Donna's Healthy Living Tips

You know how when you buy a new car and all of a sudden you see them EVERYWHERE you go?  That is what happened with Vitamin D and me.  I wrote the post last week (sorry for the dry spell) and then during my daily living I saw two articles on Vitamin D, without even looking.

One was a small mention in a hand-me-down “Good Housekeeping” magazine that my mom had passed on to me.  It was the March 09 issue and on page 83 says that the American Academy of Pediatrics is now recommending that kids up to age 18 need 400 IUs of vitamin D each day.  To get that amount from milk they would need to drink a QUART of milk every day.  Wow!

The other article was from “Living Without” a magazine for people with allergies and food sensitivities (espcially gluten and dairy).  My sister gave me a subscription for Christmas and this was the first issue I had received and it is for April/May 2009.  I will write more on being gluten-free in the future as that seems to be of interest to people I know.   On page 56 in an article cleverly titled “D is for Deficiency” they talk about how over half of the U.S. population is deficient in vitamin D.  Over half!!!

They discuss how hard it is for us to get enough “D” through our skin (sunscreen and indoor lifestyles), how food sources like salmon and sardines have heavy metal and other contaminant concerns, and the “D” found in fortified cereal or milk is not enough to make up for what we are missing (they say we would need 20-40 glasses of milk per day).  Of course if someone has a dairy issue, that wouldn’t work anyway.

I have also heard from health food store folks that not all vitamin D is created equal.  Your body can most readily absorb the vitamin D3 so if you are going to supplement, make sure that is how it is listed on your multivitamin or supplement.

Back to the “Living Without” article…they talk about the problem with serious deficiency but they focus on the long-term deficiency at a moderate level.  It has been linked to everything from autism, infertility, 19 kinds of cancer, cardiovascular disease, immune issues, fibromyalgia, schizophrenia, immune issues, allergies, and more.

It is amazing how many concerns they list that are associated with vitamin D deficiency.  They site one study that found post-menopausal women who supplemented with calcium and vitamin D over four years contracted 77 percent fewer cancers.  That is pretty impressive.

There is more information available at www.vitamindcouncil.org AND sunarc.org AND lpi.oregonstate.edu (all sited at the end of the article.  Hats off to the author, Ellie Campbell, D.O. for helping to bring this information to light.  (Pun not intended but I do like it!)