WHAT
Vitamin D is a critical micro-nutrient needed to stay alive. Most of our bodily tissue has vitamin D receptors and nearly 2,000 genes are directly and indirectly controlled by vitamin D. It affects your brain, body, hormones, energy levels, and procreation. Pretty important stuff!
There are 3 ways you can get vitamin D: through sunlight, food, and supplements.
WHY YOU SHOULD CARE
Vitamin D deficiency is one of the more common deficiencies in children and adults. It can affect the health of your bones, muscles, heart, and lungs.
Some of the causes of deficiency in Vitamin are:
Location (weather)
Medications such as anti-seizure medications, St. Johns Wart
Renal failure
Obesity
Liver disease
Western Lifestyle, staying indoors
Adults taking vitamin D are shown to reduce the likelihood of getting hypertension and build up of plaque.
Clinical studies have shown that supplementing with vitamin D at levels of at least 1200 IU/daily reduced the risk of getting the flu and reduced asthma attacks for those diagnosed with asthma.
Newer studies on infertility and pregnancy related health complications show that supplementing with Vitamin D can help with infertility and overall health for momma and baby.
Vitamin D is also very important for people who have had Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) as it helps to decrease brain inflammation and patients who are deficient experience worse symptoms of TBI than those supplementing.
Vitamin D has also been used to help patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder, one study is included below.
One study showed that the benefits of increasing the intake of vitamin D to healthy levels would decrease health issues globally to the point of reducing health care costs for 25% world-wide!
HOW TO IMPLEMENT
The range of dosage is dependent on where you live, what you eat, and the color of your skin. When supplementing it is best to take Vitamin D with a source of healthy fat in the morning.
A recommended dose would be approximately 1,000 IU per 25 lbs of body weight. When I got blood tests my doctor recommended that I take at least 5000-7000 IU each day. In the higher range during the winter months, and lower range in the summer months.
You can go outside! Bask in the sunshine. Soak up the rays. The amount of sunlight needed for proper Vitamin D levels in the body isn't clear but most all studies show that vitamin D though sunlight is not enough, but it does help! However, understand that the risk of skin cancer also increases significantly when exposed to the sun without sunscreen.
Incorporate fatty fishes into your diet to add vitamin D.
Vitamin D can be bought at almost any drugstore or online at Amazon just make sure it is a quality product. Below is the ranking of Vitamin D supplements from LabDoor. Whenever you have questions on the quality of a product, I highly recommend checking their website out!
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