"Regardless of your skin color, if you live in the United States, you're probably not getting enough sun exposure to make sufficient amounts of vitamin D," she adds.
Standard recommendations for vitamin D level intake start at base level, "assuming that you're not starting with a deficiency," Mieses Malchuk says.
You can find out your current vitamin D levels by bringing it up to your doctor.
Not every doctor will automatically check your vitamin D levels during a regular blood panel, so aim to ask during your next physical "if you've never known what your vitamin D levels [are]" and "you're a brown person," Perkins says.
Thankfully, it can be pretty simple to get more vitamin D.The 3 best sources of vitamin D
Persons:
Perkins, It's, Mieses Malchuk, you've
Organizations:
National Institutes of Health
Locations:
United States