of vitamin D can explain a number of health problems. Vitamin D is proven to be an essential factor in our continued physical health and deficiencies in this can impact on several aspects of our health, including our energy and focus at work.  

What effect does Vitamin D have on the body?

There are several essential vitamins for the human body and D is one of the most important as it regulates the amounts of calcium and phosphate in the body. This means that vitamin D can help to prevent bone pain issues and diseases such as rickets, as well as preventing issues with teeth and muscles. Vitamin D also helps to regulate moods and energy levels and helps our immune system and its ability to prevent the onset of cold and flu and other chest infections.  

Vitamin D receptors exist in areas of the brain linked to cognition and mood, and therefore can have an impact on concentration, memory and mental focus. If you consider all these possible impacts, they all contribute to the possibility of an employee underperforming at work and losing some productivity. Irregular moods and energy levels are clear problems, but fatigue can also come from aching muscles and bone pain, while infections can also lead to employees losing focus and not performing well in their job. Of course this can also lead to absenteeism.  

How do you know if you have a vitamin D deficiency?

There are no clear and obvious symptoms of having a vitamin D deficiency, but we do generate most of our vitamin D by being exposed to sunlight during the summer months and through our diet. Although we can generate some vitamin D through sunlight outside of the summer months, it is much reduced in strength and generally, people go out less anyway. It is then very difficult to generate sufficient vitamin D from our diet alone. This often means that people can start to feel fatigued and distracted due to a vitamin D deficiency, but they are not aware of this. In extreme cases, a vitamin D deficiency will only become apparent when a person develops rickets or a bone or muscle issue.  

Who could be affected by a vitamin D deficiency?

Most workforces include a diverse range of people and some are more vulnerable to a vitamin D deficiency than others. This could be because of where they work and what their job is, but could also be because of a genetic condition or a religious preference. 

People most at risk of developing a vitamin D deficiency include: 

• Employees who always work indoors – windows prevent vitamin D exposure, so you can’t generate it from sitting next to a window in direct sunlight, you have to be outdoors.  

• Employees who always work with personal protective equipment (PPE) that completely covers the skin. 

• Employees who completely cover their skin due to a religious practice.  

• Employees from an African, African-Caribbean or south Asian background who may not generate sufficient vitamin D from sunlight due to their darker skin.  

What can an employer do to reduce the effects of vitamin D deficiency?

There are several ways an employer can put policies and procedures in place to reduce the chances of an employee developing a vitamin D deficiency. These include: 

• Supplements – Encouraging employees to take regular vitamin D supplements, particularly outside of the summer months. 

• Awareness – Employers can educate their staff on the impacts and risks of vitamin D deficiency and what people can do to prevent this.  

• Healthy eating – Employers can encourage staff to adjust their diets during autumn and winter to take in certain dairy products, cereals and fatty fish which are rich in vitamin D. The employer could even provide snacks in break areas.  

• Exposure – Encourage employees to go outside during break times and outside of work. This is good for health and wellbeing generally, particularly as a break during a busy working day.  

• Job rotation – Introduce flexible working patterns so people can enjoy more time outside, or rotate to jobs where outside work is required or where PPE is not necessary.   

• Vitamin D testing – Regular corporate health checks should include a vitamin D check to establish whether an employee has low or deficient vitamin D levels. This can be done via a quick finger-prick blood test and will provide an instant result and can be accommodated in a wider programme of workplace employee health checks. This can help the employer identify potential problems before they occur, and these can be managed accordingly to reduce the health impacts on the employee and the productivity impacts on the business.   

Taking proactive steps such as these can help to boost the overall health and wellbeing of your workforce as well as reducing the impact on quality and productivity. If you wish to introduce vitamin D testing to your regular employee health checks, then HealthClinic2You can provide health professionals to advise on the health impacts of vitamin D. We can design a programme of workplace health testing with minimal impact on your operations and an overall boost for the health and wellbeing of your workforce.