Why Every Woman with Fibroids Should Check Her Vitamin D Levels
Why Every Woman with Fibroids Should Check Her Vitamin D Levels
If you’ve been diagnosed with uterine fibroids (UF), you’ve probably been told they’re common and “nothing to worry about.” When you break down what fibroids really are, 'nothing to worry about' starts sounding a little ridiculous. UF affects millions of women resulting in over 600,000 hysterectomies per year and reduces quality of life in many ways, yet one of the factors that drive their growth remains largely overlooked by western medicine. Could something as simple as a vitamin deficiency be fueling fibroid growth? The research says yes, and the implications for prevention and management are too important to ignore.
What Are Uterine Fibroids?
The term fibroid is derived from the Latin term “fibra”, which means fiber, and hence refers to the fibrous composition of the tumor. Essentially, these tumors are abnormal tissues formed by rapidly dividing unhealthy cells that invade the uterus and surrounding tissues in the body. These unhealthy cells rob neighboring healthy cells of their nutrients, fueling their growth. UF can vary in size and can cause symptoms ranging from mild to severe pelvic pain, cramping, clotting and excessive bleeding, often leading to anemia. This also contributes to fertility issues. This is particularly alarming in the African American community because UF disproportionately impacts Black individuals at 2-3 times the rate of White individuals—and yet they’re still treated as “normal”. I’ve seen the toll they take on women close to me — including family members whose lives were disrupted and whose bodies changed in ways that were hard to ignore. I’ve even seen women look months pregnant from the size of UF growths. This blog isn’t just content — it’s a necessary correction to a conversation that’s been missing the mark.
What causes cells to become so unhealthy that they multiply and form into unhealthy tissues such as UF? While research acknowledges that genetics and lifestyle play a role in fibroid development, most medical professionals overlook a critical piece of the puzzle: how nutritional deficiencies—especially vitamin-related—can fuel abnormal cell growth. That's because UF is driven by hormones like oestrogen and progesterone. But what exactly drives these hormones? What if there was a possibility that the hysterectomies often offered as a first option to remove fibroids could be totally avoided by simply raising your vitamin D levels? As an African American woman, this is something we cannot afford to ignore given the fact that Black women are at higher risk of deficiency.
The Role of Vitamin D in Fibroid Growth
Let’s get one thing clear — vitamin D isn’t technically a vitamin at all. Vitamin D is a hormone-like powerhouse — driving everything from immune defense to tissue repair. For the purpose of this blog, we will focus on its ability to regulate hormone production. You see, vitamin D cannot be considered a vitamin because by definition, a vitamin is described as any group of organic compounds that are essential for normal growth and nutrition and is required in small amounts in the diet since it cannot be synthesized in the body.
Vitamin D is more like a pro-hormone—meaning your body synthesizes it, or turns it, into a hormone that helps regulate a ton of vital bodily functions. Vitamin D3 is produced when 7-dehydrocholesterol, aka “the oils” of your skin are exposed to sunlight (UVB rays), then gets converted by your liver and kidneys into calcitriol, aka “vitamin D3”, the active form. This active form interacts with vitamin D receptors (VDRs) all over your body, especially in hormone-producing tissues. Your body is specially designed with a remodeling system to heal, rebuild, and protect itself — and vitamin D3 is the switch that turns that system on. Without it, our immune and hormone systems become compromised, bones lose density, the integrity of our cells becomes damaged, and tissue repair slows down — opening the door for conditions like fibroid growth.
How does Vitamin D3 impact our body?
Think of D3 as the body’s project manager — overseeing everything from immune and hormone function to bone health and tissue repair. It’s a system your body was designed to run on — and when D3 levels drop, so does your body’s ability to protect and restore itself. When you have adequate levels, your body is able to:
Clearly search for and repair injuries
Break down, rebuild and replace incorrect or broken bones and damaged tissues with new and healthy cells (ie. cysts, tumors, fractures, fibroids, etc)
All of this is done according to the blueprint contained within the DNA inside your cells. On a microscopic level, there are over 30 trillion cells within each of our bodies, and within each of those cells contains your DNA, which holds the blueprint on how the body is instructed to repair itself. Your DNA is responsible for building and maintaining your entire human structure from the inside out, and relies on D3 in order to perform its duties. Deficient D3 levels mean your body's surveillancing system cannot properly see what's going on and operate effectively. It's like a criminal breaking into a store and spraying the security cameras with black spray to avoid being seen and caught. Not being able to see properly causes unhealthy cells to slide by our internal cameras unattacked and develop into tissues of their own, resulting in the chronic diseases and cancers that exist today. It also leads to the rise of autoimmune diseases we see today because when our surveillancing system can't see properly, the body begins to deploy defensive missiles with blurry vision to the wrong areas of the body, often attacking healthy tissues.
