Vitamin D
Vitamin D is of primary importance to optimal health, and can affect everything from your immune system (one of the biggest reasons people tend to get sick in the winter more than summer), to hormone balance, weight gain or loss, muscle strength, bone density, cancer risk, and mental health. Other studies show that vitamin D helps with rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, blood pressure, and heart disease.
And most importantly, vitamin D has been scientifically proven to slow the aging process!
And while some of us may be younger and some of us are older, the one fact you cannot argue with is that we are all growing older—whether its fast or slow--so anything that helps us age better is something we can all use.
In a recent British study of over 2100 female twins, scientist looked at telomeres, which are the part of DNA that shortens with aging. (Twins have very similar DNA, so differences were easily noted within the experiment.) One group of the twins was taking vitamin and mineral supplements and the other was not. At the end of the test period, the telomeres of each group were measured.
Telomeres are the lengths of genetic material that cap the free ends of DNA in a cell, and are one of the most reliable measures of aging. As a person ages, the telomeres shorten and the DNA becomes more unstable until eventually the cell dies. While telomeres are all the same length at birth, lifestyle factors such as diet, nutrition, exercise, and other environmental factors will speed up or slow down the length of time it takes for these to deteriorate.
The study found that those with the highest vitamin D levels had significantly longer telomeres, according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, meaning that those with higher levels of vitamin D aged more slowly. And the best part--Researchers found that those in the study with the highest vitamin D levels had DNA that was the equivalent of five years’ younger!
This is one of the reasons that vitamin D has such a strong protective effect on many age-related diseases such as cancer and heart disease.
Vitamin D is primarily made in the skin after exposure to mid-day sunlight (not early morning or late day sunlight). It actually takes the UVB rays to convert the sunlight on your skin to vitamin D. Getting sunshine on your skin for at least 20-40 minutes in the middle of the day, when UVB rays are present, is the best way to get natural vitamin D, based on your skin pigmentation (darker-skinned people need more, and lighter-skinned people need less).
Important note: Vitamin D production in your skin only happens from UVB exposure and not UVA exposure. According to vitamin D researcher Dr. Joseph Mercola, while UVA rays from the sun make it to the surface of the earth regardless of the angle in the sky, the sun needs to be at least 50 degrees above the horizon for UVB rays to penetrate the ozone layer of the earth and make it to the surface.
Therefore, based on the latitude that you live, the time of day, as well as time of year, there are only certain times that the sun is actually greater than 50 degrees above the horizon. So keep in mind that you are only capable of producing vitamin D from the sun at any times of day or times of year that the sun is at least 50 degrees or higher above the horizon.
*By the way, the easy way to estimate what 50 degrees looks like is to think that 90 degrees would be the sun straight directly above your head, and 45 degrees would be halfway down to the horizon. So 50 degrees would be if the sun is just slightly above half way from the horizon to directly over your head.
As an example, in New York City (or any area at a similar latitude), in the strongest sun month of June, you might have a sun angle of 50 degrees or more above the horizon all the way from 930am through 430pm (just an estimate) ... However, once you get to September 1st and the sun is much lower in the sky, I'd estimate that you probably only have a sun angle above 50 degrees for only 2 hours mid-day. And once you get to October, the sun no longer goes above 50 degrees at all, even at mid-day.
To simplify, from around October to March, if you happen to live in the northern hemisphere, north of approx 30-35 degrees latitude (roughly north of a line from Los Angeles, California, over to Atlanta, Georgia), the sun is too low in the sky to stimulate vitamin D production, even if you’re outside on a sunny day at mid-day. And if you live even further north, like in Canada or northern Europe, you will need to supplement your vitamin D close to nine months or more out of the year.
The problem is that many of us have become so sun-phobic and afraid of skin cancer that we are now seriously lacking in this essential pro-hormone. But—increasing Vitamin D levels from regular small doses of sunshine can actually decrease one’s cancer risk! According to Dr. William Grant, a noted vitamin D researcher, skin cancer rates in people living at higher latitudes, such as Iceland, are approximately 4 times higher than the skin cancer rates of those living at the stronger sun areas in lower latitudes in the tropics. It may seem at first glance as one of those “paradoxes”, but in reality, it’s simply the anti-cancer protective effect of getting more vitamin D from regular sun exposure.
Our human ancestors functioned well with continual exposure to sunlight, which was estimated to produce levels of 10,000 to 20,000 IU of vitamin D a day in our ancestral skin!
Humans were never really designed to get vitamin D solely from food—we were made to get it from being outside in the sunshine. While many of the foods we buy may say, “vitamin D fortified”, in truth, very few foods such as fatty fish (cod liver oil), eggs, and organic liver, naturally contain vitamin D. In fact, the paltry amounts of vitamin D in most vitamin D fortified foods means most people would need to eat 8-10 servings just to meet the current RDA (Recommended Daily Amount), and as we know, the RDA is the bare minimum, not the optimal amount.
