Do you know if you are vitamin D deficient?

Added March 29, 2010, Under: Children's Health, Environment, Health

It seems that we cannot over emphasize the importance of Vitamin D in this modern world of ours. Vitamin D has so many health benefits and of course our main source of good vitamin D is sunlight. But for a number of reasons we are just not getting enough sunlight and this has become a huge problem. For instance, Vitamin D deficiency is now so widespread that rickets is on the rise once again.

Children spend so much time indoors watching TV or sitting at a computer rather then playing outside. When they do happen to go outside, parents are far too quick to slap on sunscreen so that their children just don’t get any sunlight any more. The result is an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency so all the benefits of that free Vitamin D from sunlight are being wasted.

While it is understandable that we will probably not receive enough sunlight during the Northern hemisphere winter months (in some countries or more northerly US states) to sustain our vitamin D levels without taking supplements, there is absolutely no excuse during the rest of the year.

People are just not spending enough time outside and even when they do, they are putting on sunscreen and blocking out the natural Vitamin D. They have been brainwashed about the dangers of developing skin cancer to such an extent that they are not getting any sunlight at all. Sunscreen products block the production of vitamin D in the skin, causing further vitamin D deficiencies across the population of consumers who use such products.

In a new study published this month in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, it was stated that 59% of the population is vitamin D deficient while 25% were found to have extremely low levels of vitaimin D. That is why most people who get sick live and work most of their lives indoors under artificial light.

We all need to be aware that there are so many benefits to Vitamin D apart from boosting our immune systems:

• Helps to activate T-cells to fight infections and protect you from invading micro organisms.

• Prevents rickets which is a disease where your bones do not properly develop and harden.

• Increases the body’s production of 200 to 300 different antimicobital peptides that are far more effective than any synthetic antibiotic or antiviral at little or no cost and minus any toxity.

• Decreases the number of asthma attacks in children.

• Researchers have linked all these conditions to a vitamin D deficiency – cancer, hypertension, heart disease, autism, obesity, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes 1 & 2, MS, Crohn’s disease, colds and flu, inflammatory bowel disease, TB, septicaemia, aging, dementia, eczema and psoriasis, osteoporosis, insomnia and hearing loss.

• Helps slash the risk of bowel cancer by up to 40%.

• Improves insulin sensitivity in diabetes sufferers.

• Important for calcium absorption.

For more on some of these benefits, go to some of these interesting articles in http://www.naturalnews.com/028356_bowel_cancer_vitamin_D.html http://www.naturalnews.com/028357_vitamin_D_deficiency.html http://www.naturalnews.com/028355_vitamin_D_insulin_sensitivity.html

Ideally, the best source of vitamin D is to expose your skin to sunlight as the vitamin D generated in your skin from exposure to UV-Bs in sunlight acts as a pro-hormone, rapidly converting into vitamin D3. But high quality fish oils and vitamin D3 supplements are perfectly good second choice for those winter months. Even tanning beds are said to boost the body’s production of vitamin D.

If you are worried about your own vitamin D intake, the latest recommendation is that you need 35 IUs of vitamin D per pound of body weight. This is applicable to children, the elderly and pregnant women too. However, your vitamin D status is dependent on numerous factors such as the color of your skin, your location and how much sunshine you are exposed to on a regular basis. For example, the darker your skin the more sunlight you need to manufacture vitamin D. To be on the safe side, you can get your blood tested. It is best to maintain a Vitamin D level of 50-65 ng/ml or even higher all year round.

Not only does sufficient vitamin D prevent unhealthy conditions but it helps heal them too! With all the benefits of Vitamin D, all you have to do is walk outside, under the sun and get yourself some free sunlight. What could be simpler! What could be healthier!