Your body is surveillancing itself and deploying security measures 24/7 to scavenge and eliminate foreign pathogens that do not belong. When we see growths in the body, we have to ask ourselves what is our remodeling system missing that is allowing this foreign mass to develop and what is feeding its growth? As I've stated before, D3 has a plethora of responsibilities and one of those roles is to act as an anti-proliferative, meaning it stops harmful cells (ie. cancer, fibroid, tumors) from developing and multiplying while also protecting the integrity of our DNA. It is when the DNA within our cells become damaged that our bodies create an environment for unhealthy cells to thrive and evolve into the diseases we see today. To put it bluntly, it's difficult to become ill or develop growths of any kind in the body when your D3 levels are adequate. This is why having adequate D3 levels is vital to optimal health.
Why Are So Many Women Vitamin D3 Deficient?
Vitamin D3 deficiency is a widespread health issue and there are a few reasons why women are deficient. Research shows that those who live further away from the equator have higher incidences of chronic diseases compared to those who live closer. For women of color, this is an issue that impacts us profoundly. In fact, a study found that a large majority of African American adults are D3 deficient. And for women of color, this statistic pairs almost congruently with the incidence rate of fibroids, which also disproportionately impacts us compared to white women. Other factors contributing to D3 deficiency in women include:
Limited sunlight exposure (especially in colder climates)
During pregnancy, your body becomes a vitamin D vending machine for your growing baby. If you’re not replenishing it, you’re running on empty fast. And the prenatal vitamins contain extremely low amounts of D3 to bring you up to optimum levels.
Higher body fat = Less Vitamin D3 availability. Vitamin D is fat-soluble, meaning it gets stored in body fat. In women with higher body fat percentages (which is normal and often biologically appropriate), vitamin D can get trapped in fat tissue and not released into the bloodstream where it’s needed. This is especially important in the Black community given the statistic that 4 out of 5 Black women are overweight and/or obese). Reducing body fat in the body allows vitamin D3 to be absorbed properly.
Let’s be real, women are often taught to avoid the sun to protect their skin from aging or darkening (thanks, beauty standards and the anti-aging industry). Many women also don’t prioritize sun exposure, because they’re busy taking care of literally everyone else.
Those of us with more melanated skin tones produce less vitamin D from sunlight due to UV protection properties we possess. Melanin is beautiful, UV-protective, and powerful—but it also acts like a natural sunscreen, which means we may need up to 5–10 times more sun exposure than someone with lighter skin to produce the same amount of vitamin D.
Health conditions that impair vitamin D3 absorption. If someone has digestive issues (like gallbladder problems, SIBO, or fat malabsorption), vitamin D3 absorption may be impaired. Essentially, the body needs to be set up to absorb them both well and requires a protocol to boost absorption.
Combine that with modern indoor lifestyles, sunscreen, and urban living (concrete jungles and tall buildings), and it’s a recipe for chronic deficiency.
Bottom line? If you're a woman living in a modern society, you should assume you're deficient until proven otherwise. Please take the necessary steps to test, supplement, and soak up some sun without fear.
Can Vitamin D3 Help Shrink Fibroids?
While research is still evolving, studies suggest that increasing vitamin D levels may help slow fibroid growth. A study published in Nutrition and Cancer revealed that vitamin D3 supplementation could significantly decrease the size of UFs. Another study found that women who had sufficient D3 had an estimated 32% lower odds of fibroids compared with those with D3 insufficiency. Another trial followed 69 women who had fibroids as well as D3 deficiency and found that D3 supplementation resulted in significantly higher D3 levels and significantly reduced UF size. Though more human trials are needed, these findings do offer hope for women looking for natural ways to manage fibroids. So the short answer? Possibly. While vitamin D3 isn't a miracle cure, the evidence is promising. It’s not a replacement for other treatments, but it is a low-cost, low-risk, and often-overlooked option to support your body naturally. For many women trying to avoid surgery or manage symptoms holistically, this is a potential game-changer.
