More News From The Vitamin D Front

At the 2015 Annual Meeting of the American College of Rheumatology researchers announced the results of a European study which showed that Vitamin D deficiency is more common in patients with inflammatory diseases than in their healthier peers.

This follows on the heels of a second study, this one from Queen Margaret University in Scotland which showed that Vitamin D can help lower the risk of heart disease and also helps you exercise more strenuously, while at the same time reducing signs of exertion.

Even cats benefit from this important essential nutrient!

Veterinarians from the University of Edinburgh published research in the Journal of the Public Library of Science that showed hospitalized pet cats with higher blood levels of Vitamin D were more likely to be alive in 30 days than their kitty colleagues with the lowest levels.

Almost every week, new research is released proving the multifunctional and fundamental benefits associated with this essential nutrient.

According to the Vitamin D Association (yes, vitamin D is so important, it has its own association!) there’s proof that Vitamin D deficiency is connected to cancer, MS, osteoporosis, rickets and falls and fractures in the elderly. Most people who suffer from depression, heart disease, autoimmune disease and psoriasis also tend to be deficient in Vitamin D.

Several things stand out when it comes to Vitamin D. First of all Vitamin D is not a vitamin the way other vitamins are vitamins. In fact, it’s not a vitamin at all. Vitamins are usually “co”- factors. They assist in chemical reactions. Vitamin D, on the other hand, is no mere supporting actor. It’s a fully-fledged, leading man of the biochemical drama called “nutrition”.

Technically, Vitamin D is said to be a hormone. That means it has direct access to cell chemistry, no middle man required. While other nutrients require chemical associates to do their work, Vitamin D labors solo, doing its business of on its own.

What is the business of Vitamin D? Protection, growth and repair! It’s a summertime vitamin whose levels increase with sun exposure. It prepares the body for good times, abundant food and calories, lot’s of friends, fertility and increased likelihood of wounds and traumatic injury. Thus, Vitamin D enhances digestive health and blood sugar processing, supports conception and the development of the fetus as well as maximizing healing and tissue regeneration!

Vitamin D is a genetic modifier. It changes the activity of genes, turning some on and others off, in true epigenetic style, ultimately supporting the growth and maturation of cells. Vitamin D acts like a genetic master switch that activates genes and changes the type and amount of protein molecules a cell produces. To perform its role as a genetic activator, Vitamin D gets its own personal escort, not only into a cell, but into the nucleus, the little segregated center that contains the cellular programming, the DNA. Essentially, it is carried into the hard drive of a cell, where it is granted access to tweak the genetic software.

Vitamin D is best known as the solar vitamin. It’s made in the skin in response to activation from sunlight. Most health care professionals by now are aware that you need some sun exposure (sans sunscreen) on a regular basis. Sure, you can get it from food and even from supplements, but the kind made by the skin allows the body to control production and metabolism of Vitamin D with greater facility than the ingested forms.

The sun streams it’s energy to the earth in three distinct frequencies or “rays”. They’re referred to as UvA, UVB and UvC. The kind that give you the wrinkles and much of the damage associated with exposure is mostly UvA. UvC is the one that’s blocked by the ozone layer. The third, UvB, is the burning ray or the part of sunlight that your body uses to produce Vitamin D. That means to stimulate the production of your own natural Vitamin D, you need to expose yourself to burning rays periodically. While it’s true that Vitamin D is so important to the body that it’s stored, so you can skip days, it would do most of us some good to get at least a few minutes of sunscreen-free sunshine (don’t burn!) on a regular basis.

Vitamin D is also found in organ meats like chicken skin and fish skin. Fatty fish are good sources too. Also consider eating more egg yolks. Yes, the yolks! Eggs are power foods but if you don’t eat the yolks you’re going to be losing a mother-load of nutrition including zinc, B-vitamins, important essential fats, and choline. Egg yolks also contain lecithin, a precious nutritional substance that enhances absorption of the all the nutrients. They’re a great source of Vitamin D too.

Vitamin D from supplements is the least effective, but if you can’t get out in the sun or you’re a vegan or just not eating a lot of Vitamin D containing foods, you should probably make sure you’re using at least 3 or 4 thousand IU a day.