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July 2015 | Read this issue and more at www.healthandwellnessmagazine.net |
High
Regard for
Vitamin D
‘Sunshine
vitamin’ can
offset a number
of illnesses
By Charles Sebastian,
Staff Writer
Vitamin D has long been held in
high regard for its use in offsetting
many illnesses. These include diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure,
osteoporosis, kidney problems, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.
While vitamin D is added to much
of the food in the United States these
days to ensure people get their recommended daily allowance (RDA),
it is mainly derived through the skin
and exposure to sunlight. It’s no huge
surprise, then, that during the winter
months, when there is less sunlight,
vitamin D intake becomes an issue
for many people. Because the vitamin
is used to combat depression, particularly Seasonal Affective Disorder
(SAD), it is sold in mass doses in
months with less sunlight.
It is believed humans probably
took in a lot more Vitamin D naturally earlier in our evolution than we do
today. “Throughout most of human
evolution, when the vitamin D system was developing, the ‘natural’ level
of 25-hydroxyvitamin D was probably
around 50 nanograms per milliliter or
higher,” said Dr. Edward Giovannucci,
nutrition researcher at the Harvard
School of Public Health. “In modern
societies, few people attain such high
levels.”
Adult recommended dosages of
vitamin D run at around 4,000 international units (IUs). It’s challenging
to overdo vitamin D, though too
much of anything can hurt you. Like
so many of its vitamin and herbal
cousins, vitamin D’s efficacy for
many of the ailments people claim
it helps remains in question. While
many double-blind studies have been
conducted on the vitamin’s effects
on the aforementioned illnesses,
most have yielded little conclusive
evidence. What is known is that the
vitamin seems to help many things
and doesn’t cause any harm, so using
it regularly can do nothing but help.
We derive most of our vitamin
D through animal-based foods: egg
yolks, cheese, milk (with vitamin D
added), liver and fish. For this reason,
many vegans and people following a
plant-based diet suffer from vitamin
D deficiency, and its supplementation
has to be made up elsewhere. People
with darker skin are also at greater
risk for vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin
D is essential for calcium production. Sore muscles, bones and joints
are often symptomatic of vitamin D
deficiency. People on steroids such
as Prednisone will often find they
have trouble with vitamin D because
steroids can affect its absorption
into the body. Also, people dealing
with inflammatory bowel syndrome,
those who have had gastric bypass for
weight loss, those suffering from obesity in general and those over age 50
years all may have issues with vitamin
D; deficiencies with these groups are
not uncommon.
Rickets (bone softening) and
osteomalacia (bone and muscle
weakening), both huge problems in
our not-too-distant past, have been
diminished incredibly by measures
Like us
@healthykentucky
taken to keep vitamin D in ample
supply in our diets. While sunlight is
the major source, looking for vitamin
D’s presence in many of the foods we
eat is perhaps the easiest way to keep
it active and keep us healthy. T B