Ah, the sunshine vitamin. Vitamin D, which can be made by your body with exposure to sunlight or supplemented in the diet, is showing to play a much larger role in health than many first suspected. Most people are familiar enough with vitamin D to know that it is important for good bone health. A lot of people are surprised to learn, however, that vitamin D is essential for many of the other tasks related to keeping us strong and healthy. For example, vitamin D plays an important role in immune function and hormone regulation. In fact, studies have shown that there is a distinct correlation between vitamin D deficiency and increase in disease.
Vitamin D has shown to be particularly important for people with health challenges like:
- Osteoporosis
- Immune function and autoimmune function
- Cardiovascular function
- Diabetes mellitus
- Chronic fatigue
- Depression
- Thyroiditis
- Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
- Lupus, arthritis
- Cancer
- Uterine Fibroid Tumors
- Fibromyalgia
- Much more.
Further, vitamin D has shown to have a direct effect on healthy hormone balance in the body. Vitamin D interacts with the parathyroid hormone, which is responsible for regulating calcium in the body. A vitamin D deficiency can lead to the abnormal release of parathyroid hormone, which can eventually lead to a hormonal imbalance due to high levels of circulating parathyroid hormone.
The pituitary gland, responsible for regulating many different hormones including sex hormones like estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, is also affected by vitamin D. A study published in “Brain Pathology” in 2006 identifies vitamin D as important in regulating pituitary cell growth. This is important because if pituitary cells grow abnormally, pituitary tumors can occur, often resulting in disrupted hormone balance, and eventually disease. The study indicates that the vitamin might help to treat some pituitary tumors. As a result, vitamin D might help to prevent a pituitary hormonal imbalance in some cases.
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Getting Enough Vitamin D
Clearly, vitamin D is important to our health.
But how do you know if you’re getting enough vitamin D? The surprising reality is that most people today aren’t– in fact many people are deficient in vitamin D and don’t know it. Research shows that a Vitamin D insufficiency may be quite common in places far from the equator and that an estimated that 50% of Americans may have less vitamin D than they need.
The Vitamin D Council says:
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The reality is that most of us just don’t have that time, or don’t live in a climate where that is possible to expose our skin to the sun year round. Even if we did have time to spend out doors, many people would be hesitant to do so, considering the abundant research on sun exposure, skin cancer, and premature aging.
Teens
Today’s teens also have less exposure to direct sunlight and have switched from drinking vitamin D fortified milk to soda. Puberty is a very critical time when up to half of a person’s adult bone mass is being deposited, and vitamin D helps ensure that people have normal blood levels of calcium for this important process. New research estimates that 30 percent of adolescents nationwide may be vitamin D deficient.
African Americans
African-Americans have the highest risk for vitamin D deficiency because dark skin needs 5 to 10 times more sunlight than Caucasian skin to produce the same amount of the vitamin. One study found that 42 percent of African-American women in the U.S. were vitamin D deficient.
Elderly
Older adults may also be at particularly high risk: After age 50 the requirement for vitamin D doubles because the body is less able to make its own vitamin D. In a report in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society in February 2004, researchers at the University of Basel in Switzerland showed that elderly women who took a vitamin D supplement plus calcium for three months reduced their risk of falling by 49% compared with consuming calcium alone. Those women who had fallen repeatedly in the past seemed to gain the most benefit from vitamin D.
What about diet, you ask? Unlike other vitamins, there are actually surprisingly few foods that are high enough in vitamin D to really maintain the levels most of us need. Eggs, some types of fish, and fortified foods contain small amounts of vitamin D, but for the most part, our bodies need to make vitamin D from sunlight, or else we need to supplement with it. You can’t get all of the vitamin D you need from diet alone.
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Testing for Vitamin D
Vitamin D is harder to get adequate amounts of than people often assume. For this reason, many people are deficient in vitamin D and don’t realize it. Addressing this deficiency is important, as more research is pointing to vitamin D deficiency as a leading contributor to disease. Whether considering vitamin D supplementation for preventative measures, or adding it to a treatment for a current disease, it’s a good idea to test for vitamin D deficiency, to get a gauge for where your vitamin D blood levels are. Ideally, they would be between 40-80 mg, according to the Vitamin D Council. Testing for vitamin D deficiency is relatively easy, and can be done either through your primary care provider, directly through these labs:
https://vitamindcouncil.zrtlab.com/
http://www.testcountry.com/products.html?product=2002
Supplementing with Vitamin D – Choose Wisely
Supplementing with the right form of vitamin D is important. The Vitamin D Council recommends taking vitamin D3 rather than vitamin D2, citing, “Vitamin D3 is the type of vitamin D your body produces in response to sun exposure, while vitamin D2 is not. In the United States, most over-the-counter vitamin D supplements are D3, but check to make sure. Vitamin D2 is sometimes prescribed by doctors because that is what pharmacies have available. If your doctor prescribes you D2, ask them if you can take vitamin D3 instead.”
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Energetic Nutrition offers Harmonic Innerprizes Vitamin D3. Harmonic Innerprizes uses the highest quality choleocalciferol, a form of vitamin D3 that is easily metabolized by the body. Because vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin and is generally fairly unstable, Harmonic Innerprizes uses a special process to microencapsulate their vitamin D for effective time release, greater stability, and a longer shelf life. Harmonic Innerprizes offers both a 5,000 iu and 10,000 iu dosage. Choosing a dosage should be based on your level of vitamin D deficiency as determined by a blood test and your health care provider. |
