Friday, March 29, 2024

The Need for Vitamin D.

September 2, 2017 by  
Filed under Health, News, Opinion, Weekly Columns

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(ThyBlackMan.com) Vitamin D is necessary for our bone heath, immune system, and our body’s ability to absorb other vitamins such as vitamin C. It is known as the “sunshine vitamin” because your body has the ability to create vitamin D, unlike other vitamins, on its own through your skin’s exposure to the sun. The body can get vitamin D though some of the foods we eat. “It also occurs naturally in a few foods — including some fish, fish liver oils, and egg yolks — and in fortified dairy and grain products.” With that food lineup, it’s important to note that if one adheres to a vegan diet it can be difficult to get the proper amount of Vitamin D via one’s diet. However, whatever is lacking in diet can be accounted for by adding a vitamin D supplement. Often times, an adequate amount of vitamin D can be found in a good multivitamin.

Many of us have been told that being out in the sun, especially without sunscreen, is not good for our skin. Granted too much sun can be dangerous, but allowing ourselves time in the sun allows our skin to soak up the vitamin D our body needs. “When your skin is exposed to the sun, it produces vitamin D and sends it to your liver. If you take supplements or eat foods that contain vitamin D, your gut also sends the vitamin D to your liver. From here, your liver changes it to a substance called 25(OH)D. When your doctor talks about your vitamin D levels, he means the amount of 25(OH)D you have in your blood”

When we don’t have adequate vitamin D many things can go wrong in the body. We can intake the right amount of other vitamins and minerals such as calcium, and vitamin C, but our body will not be able to absorb those vitamins due to the vitamin D deficiency in the body. It is well known that calcium in needed for strong fortified bones, it would be terrible to let the calcium we are intaking go to waste due to a lack of vitamin D. “Vitamin D is important for general good health, and researchers now are discovering that vitamin D may be important for many other reasons outside of good bone health.

Some of the functions of the body that vitamin D helps with include: immune system, which helps you to fight infection, muscle function, cardiovascular function for a healthy heart and circulation, respiratory system for healthy lungs and airways, brain development, and anti-cancer effects.” Having a vitamin D deficiency had a damaging affect on the body as so many of our organs need this vitamin to remain healthy. Type II diabetes, certain cancers, high blood pressure, depression, the autoimmune disease sclerosis, and many other diseases can be linked to vitamin D deficiency.

Honestly, summer is not my favorite season and I have been known to remain indoors when it is hot. However, I remember elders saying, “you need to get out in that sun…it will make you feel so much better”. They were on to something. The body needs Vitamin D, and it can make it on its own. Some people must take supplements, and others can account for the vitamin in their diet. However, maybe we should try, if possible, to get out into the sun and let our body absorb vitamin D naturally, and we very well may feel better in the process.

Staff Writer; Christian Starr

May connect with this sister over at Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/christian.pierre.9809 and also Twitterhttp://twitter.com/MrzZeta.


Comments

One Response to “The Need for Vitamin D.”
  1. Christian, that is a superb article! We need thousands of people promoting the message that sun exposure is absolutely essential to human health. Here are a few more facts about sun exposure that may interest you.
    Blocking too much sunlight can be dangerous, and the best way to avoid sun damage is to cover up with clothing or find shade when you have had enough. Conventional sunscreen is filled with toxic chemicals that may cause cancer. Avobenzone and oxybenzone are two of the worst toxins. Sunscreen can also block up to 99% of vitamin D production in the skin. Isn’t it interesting that each year the use of sunscreen increases, and each year the risk of contracting melanoma increases? It is not sun exposure that causes health problems; it is sun deprivation. The latest research shows that sunscreen use is leading to widespread vitamin D deficiency, and sun deprivation, not sun exposure, is leading to 336,000 deaths yearly. There has also been an 8,300% increase in vitamin D deficiency in children since 2000, which is likely due to insufficient time playing outdoors and/or sunscreen use. So you see, all of this “protection” may be fatal. In addition, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) has just released information that 73% of sunscreens don’t work and some may be counterproductive. You should also realize that as sun exposure has decreased by about 90% since 1935, melanoma has increased by 3,000%! A 20-year Swedish study demonstrated a 23% reduced risk of all-cause death among those women who used sunbeds (tanning beds). Overall, women who actively sought the sun had half the risk of death compared to those who avoided the sun. Here are a few more pieces of information:
    •A 20-year Swedish study shows that sun avoidance is as bad for the health as cigarette smoking.
    •A Spanish study shows that women who seek the sun have one-eleventh the hip-fracture risk as those who avoid sun.
    •Men who work outdoors have half the risk of melanoma as those who work indoors.
    •Women who avoid the sun have 10-times the risk of breast cancer as those who embrace the sun.
    •Women who sunbathe regularly have half the risk of death during a 20-year period compared to those who stay indoors.
    •Sun exposure increases nitric oxide production, which leads to a decrease in heart disease risk.
    •Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, is essential to human survival, and sun exposure is the only natural way to obtain it. Sunbathing can produce up to 20,000 units of vitamin D in 20 minutes of whole-body exposure around noon
    •Sun exposure dramatically improves mood through the production of serotonin and endorphin.
    • Sun exposure increases the production of BDNF, which is vital to human health.
    For references and articles see the Sunlight Institute website: http://sunlightinstitute.org/

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