Here Comes the Sun! Vitamin D and Your Health.

You may have seen Vitamin D in the news lately. What exactly is Vitamin D? Vitamin D is actually a hormone produced by your body (like thyroid, estrogen or testosterone) that is essential to every cell in the body. It is important for overall health and strong and healthy bones. More and more research is also showing us that Vitamin D also an important factor in making sure your muscles, heart, lungs and brain work well and that your body can fight infection.

The link between Vitamin D and strong healthy bones was made many years ago when doctors found that sunshine, which allows you to produce Vitamin D, or taking cod liver oil, which contains Vitamin D, helped to prevent a bone condition called rickets in children. Today, Vitamin D is seen as a vital part of good health and it’s important not just for strong bones. Recent research is now showing that Vitamin D may be important in preventing and treating some serious health problems.

Research is now showing that Vitamin D may be important for many things other than just strong bones. Some of the functions of the body that Vitamin D helps with include:

A strong immune system, which helps you to fight infection
Muscle function – recovery from injury
Neurological function – from brain development and sleep disorders to conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis
Cardiovascular function
Respiratory system –for healthy lungs and airways
GI system – constipation, bloating & IBS
Proper weight management
Anti-cancer effects

Doctors are still working to fully understand how Vitamin D works within your body and how it affects your overall health. Research is beginning to show that a lack of Vitamin D has also been linked to some other conditions such as cancer, asthma, type I and type II diabetes, high blood pressure, depression, Fibromyalgia, Alzheimer’s and autoimmune disorders like Crohn’s disease.

Getting the right amount of Vitamin D doesn’t depend on the foods you eat. To get enough Vitamin D you need to expose your skin to sunlight regularly and you may also need to take supplements. This makes getting the right dose more complicated than other vitamins and minerals. Your body is designed to produce Vitamin D when skin is exposed to sunlight. It is important to balance exposure to sunlight for Vitamin D production with protection from skin cancer. Make sure to wear sunscreen daily!(SPF 30 is best). If you have had skin cancer in the past, it is best to take a supplement instead. It only takes about 15 minutes for a very fair skinned person, yet a couple of hours or more for a dark skinned person to produce enough Vitamin D for a day.

What is the right Vitamin D dose?
For most people the daily supplemental Vitamin D dose will be 1–5000 IU per day. Ask your doctor to measure your Vitamin D 25OH level and ask for your results. The Vitamin D Council recommends a level between 40-80 ng/ml – with an ideal at 50 ng/ml. The Endocrine Society recommends taking a Vitamin D supplement of around 2,000 IU/day to reach and stay above a level of 30 ng/ml, while the Vitamin D Council recommends that adults take 5,000 IU/day of Vitamin D supplement in order to reach and stay at a healthy level. Speak with your doctor about your results. Some people who test as deficient need high doses (around 50,000 IU/day) which are only available by prescription from your medical doctor.

You can find more information and research at www.vitamindcouncil.org