In my friends' group chat, I go by Melman — yes, the neurotic giraffe from Madagascar. The nickname fits: an unexpected mole shows up, I am at the doctor. My throat feels off, I am back again. Blood tests every six months, like clockwork. Some might call that excessive. I call it preventative rather than reactive. So, as always, I went in for my annual check-up this summer — and this time, the results actually surprised me. My vitamin D was low.

Which felt almost absurd. I live in one of the sunniest places on earth, where a beach club is basically a weekend institution and lying by the pool rivals wake-surfing for my free time. So how, exactly, was I running low on the "sunshine vitamin"?

Turns out, I am nowhere near alone. Vitamin D deficiency is surprisingly widespread in the UAE — sun or no sun. So what is actually going on? Why is this so common here despite the endless sunshine? And more usefully: where can you get your own levels checked? Let's dig in.

You would think that if there were one place where vitamin D deficiency shouldn't be much of a problem, it would be here. We have sunshine almost on demand, blue skies for most of the year and an entire lifestyle built, at least partly, around being somewhere near a pool or the sea.

And yet the UAE has a surprisingly persistent vitamin D problem. Not a few unlucky people who spend their lives indoors. Study after study has found low vitamin D levels across the country.

A 2025 systematic review looking at apparently healthy people in the UAE pooled 35 studies and 28,260 participants. Among adults, the average vitamin D level came out at 17.63 ng/mL. To put that into perspective, the US National Institutes of Health considers 20 ng/mL or above adequate for most healthy people, while levels between 12 and 20 ng/mL may be inadequate. In other words, the average adult across those studies wasn't quite getting there.

Then there is a large Abu Dhabi study of 12,346 Emiratis. The result was even more striking: 72% were deficient and another 10% insufficient, according to the study's thresholds. And in a smaller multi-ethnic UAE study of 425 people, 96.9% fell into the deficient, severely deficient or insufficient categories.

We could keep going with the numbers, but there isn't much point. Different studies, different populations, different thresholds — broadly the same strange conclusion. We live under one of the world's most reliable supplies of sunshine. And somehow, a lot of us still aren't getting enough of the sunshine vitamin.

If we dust off the basic science we all learned at school, we would nod along and agree: yes, vitamin D comes from the sun. And that is correct. Your skin produces vitamin D when exposed to UVB radiation, which kicks off a chemical process that eventually produces vitamin D3 — later processed by the liver and kidneys into a form your body can actually use.

The catch? Living somewhere sunny doesn't automatically mean your skin is getting much of that sunshine. Because let's look reality in the eye: what does a typical day in the UAE actually look like?

Home. Gym — also indoors. Car. Office. Car again. Mall. Home. Not exactly a sun-soaked itinerary. And when we are outside, we are usually pretty good at protecting ourselves from the sun — shade, covered skin and, quite rightly, SPF.

You might think these things don't matter much, but they do. One Abu Dhabi study found lower vitamin D levels among people whose clothing covered more of their arms and legs. Skin pigmentation plays a role too — melanin absorbs UVB, so darker skin generally needs more sun exposure to produce the same amount. Sunscreen also blocks UVB, although how much that affects vitamin D levels in real life is still debated.

Then there is food. The problem is that vitamin D isn't particularly easy to get from your diet in the first place. Relatively few foods contain much of it naturally, with fatty fish among the best sources. Egg yolks, liver and some mushrooms provide smaller amounts. And when did you last eat a proper portion of salmon, tuna or trout, rather than a sliver tucked into a sushi roll?

So the “UAE paradox” isn't really one paradox at all. It is several small culprits quietly stacking up: too much time indoors, heat that keeps us there, limited skin exposure, pigmentation affecting efficiency, and not nearly enough vitamin D-rich food on our plates.

The more doctors' opinions I read, the clearer it became: the answer is nowhere near as tidy as the headlines make it sound.

Let's start with what we are fairly confident about: Vitamin D matters for bones and calcium absorption — this bit isn't up for debate. It helps the gut absorb calcium and keeps calcium and phosphate levels where they need to be for healthy bone mineralisation. Left unchecked, deficiency can weaken bones and, in severe cases, lead to osteomalacia in adults. It also has a hand in muscle function, nerve signalling and immune health.

So far, so straightforward. The trouble starts when we move beyond bones and try to blame vitamin D for much broader symptoms.

While working on this piece, I kept bumping into the same breed of headline: Feeling tired? Sleepy? Weak? Maybe it is your vitamin D. But those symptoms are frustratingly non-specific — and vitamin D rarely exists in isolation. Sometimes, the more interesting question is what else might be happening alongside it.

Take iron. Vitamin D helps regulate hepcidin, a hormone that acts like a gatekeeper for how much iron your body lets in. High hepcidin means less iron is absorbed and less is released from where it is stored. Some research suggests vitamin D can dial hepcidin down — meaning low vitamin D could, in theory, affect iron availability too, particularly when inflammation is involved.

Which makes the hunt for one neat culprit much harder. If you are constantly exhausted, staring only at your vitamin D — or only at your ferritin — may not tell the whole story. Deficiencies can overlap and interact, while the same symptoms can have plenty of completely different causes.

And that complexity leads to the other side of the vitamin D story: it might also be one of the most overhyped vitamins going.

Doctors point out that we have developed a habit of linking vitamin D to, well, almost everything. Low levels crop up in studies on cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders and even some cancers. But association isn't causation: finding low vitamin D in people with a condition doesn't mean the deficiency caused it — or that taking a supplement will fix it.

So yes, low vitamin D matters. It just doesn't necessarily explain everything we have come to blame it for. And a low number on a blood test isn't, on its own, a reason to panic. It is one piece of a much bigger picture — particularly if other deficiencies, symptoms or health issues are in the mix.

So, where does all of this leave us? Vitamin D matters — but it isn't the be-all and end-all of our health, either.

That doesn't mean everyone in the UAE needs to rush out and get tested. Testing makes more sense when there is a reason to look: unexplained fatigue, muscle weakness or bone pain, for example, or risk factors such as limited sun exposure, darker skin, conditions that affect nutrient absorption, obesity or existing bone problems.

There is, however, a fairly practical middle ground. If you are having blood tests done anyway, vitamin D is something you can discuss adding to the list. No separate mission, no panic over the UAE sunshine paradox — just one more marker to consider while you are already there.

Where do you actually test it in the UAE? The easy answer is: almost anywhere.

But if you would rather skip the clinic altogether, the UAE has plenty of direct and at-home testing options:

And one final note: don't self-prescribe high doses of vitamin D. Too much can be harmful, so supplementation is best discussed with your doctor.