Issue 9 February 2011
Quantum
I’ve been using the generic term “vitamin D,” but there is an important distinction to make. The type of vitamin D that counts is called 25-vitamin D, which is then turned into an activated form of vitamin D that your body uses. Essentially, the process goes like this: vitamin D is made by the skin as it absorbs sunlight, and the liver then creates 25-vitamin D, which the kidneys then convert into “activated vitamin D,” which is sent through the bloodstream to the body at large. While it was once thought that only the liver and kidneys were the primary organs for the manufacture and delivery of activated vitamin D, we now know that it is made by organs and glands throughout the body, especially the lungs, brain and skin. For example, brain cells convert 25-vitamin D into activated vitamin D and use it on the spot. After it performs its important functions in brain and other types of cells throughout the body, the activated vitamin D essentially destroys itself so that it cannot leave these cells and enter the bloodstream to create an overabundance of active vitamin D, which could be toxic. (It is extremely difficult to make too much 25-vitamin D or too take too much vitamin D via supplementation; however, toxicity can occur at very high levels. Also, there is a recommended range that I will talk about later and to exceed this range is not normally “better” or “healthier.”)
Let’s turn now to how you can know if you have an adequate blood level of vitamin D and what you can do to boost your level if it is low.
Do You Need More Vitamin D? We don’t get much vitamin D through our diet. It is primarily found naturally only in oily fish and mushrooms. However, many foods today are fortified with vitamin D, including milk, orange juice, yogurt, some cheeses, and some cereals. Our primary source is UVB radiation from the sun. Our skin, the largest organ in our body, absorbs sunlight and converts it to vitamin D. In the past, when most people worked out of doors, vitamin D deficiency may not have been a problem. In the past, deficiencies mostly showed up as a bone disease, primarily in children, called rickets, which was often treated by exposing the child
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to the sun. Today, with our aversion to being out in the sun and our indoor lifestyles, vitamin D deficiencies or insufficiencies are rampant. In fact, it is considered not only the most common nutritional deficiency in the world, but also the most common medical condition, affecting at least one billion people. Here are some of the startling facts based on vitamin D research:
Between 50 percent and 100 percent of children living in Europe and the United States are at high risk of being vitamin D deficient.
There has been a 22 percent reduction in vitamin D levels in the general U.S. population in the past decade. Three out of every four Americans are deficient in vitamin D, up from one out of two Americans only twenty years ago.
Researchers from Harvard University and the University of Colorado revealed that 70 percent of whites, 90 percent of Hispanics, and 97 percent of blacks in the United States have insufficient blood levels of vitamin D. The darker your skin, the harder it is to make vitamin D, because melanin, your skin’s pigment that gives it color, acts as a natural sunscreen.
Even people who have greater sun exposure, such as those who live near the equator (South Africa, Saudi Arabia, India, Australia, Brazil, or Mexico, for example) can be vitamin D deficient. It has been estimated that between 30 percent and 80 percent of children and adults living near the equator are vitamin D deficient or insufficient.
The older you are, the harder it becomes to synthesise enough vitamin D. A 70-year-old has only a quarter of the vitamin D-making capacity that a 20-year-old has.
The half-life of 25-vitamin D in your blood circulation is two to three weeks. Thus, one sensible “dose” of sun exposure lasts you for only about one to two weeks. Vitamin D is fat soluble, so it can be stored for release later, but since we tend to not get much sun exposure during the winter months, this is the season when we are likely to have the least vitamin D in our system. Ironically, this is also the season of highest risk for
Quantum Health 59
HEALTH
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