Now is the time to make sure you’re getting enough vitamin D.  The recent time change might be great to get an extra hour of sleep but the days will be short and dark reducing our sun exposure and vitamin D3 production.  Even in the summer, in sunny Florida, few of us get enough sun to keep vitamin D3 levels in optimal preventive range.  With daylight savings gone, vitamin D deficiencies are worse.  Not only are we exposed to less sunlight, the sun’s rays are not as strong in the winter.

Vitamin D is synthesized in the body from sunlight. But, due to the winter season, weather conditions, and sunscreen blockers, the body’s ability to produce optimal vitamin D levels may be inhibited.  In fact, it has been proposed that annual fluctuations in vitamin D levels explain the seasonality of influenza.  All of these factors point to the value of taking a daily vitamin D supplement to ensure optimal vitamin D intake.

Vitamin D has long provided significant support for healthy bone density.  However, scientists have also validated the critical role that vitamin D plays in regulating healthy cell division and differentiation, and its profound effects on human immunity.  These findings link a deficiency of vitamin D to a host of common age-related problems.  As a result of startling evidence of a widespread vitamin D deficiency, prominent nutritional scientists are calling on Americans to increase their vitamin D intake to 2000 IUs per day and higher. Currently, most experts in the field believe that intakes of between 1000 and 5000 IUs for adults will lead to a more healthy level of serum 25(OH)D, at approximately 75 nmol/L.

 

Vitamin D3 (Vitamin D’s most active form) is essential.  Research has shown maintaining a serum vitamin D level of 50 ng/mL provides the following disease prevention: all cancers, ovarian cancer, non-hodgkins lymphoma, fractures, heart attack, endometrial cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, Type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and kidney cancer. (See our Vitamin D Prevention Chart).

With these great benefits, make sure you are getting enough during the winter months and all year round:

1. Increase Vitamin D intake – eat more vitamin D rich foods like canned salmon, tuna, D-enriched juices, or nonfat milk
2. Take a Supplement:  take 2000 IUs a day with a meal to help absorption.  Try  some of our Vitamin D3 today – available in liquid drops or capsules.
3. Get tested:  Ask your practitioner to test your vitamin D3 blood level – its the only way to truly know how you’re doing.  If it’s low you may want to increase your supplementation to 5000 IUs per day and re-check in 3 months.