A startling trend has been observed by dietitians, nutritionists, statisticians, and doctors for the past 20 years. The trend observed has been vitamin D deficiency. The Archives of Internal Medicine reported that not only is vitamin D deficiency on the rise, it targets race and ethnicity. ((Demographic Differences and Trends of Vitamin D Insufficiency in the US Population, Arch Intern Med. 2009;169(6):626-632. 1988-2004 )) Here are the top 3 ways to defeat Vitamin D deficiency without going broke
Vitamin D has many roles in body systems such as bone growth and development, immune, brain, and nervous system function, as well as pancreas, skin, muscle, cartilage and reproductive organ health. Recently, research has even linked Vitamin D with protection against the development of multiple sclerosis. The authors of this particular study suggest that the current recommend daily amount (RDA) of vitamin D at 400 IU’s is much too low. Fortunately there are measures you can take to avoid vitamin D deficiency. Here are the top 3 ways to defeat vitamin D deficiency without going broke:
1. Get it from your foods!
There are many foods that contain high levels of vitamin D such as salmon, mackerel, and egg yolks. It is important to remember if you are a vegetarian that vitamin D comes mainly from animal sources and therefore supplementation or sun exposure often is needed.
2. Get it from the sun!
Contrary to what the most frightened of experts might say, getting out into the sunshine is good for you. This is true for your health and may help prevent disease! When the ultraviolet rays of the sun come into contact with your skin, they are converted into previtamin D3. will be converted into the active form cholecalciferol over the next 36 hours.
A good thing to remember is that sunscreens with a “Sun Protection Factor” (SPF) higher than 8 will prohibit vitamin D synthesis. So you will be better off if you put the sunscreen on after a few minutes in the sun. Most people will receive adequate vitamin D from the sun. This is if they expose their face, hands, and arms on a clear, sunny day 3-4 days a week for around 10 minutes. Be careful not too get to much sun as the benefits of vitamin D can be outweighed by the risk of developing of skin cancer.
3. Get it from the store!
If all else fails, you can always take a pill. Vitamin D should be supplemented in its “D3″ form known as cholicalciferol. As this is much better absorbed than the “D2″ form ergocalciferol. Additionally, if you have the stomach for it, cod liver oil has over 1300 IU’s per tablespoon of vitamin D.
That is if you have the stomach for it. 🙂
Here’s to your health!
2 thoughts on “Top 3 ways to defeat Vitamin D deficiency without Going Broke”
When a problem the size and scope of Vit. D deficiency, worldwide, happens, it is time to start really digging for –root– causes.
It has been found in people exposed to equitorial sun many hours per day, –without– sunscreens. That indicates there are other things affecting how people absorb sun and manufacture their own Vit. D.
FURTHER, many taking D3 supplements to the tune of 5,000 to 10,000 i.u. per day for several years, still having sub-optimal levels on their 25[OH]D tests. That says there is likely impairment of absorption or use of it.
Vit D is not the only thing that seems to be doing this.
There are many things we are clueless about, which is counterintuitive placed next to the overabundance of huge change humans have made in the world, just over the last 60 years.
Complex organisms cannot mutate fast enough to accommodate the rate and types of changes made, in any optimal manner.
We are just starting to learn how changes we’ve made and/or experience, affect us in the study of epigenomics, yet have not learned how to reverse or correct sub-optimal conditions we have caused.
And, there is simply people being people, not thinking about the effects their behaviors/choices have on the “big picture”, just doing whatever seems good in the moment.
So, stuff like:
==unintended effects of fillers and other extra ingredients put into pills, both supplement and pharmaceutical, that actually block uptake/use of the ingredient we want: what else do those block??
==frankenfoods [poorly grown, or GMO’d foods, or over-processed] impair nutrient value and absorption in so many ways.
==chemical additives that have unfortunate effects, both now and later.
==exposure to complex stresses.
==high sugar intake.
==the planet is tilted to extreme in it’s natural course, changing how we experience the sun.
==the earth’s atmosphere is different now than 60 years ago, changing how we recieve sunlight.
==merciless, predatory marketing of superficially researched products [like saw palmetto for natural breast enlargement].
==popularization of nutrients and substances, which are then put in trace amounts into too many non-related, unusuable forms and products–P.T. Barnum would be so proud!!
==poorly designed, or perniciously designed, research used to ‘prove’ something.
==failure to credit/use valid previous research.
==failure to use common sense.
==etc.
We have, for unknown reasons, impaired ability to make Vit. D in our bodies, which has increased over the last 20 or more years [no one was paying attention or looking before that–were there decreasing Vit. D levels prior?].
We also have the indoctrinated assumption that only 400 i.u.’s is optimal, and that Vit. D lingers in the body [fat soluble] [simar values for other elements, as well].
This might be related to how vitamins were originally measured–many markers were measured in cadavers, so only showed static, post-mortem level, not –in vivo–.
[Kinda like the difference Dr. Upledger found between handling meninges in a corpse, vs. handling meninges in a live person undergoing brain surgery–there is a substantial difference!]
Thankfully, some of this is slowly changing.
Our current science tends to focus on some fairly dysfunctional ways to cure disease:
1. kill all germs [despite how our own bodies are synergistic germs, and, germs keep our immune systems balanced, etc.]
2. calling -symptoms- of disease, the cause [cancer, GERD, oseoporosis, etc].
3. throw pills or treatments at symptoms [like GERD, or any others], expecting a cure.
4. failing to make use of thousands of years of medical/health knowledge, proven over time; failing to at least integrate that into modern medicine.
5. assumes concentrated single-elements are best, whether singly or mixed with other concentrated single-elements.
6. making chemical compounds that fail to break down when exposed to nature.
7. brain-washing the public to believe that bandaid therapies on symptoms, cure the problem.
8. failing to empower people to care for themselves, including making care so complicated and dangerous, it is only safe in the hands of expensive experts and their equipment, governed and steered by insurance companies.
The University of CA system, on several campuses, has done extensive research.
Their conclusions are, that just about everyone should at least get their 25[OH]D levels checked, and supplemented with D3 according to whether they have current, active pathology going on. None of them have found the root causes, yet.
Is it any wonder we do not know the root causes of disease, nor can we reliably cure disease using modern methods and science?
OK..better I get off my soapbox!
Sometimes I wonder why we have Vitamin D problems even though we are everyday walking under the sun. This might be helpful for my question and this very informative in terms of having a healthy body.