Sun Worshippers Great Gift: Vitamin D3
It is amazing that such a little known vitamin could make such a huge difference! Let me clarify. I just learned about a little known hormone, vitamin D3. Yes that is right, Vitamin D3 is a hormone not a vitamin. Seems it was misnamed many years ago and no one bothered to correct it, probably because they didn’t realize all the great things it could do and what problems it would cause without it. Infact, I think it just fell off the face of the earth for awhile. That is until natural hormone medicine (Bio-identical Hormones) became such a huge factor in womens lives across the country. Doctors started paying attention to all the possible hormones that could be causing so many problems and maladies for women and men. I say women first because we have finally demanded answers and help with our hormones and will no longer accept the perverbial saying of “Oh, that just comes with age”. I also mention men because as my doctor always tells me, men can benefit from hormone help as much as women. I know there are skeptics out there but it is true.
Ok, so what is so great about Vitamin D3? Well I will tell you. On a website called Vitamin Research Products there is an article by Chris D. Meletis, ND, he states the following:
“Vitamin D3 is one of the most useful nutritional tools we have at our disposal for improving overall health. This vitamin is unique because cholecalciferol (Vitamin D3) is a vitamin derived from 7-dehyrocholesterol; however, Vitamin D3 acquires hormone-like actions when cholecalciferol (Vitamin D3) is converted to 1,25-dihydroxy Vitamin D3 (Calcitriol) by the liver and kidneys. As a hormone, Calcitriol controls phosphorus, calcium, and bone metabolism and neuromuscular function. Vitamin D3 is the only vitamin the body can manufacture from sunlight (UVB). Yet, with today’s indoor living and the extensive use of sunscreens due to concern about skin cancer, we are now a society with millions of individuals deficient in life-sustaining bone building and immune modulating 1,25-dihydroxy Vitamin D3.”
Now that is just telling you how it is created. He goes on to say that:
“Vitamin D3 deficiency is linked to a surprising number of other health conditions such as depression, back pain, cancer, both insulin resistance and pre-eclampsia during pregnancy, impaired immunity and macular degeneration.”
That is quite a list, and may I add that my doctor said it is one of the best things for SAD or seasonal affected disorder (winter blues). He even says that:
“When examining the medical literature, it becomes clear that Vitamin D3 affects human health in an astonishing number of ways and that not obtaining enough of this important nutrient can leave the door open to developing a number of health conditions.”
I asked my doctor, “Couldn’t we just drink more milk?” He explained to me that would have to drink 50 glasses a day to even come close. The article by Chris Meletis seems to support the same idea saying the doses have to be quite high to make any difference.
“One of the challenges is the outdated acceptable upper limit for Vitamin D3 consumption, which was set at 2,000 IU. However, researchers point out that more recent studies have shown that 10,000 IU is the safe upper limit.”
Now my doctor only recommended 4000 IU, but he told me I needed to get pharmaceutical grade Vitamin D3, so that might make a difference. He also said I only needed to take it from September through May, because the days were long enough in summer and people tended to spend more time outside. Of course that makes sense. Now I am just here to attest to the fact that it makes a huge difference. I am using it now and would recommend it to everyone, unless you live at the equator.
Just another thing to consider.
Kris
