What you need to know about Vitamin D

When you research, read, and watch the news as much as I do, you can see the new nutrient and supplement trends coming a mile away. Sometimes they’re valid, other times they aren’t. I can say for certain to buckle up and hop on the D-train because it’s here to stay. In fact, this isn’t a newly found miracle baby; this is an age old savior that we’ve been neglecting.

What is Vitamin D?

Vitamin D is a fat soluble steroid hormone (and if we weren’t playing fast and loose with the terminology, it technically isn’t a vitamin at all). The main job of vitamin D is to maintain normal blood levels of calcium and phosphorus. Note that’s the main job. It’s said that over 200 genes are affected by vitamin D. It doesn’t matter where you turn, its uses are everywhere. Bone, heart, insulin, depression, pain, happiness, cancer, fibromyalgia, thyroid… you name it, vitamin D plays a role.

Michael F. Holick, a leading researcher on the importance of vitamin D, has said that “Vitamin D deficiency is the disease of neglect.”

And he couldn’t be more right.

The cure for rickets — a widespread epidemic in the children of the softening of the bones — was found by sticking children on the roof of a building. Can you sit there and take that in for a moment? An illness that was making the limbs of children turn into mush was cured by the sun.

You may wonder what this has to do with you,  but bones should be your pride and joy. Not to mention the fact that recent studies show an alarming rate of newborns and mothers are becoming more and more deficient. Are past problems coming back to bite us in our vitamin-deficient rears?

Beyond just bones, being too low in vitamin D can lead to a decrease in thyroid function. Although not directly involved in synthesis or secretion, a deficiency can produce increases in the levels of parathyroid hormone.

On the wellbeing side, an increased occurrence of depression and a decrease in mental focus have been found time and time again. There are also links that have shown women who supplement with vitamin D may lose fat easier than those who don’t.

(...Will be continued tomorrow)