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What is the simplest and cheapest way to improve your health and protect yourself from cancer and other diseases? Go get some sun to get healthy doses of vitamin D.
Vitamin D has been getting a lot of attention recently but early research has limited our understanding of its benefits. This may have contributed to the current vitamin D deficiency epidemic.
What we knew before was that vitamin D metabolizes phosphorous and helps maintain strong bones and teeth by regulating the amount of calcium in the body. But vitamin D gives you so much more than that. Recent studies have showed this nutrient can affect virtually your entire body, providing hundreds of potential health benefits.
That’s because vitamin D can categorized as a vitamin and as hormone at the same time. A vitamin, by definition, is consumed through your diet, meaning your body cannot make it on its own, while hormones are produced by your body.
You produce a type of vitamin D called vitamin D3 or cholecalciferol when sunlight strikes your bare skin. Cholecalciferol also directly produces calcidiol, an important prehormone in your blood used to determine your vitamin D levels in a lab test.
On the other hand, calcitriol, vitamin D’s metabolic product, is a secosteroid hormone made in your kidneys from calcidiol that targets over 2000 genes (almost 10 percent of the human genome) in your body, which is why the lack of vitamin D is potentially dangerous to your health.
The American Public Health Association has listed vitamin D deficiency as the top health concern in the country. Vitamin D deficiency has been associated with least 17 types of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, birth defects, periodontal disease, and other illnesses.
How to Optimize Your Vitamin D Levels
- Get regular sun exposure in the late spring, summer and early fall by exposing as much of your skin as possible.
- Use a safe tanning bed during the colder months.
- Eat vitamin D-rich foods like raw milk, eggs, organ meats, animal fat, cod liver oil and fish.
- Take vitamin D supplements. The correct type to take is vitamin D3. You can start by taking 5,000 IU (international units) per day for three months, then obtain a 25-hydroxyvitamin D test (the correct type of vitamin D test to use) to find out if you are getting enough vitamin D.
Vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) supplements are also available but they’re not advisable to use because vitamin D2 is a synthetic type of vitamin D.
When your body takes in vitamin D3 and vitamin D2, both types need to be converted to a more active form. Vitamin D3 is converted 500 percent faster than vitamin D2.
Keep in mind that because almost 90 percent of the vitamin D produced within your body is a result of sun exposure, you should not rely on getting it from natural foods or from vitamin D supplements.
Your need for sun exposure is like your natural need for food, oxygen, water and exercise. So put the sunshine back in our life and stop missing out on one of the most important nutrients for your health.
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