If you’re taking advantage of every method to improve your health, don’t forget to make sure you have adequate vitamin D. Covid brought the need for vitamin D to improve your immune system, when studies found that the people most affected by covid 19, also had a vitamin D deficit. Unlike other vitamins, your body can make vitamin D. It comes from exposure from the sun. However, due to the potential increase of skin cancer, it has to be done carefully and with safe sunning.
Vitamin D may be called a vitamin, but it actually isn’t.
Vitamin D is more similar to a steroid hormone than it is a vitamin. The body makes it from cholesterol, which is like hormones. It’s also a messenger, which is exactly what a hormone is. Vitamin D also determine the amount of fat the body produces by limiting how many fat cells it produces. It also can cause the suppression of fat storage and boost serotonin, which helps control the appetite. It also increases testosterone that aids in weight loss. It makes sense, since exposure to the sun helps create it and as the sun wanes, when winter comes, your body needs more fat for insulation.
You need vitamin D for strong teeth and bones.
Vitamin D is necessary for the absorption of calcium. It also helps prevent type 1 diabetes, some forms of cancer and multiple sclerosis. Adequate amounts of vitamin D are necessary for diabetics. It helps maintain insulin levels. Several other systems depend on vitamin D to function adequately, such as the cardiovascular system, respiratory system and nervous system. It also helps provide protection for the brain. A deficit of vitamin D can lead to osteoporosis, depression and muscle weakness.
It’s easier to get vitamin D from the sun than it is from your diet.
Safe sunning, where you expose your skin to the sun for up to 15 minutes between ten in the morning and 2 in the afternoon, is one way to get the amount of vitamin D you need. Fair skinned people need less time, while darker skinned need more. If you live in a higher latitude, you can only get adequate vitamin D in the summer. As your body produces more melanin, you need more time in the sun. People in states like Texas and Louisiana can get vitamin D from the sun all year. Getting it from food is more difficult. Either choose food fortified with vitamin D or opt for food like liver, fatty fish, cod liver oil or eggs.
- If you’re trying safe sunning and extremely fair skinned, opt for only a minute or two unprotected at first, then slather your skin in sunscreen. Build up as your skin darkens. Expose as much skin as you can to the sun when you safe sun.
- The older you are, the more vitamin D you need. People that are younger than 70 need 600 IU of vitamin D. People over the age of 70 need 800 IU each day.
- A little under half the population was determined to be deficit in vitamin D, according to one study. The vast majority of the people in that group were either office workers, over 55, were dark skinned, had IBS or were vegetarians.
- There are several forms of vitamin D, but the two mainly found in food are vitamin D2 and D3. D2 is man-made or from mushrooms exposed to the sun. The body makes D3 and it also is in animal sources. D3 can also be manmade and is more effective than D2.