Jump to: What is vitamin D? | What is Mounjaro? | Why take vitamin D and Mounjaro together? | Take home message
You can take Mounjaro while on vitamin D (cholecalciferol) as it’s a nutritional supplement and shouldn’t interact with the drug in Mounjaro, tirzepatide.
If you currently have vitamin D deficiency, combining Mounjaro with vitamin D supplements could provide complementary health benefits, as Mounjaro can support significant weight loss.
Alongside the health improvements associated with weight loss, such as improved blood sugar levels and blood pressure, it can also increase vitamin D levels.
Clinical trials have shown that the ‘burning’ of fat from our fat stores (adipose tissue) during weight loss mobilises vitamin D into our bloodstream. This appears to be a linear relationship, so the more weight loss achieved, the higher the vitamin D blood levels.
Vitamin D is mobilised during weight loss because it is a fat-soluble vitamin stored in fat tissue.
So, when we ‘burn’ through excess fat in weight loss, it mobilises vitamin D into the blood and becomes available in our cells.
Still, Mounjaro would only be prescribed to those with BMIs outside the healthy range who meet other eligibility criteria.
What is vitamin D (cholecalciferol)?
Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin with multiple essential functions in the body. It’s famous for its role in bone health.
Alongside its role in bone health, vitamin D is essential to our immune system and regulating inflammation levels.
Vitamin D production is triggered by exposure to sunlight, particularly UVB rays, on the skin.
The vitamin D produced in the skin then goes through several stages of conversion in the liver and the kidneys before it becomes its ‘active form’ that our cells can use.
There are some dietary sources of vitamin D, like eggs and salmon, but generally, it’s challenging to get enough vitamin D from our diet to maintain adequate levels.
The ideal vitamin D blood level range is generally between 30 and 60 ng/mL. Below 30 ng/mL is considered insufficient, and below 20ng/mL is considered deficient.
It’s estimated that around 40% of Europeans (including the UK population) are deficient in vitamin D.
Vitamin D supplements are also the 8th most prescribed medication in the UK, with over 20 million prescriptions being filled in 2021.
The main cause of vitamin D deficiency is a lack of non-burning sunlight exposure.
Although we’re often led to believe that sun exposure harms us, regular, non-burning sun exposure has significant health benefits, including maintaining adequate vitamin D levels.
In the UK, UVB rays are only strong enough to produce vitamin D between March and October, so everyone should supplement in the winter to avoid deficiency.
What is Mounjaro?
Mounjaro is a dual-action weight-loss injection.
It supports weight loss by mimicking two hormones, GLP-1 and GIP, that communicate with the brain’s appetite
control centre, the hypothalamus, to lower hunger and food-seeking behaviour.
By lowering hunger and our desire to eat, Mounjaro helps us eat fewer calories to achieve a calorie deficit.
A calorie deficit occurs when we consume fewer calories than our body needs to fuel its essential functions, such as digestion, blood flow, and brain function.
By creating a calorie deficit, our bodies will ‘burn’ the excess fat stored for energy, and we’ll lose weight.
Mounjaro also slows down the rate at which we digest food so that our stomach and gut send signals to the brain to signal the feeling of fullness.
So, Mounjaro supports weight loss by making us feel less hungry through two mechanisms:
- Communicating with the brain’s appetite control centre
- Slowing the rate that food is digested
Randomised controlled trials have shown that Mounjaro leads to an average weight loss of around 26% after one year.
Why take Mounjaro and vitamin D together?
People living with obesity have an increased risk of vitamin D deficiency, and some research suggests that enlarged fat cells ‘pull in’ vitamin D from the bloodstream, and it becomes ‘trapped’.
It’s also likely that people living with obesity also lead unhealthier lifestyles and don’t get adequate sun exposure to maintain healthy vitamin D levels.
If you have vitamin D deficiency and a BMI outside the healthy range, losing weight and excess body fat with Mounjaro and developing healthy habits will help increase vitamin D blood levels.
Losing weight may also improve the body’s functions, such as improved liver and kidney function, supporting more efficient vitamin D production and blood level maintenance.
Take home message
Given vitamin D is a nutritional supplement, there’s very few risks associated with combining it with pharmaceutical medications like Mounjaro.
We know that one factor that can contribute to vitamin D deficiency is obesity and having excess body fat levels.
So the combination of losing weight with Mounjaro and building healthy habits would likely boost vitamin D levels and potentially enhance the impact of vitamin D supplementation in those deficient.
Second Nature’s medication programmes
Second Nature has two medication-supported programmes: a Wegovy weight-loss programme and a Mounjaro weight-loss programme.
Why should you choose Second Nature over other medication providers if you’ve decided to try Mounjaro or Wegovy (assuming you’re eligible)?
For peace of mind.
Second Nature has worked with the NHS for over 6 years, providing weight-loss programmes across the UK.
While our Wegovy and Mounjaro weight-loss programmes are private and not currently used by the NHS, we’ve built the programmes focusing on scientific evidence, patient safety, and data security.
We hope that our 6+ years of working with the NHS and building a track record of effective weight-loss results will give you peace of mind to give us a try.
