What Are the Risks of Vitamin D Deficiency? It’s Spring, Go Enjoy Some Sunshine!
I can hardly begin to tell you how happy I am that the spring has finally arrived! My town of Portland, Oregon has broken the dreary, gray spell of the winter, and the nice weather has arrived in full force!
What is it about the shining sun that gives everyone a lift? People always seem to have so much more energy when the clouds break, and I don’t think it’s a happy coincidence. The culprit seems to be vitamin D, one of the super-nutrients that the sun gives us. But what, exactly, does vitamin D do to get this effect?
Recent studies all around the world have shown that vitamin D heavily contributes to your body’s sensitivity to insulin, in turn helping the regulation of blood sugar. This has two really exciting results: firstly, having well-regulated levels of blood sugar keeps your energy up between meals. Secondly, your body’s sensitivity to insulin directly affects the risk of diabetes, and this new research clearly shows that getting a sufficient amount of vitamin D can prevent diabetes, along with a slew of other diseases!
The most well known benefit of vitamin D is its ability to increase your calcium absorption, boosting tooth and bone health. But that’s not all. Vitamin D also protects against cancer, autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular disease, multiple sclerosis, and other chronic illnesses.
Although vitamin has been shown to prevent 77% of all cancers, new research published in the British Medical Journal shows that above all, high levels of vitamin D significantly lower the risk of bowel cancer.
Vitamin is also important in day-to-day health, as it arms your T-cells, the immune system cells, which can become dormant without sufficient sources of vitamin D. A strong immune system can prevent those frequent colds and flu viruses that tend to plague us in the colder months.
This, however, means that the time we need vitamin D most, the winter, is the most difficult time to get enough in our systems, since sunlight is the easiest and healthiest way to get vitamin D. If you are unable to get at least 20 minutes of sun exposure a day, you should consider vitamin D supplements. You can also incorporate vitamin D into your diet with foods like fish, cod liver oil, broccoli, and raw milk.
Another reason to take a few minutes to bask in the sunshine? Scientists have found that there is a link between vitamin D deficiency and stored body fat levels, so getting some sun can fight obesity by promoting body fat loss.
According to the March 2010 issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, nearly 60% of the world population is vitamin D deficient, so take out your sunglasses and lemonade and make the most of this wonderful season!
“This entry has been posted as part of Prevention Not Prescriptions Tuesday hosted by The Kathleen Show” Click here and check it out!
The A B C’s of D
I don’t know about you, but over the past year or so, I have been hearing more and more about the health benefits of Vitamin D, and conversely, about all of the health risks associated with a Vitamin D deficiency. That is why I decided to compile as much information as I could regarding this topic, and share 
it here, making it (hopefully) simple to understand. Please feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this post with any feedback, Vitamin D success stories, or any additional information you might have and want to share, and thanks.
If you steer clear of the sun, are over weight or live in a northern climate such as New England or the Pacific Northwest, you may have a Vitamin D deficiency! Since the symptoms may be subtle, you may not even know are deficient. Last year after my annual exam, I found out that I was indeed Vitamin D deficient. I had no idea and had no specific complaints at that time that would have led to believe that I was. I was prescribed 50,000 I.U.’s of Vitamin D supplement per week for eight weeks, with the recommendation of at least 1000 i.u.’s per day after that. What I can tell you is I noticed a general sense of well-being and an increase in my daily energy after the eight week period. Also, I have not had one cold since, and as a health-care practitioner, I see many patients that have bad colds and upper respiratory infections. What I have learned since then is also very important. If you do not have the appropriate levels of Vitamin D in your system, there are many long-term health risks.
