Delightful D Vitamins
A Bite-Size Read for Your Health and Your Waistline
Summer is finally here! With the sun out and longer days, it’s a great time to talk about the sunshine vitamin! We all know we can get Vitamin D from the sun, but is that enough? What does Vitamin D do for our health? Are the sun and supplements our only sources of Vitamin D?
Let’s start with the foundational question of what it does. Vitamin D is necessary in every cell of our bodies. Vitamin D helps support our immune, circulatory, and nervous systems. Our immune system benefits from Vitamin D through the regulation of T-cell function and promotes normal cell cycle activity. This helps prevent common diseases like diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and depression. Vitamin D also helps bone mineral density as it assists in the absorption of calcium. Remember how frail your grandparents became as they got older? Aging increases the body’s need for Vitamin D.
Sounds like Vitamin D is important for everyone, right? Yes! Studies show that almost 50% of the global population is deficient in Vitamin D. And those of us who are carrying extra weight, have blood sugar challenges, inflammation, or cardiovascular decline could very well benefit from a greater commitment to Vitamin D; these conditions deplete our bodies of Vitamin D quickly.
How do we get our Vitamin D? UVB rays interact with our skin to generate Vitamin D3, but truthfully, the sun cannot provide us with all we need. Many factors like sunscreen, clothes, and showering frequently strips skin of natural oils that help in the absorption of vitamin D and conversion into D3, and can block or inhibit the absorption altogether. So, if the sun cannot give us enough Vitamin D, where else can we go to get it? Prescriptions from our doctors are an option. However, the Vitamin D typically prescribed is an inactive form, meaning the prescriptions only raise Vitamin D levels for about 14 days. This means, for optimal health, we’d be served to look at options which raise Vitamin D longer term.
One way is through our food choices. Cod liver oil, salmon, mackerel, tuna, egg yolks, and mushrooms are good sources of Vitamin D. For those of you who are less than thrilled with this menu (and even for those who are), supplements can be a great way to fill in the gaps where our nutrition falls short. I suggest taking somewhere between 4000 IU (110 micrograms) and 6000 IU (150 micrograms) of an active D3 supplement with K2, daily. I personally take this one every day.
Quick recap: Vitamin D is necessary in every cell in our body, especially in our bones and our immune system. Most people are deficient in Vitamin D, so it’s important to prioritize improving upon our deficit. We can do this through our diet, prescriptions from our doctors, or supplementation. If you do decide to supplement or get a prescription, check with your health care provider to make certain that you are making the best choice for your health. Remember to be consistent so you can enjoy the full benefits of the sunshine vitamin!
