The Silent Number: Why Your Blood Pressure Reading Matters More Than You Think
You've been getting outside. You're not a vampire. The sun has been shining on Chicago summers like it's getting paid for it. So why are you still tired all the time? Why do your bones ache when the weather changes? Why does your mood drop in November and not come back until April?
There's a good chance your Vitamin D is low. And if you're Black or Brown, the odds are even higher than you think.
Make it stand out
Melanin Is Beautiful — and It's Also Sunscreen
Here's the part of the conversation that doesn't get talked about enough: melanin is, biologically, a natural sunscreen. It protects darker skin from UV damage and slows down sun-related skin aging. That's a feature, not a bug. It's part of why our skin holds up the way it does.
But that same protection has a tradeoff. Vitamin D is made in your skin when UVB rays hit it. The more melanin you have, the longer it takes to produce the same amount of Vitamin D as someone with lighter skin. Some studies suggest people with very dark skin need up to six times the sun exposure to make the same amount of Vitamin D as someone fair-skinned.
Six times.
Add in a Chicago winter — where the sun is weak from November through March and most of us are bundled up anyway — and you've got a recipe for a deficiency that quietly stretches across years.
"But I Feel Fine"
That's the trap. Vitamin D deficiency rarely announces itself. It shows up dressed as other things:
Fatigue — the kind that doesn't go away with sleep
Low mood or depression — especially seasonal
Achy joints and bones — often blamed on age or weather
Frequent colds and infections — because Vitamin D plays a major role in immune function
Hair thinning — especially in women
Muscle weakness — that "I don't feel as strong as I used to" feeling
Trouble concentrating — brain fog
People walk around with these symptoms for years, blaming stress, age, or "just life." Sometimes it really is those things. Sometimes it's a vitamin your body literally cannot make enough of on its own.
The Mental Health Connection Nobody Talks About
This one matters. Low Vitamin D is strongly linked with depression and anxiety. The receptors for Vitamin D are all over the brain, including in areas that regulate mood. We've been telling our community to take mental health seriously for years now — and that's right. But sometimes the thing dragging your mood down isn't just what's happening in your life. Sometimes it's a deficiency that's fixable with a lab test and a $10 supplement.
That doesn't replace therapy. It doesn't replace community. But if you're doing the work and still feeling stuck, it's worth checking the chemistry.
Food Won't Save You (By Itself)
You'll hear "eat more salmon, eggs, and fortified milk." That's good advice. It's also not enough.
The amount of Vitamin D in food is tiny compared to what your skin can produce with adequate sun. To hit your daily needs through food alone, you'd be eating salmon almost every day. For most of us, that's not happening.
That's why for many people — and especially for Black and Brown folks, and especially in a city like Chicago — a supplement is the realistic answer. But you shouldn't guess at the dose. Too little does nothing. Too much can actually be harmful. The only way to know what you need is to know where you're starting from.
The Test That Settles It
It's called a 25-hydroxyvitamin D test (sometimes written as 25(OH)D). One blood draw. Fast results. It tells you exactly where your levels sit, and from there we can build a plan — what dose to take, whether you need to recheck in 3 months, whether the number explains symptoms you've been dealing with for years.
This is one of the most under-ordered tests in primary care. Doctors don't always think to run it, and insurance doesn't always cover it as a routine screening. But it's affordable, it's quick, and the information it gives you is genuinely life-changing for some people.
At Blessings, we can run this test as part of our lab testing services, look at the result with you, and tell you what it actually means in plain English. No guessing. No "take some vitamins and see how you feel."
The Bottom Line
Your skin is doing exactly what it's supposed to do. You're not broken. You just live in a body that was built for a different latitude than the one you live in, and nobody bothered to tell you what that means for your health.
If you've been tired, foggy, achy, or low for longer than you can explain — get the test. Whether the result is low, normal, or somewhere in between, you'll finally have a real answer.