How to Boost Your Vitamin D Levels Naturally
Raising your D3 levels requires you to understand that a vitamin D3 deficiency requires help from their mineral and vitamin friends that help D3 to function optimally. Cofactors like zinc, magnesium, and vitamin K2 are essential for D3 to function properly. Also, we have to recognize that vitamin D3 is fat soluble, meaning it dissolves faster when consumed with a fatty food, such as avocados, olives, or salmon. Natural sources are always ideal, and while sunlight will always be king, it may not be readily available for some. This is why I personally recommend supplementation. Another reason is because the food and soil has been overprocessed, depleting our food supply of vital minerals like magnesium. It’s also important to know that with supplementation you have to be extremely careful, do your own research, and discuss your findings with your healthcare provider because D3 supplementation requires us to understand what it requires in order to heal ourselves properly.
Key Cofactors that Help Vitamin D Work Better
Source: The Miraculous Cure for and Prevention of All Diseases: What Doctors Never Learned," by Jeff T. Bowles
Why is it Dangerous to Supplement Vitamin D3 Alone?
When blood work reveals low D3 levels, doctors often respond with high-dose supplements in hopes of boosting them quickly. This couldn't be a more dangerous approach because taking a pill for one deficiency can lead to or worsen other deficiencies in the body. For example, in order for vitamin D3 to work, it needs to be activated by its mineral friend magnesium. Magnesium is responsible for over 80% of metabolic functions in the body and is involved in over 600+ enzymatic reactions. Yet half of Americans are deficient — largely because over-farming has stripped our soil (and therefore our food) of this essential mineral. When you supplement vitamin D3 without pairing it with its friend magnesium, you are actually causing more magnesium to be leached from the body due to the D3 eating away at its reserves, worsening existing symptoms and creating new symptoms. Both D3 and magnesium are crucial for health and disease prevention, and most of us lack both. This is why I use a Pure Magnesium Wellness Spray made with organic magnesium chloride flakes from the sea to help naturally boost my magnesium levels and facilitate D3 conversion. It has made a huge difference in my overall health.
Taking D3 in isolation is like trying to run a full orchestra with just the conductor and no musicians. True healing and balance will come when you supply the body with the full cast of supporting nutrients — the cofactors — that allow D3 to do its job properly. This is also why I always recommend a diet with a healthy blend of fruits and vegetables to provide an array of vitamins and minerals. Without them, you’re only addressing part of the problem and leaving your body searching for missing pieces.
Final Thought
The million-dollar question: why does the medical system overlook the connection between vitamin D3 and fibroids (and a whole lot of other things too)? Short answer? Because the system is built to manage symptoms, not prevent disease—and you and I both know there's very little profit in prevention. But let’s go deeper:
1. Big Pharma can’t slap a brand name on sunshine. Supplements are cheap, widely available, and not controlled by pharmaceutical companies. Compare that to fibroid treatments—birth control, hormone therapy, surgery (hello, hysterectomy)—which generate billions annually. No financial incentive = minimal mainstream attention.
2. Medical schools spend an average of less than 20 hours on nutrition over four years. So Vitamin D is barely a lecture. The result: even well-meaning doctors aren’t trained to look at root causes like nutrient deficiencies unless it's something extreme, like scurvy or rickets.
3. Most clinical trials are funded by pharmaceutical companies, not public health institutions. If there’s no drug to sell, there’s little motivation to study or promote a natural intervention—even if it’s effective. So while promising research exists, it often flies under the radar. Would you believe there’s a book out there on how to use statistics to lie and manipulate a narrative, rather than inform?
4. Women’s health, especially Black women’s health, is chronically under-researched and underfunded. Fibroids affect up to 80% of Black women by age 50—and yet they’re still treated as “normal.” This is especially concerning because black women were more than twice as likely to have a diagnosis of UF as white women, were more likely to have complications, had a longer hospitalization, and had more than three times the in-hospital mortality rate. The system isn’t broken—it’s working exactly as it was designed: to keep you in the loop of treatment, not education or prevention. Vitamin D doesn’t fit neatly into that model, so it gets brushed off as “not clinically significant,” despite solid evidence to the contrary.
The best way to learn and heal is to stay curious, stay skeptical, ask questions, and advocate for yourself. You're the CEO of your own health, not a passive patient in the medical system. Your health is your power, and staying informed is step one. Get herbal wisdom, natural health tips, and new blog drops straight to your inbox. Subscribe at www.rootdinnature.com and join the community!
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