The best form of vitamin D is from sun exposure. You cannot overdose on this kind of natural vitamin D; the body converts only what it needs for optimal health. However in winter months when the sun is not strong enough to create vitamin D, or if you are indoors during the day or live in a far northern latitude, you will need a supplement.
When choosing a vitamin D supplement, it is important to take the natural form of vitamin D, which is vitamin D3. The optimal healthy range of vitamin D in the blood is around 50-70ng/mg, which can be achieved by taking a supplement of at least 1000IU to 5000IU per day, according to Dr. Heaney at the Creighton University Medical Center.
According to Dr. Joseph Mercola’s recommendation, however, some people may need more than 5,000 IU’s of vitamin D3 per day to reach the optimal levels of 50-70 ng/ml, which should be modified for the seasons if you are in the sun more during the spring and summer. Too much supplemental vitamin D can lead to toxicity, so it’s a good idea to consult with your physician to get vitamin D levels measured to get a more accurate idea of how to much to take.
Always take vitamin D with meals. When vitamin D is taken with the largest meal of the day, studies show the highest increase in blood levels of vitamin D. Since vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, taking it with a meal that contains some healthy fats help it absorb in the body better.
Vitamin D is of primary importance to optimal health, and can affect everything from your immune system (one of the biggest reasons people tend to get sick in the winter more than summer), to hormone balance, weight gain or loss, muscle strength, bone density, cancer risk, and mental health. Other studies show that vitamin D helps with rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 and type 2 diabetes, blood pressure, and heart disease.
And most importantly, vitamin D has been scientifically proven to slow the aging process!
And while some of us may be younger and some of us are older, the one fact you cannot argue with is that we are all growing older—whether its fast or slow--so anything that helps us age better is something we can all use.
In a recent British study of over 2100 female twins, scientist looked at telomeres, which are the part of DNA that shortens with aging. (Twins have very similar DNA, so differences were easily noted within the experiment.) One group of the twins was taking vitamin and mineral supplements and the other was not. At the end of the test period, the telomeres of each group were measured.
Telomeres are the lengths of genetic material that cap the free ends of DNA in a cell, and are one of the most reliable measures of aging. As a person ages, the telomeres shorten and the DNA becomes more unstable until eventually the cell dies. While telomeres are all the same length at birth, lifestyle factors such as diet, nutrition, exercise, and other environmental factors will speed up or slow down the length of time it takes for these to deteriorate.
The study found that those with the highest vitamin D levels had significantly longer telomeres, according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, meaning that those with higher levels of vitamin D aged more slowly. And the best part--Researchers found that those in the study with the highest vitamin D levels had DNA that was the equivalent of five years’ younger!
This is one of the reasons that vitamin D has such a strong protective effect on many age-related diseases such as cancer and heart disease.
Vitamin D is primarily made in the skin after exposure to mid-day sunlight (not early morning or late day sunlight). It actually takes the UVB rays to convert the sunlight on your skin to vitamin D. Getting sunshine on your skin for at least 20-40 minutes in the middle of the day, when UVB rays are present, is the best way to get natural vitamin D, based on your skin pigmentation (darker-skinned people need more, and lighter-skinned people need less).
Important note: Vitamin D production in your skin only happens from UVB exposure and not UVA exposure. According to vitamin D researcher Dr. Joseph Mercola, while UVA rays from the sun make it to the surface of the earth regardless of the angle in the sky, the sun needs to be at least 50 degrees above the horizon for UVB rays to penetrate the ozone layer of the earth and make it to the surface.
Therefore, based on the latitude that you live, the time of day, as well as time of year, there are only certain times that the sun is actually greater than 50 degrees above the horizon. So keep in mind that you are only capable of producing vitamin D from the sun at any times of day or times of year that the sun is at least 50 degrees or higher above the horizon.
*By the way, the easy way to estimate what 50 degrees looks like is to think that 90 degrees would be the sun straight directly above your head, and 45 degrees would be halfway down to the horizon. So 50 degrees would be if the sun is just slightly above half way from the horizon to directly over your head.
As an example, in New York City (or any area at a similar latitude), in the strongest sun month of June, you might have a sun angle of 50 degrees or more above the horizon all the way from 930am through 430pm (just an estimate) ... However, once you get to September 1st and the sun is much lower in the sky, I'd estimate that you probably only have a sun angle above 50 degrees for only 2 hours mid-day. And once you get to October, the sun no longer goes above 50 degrees at all, even at mid-day.
To simplify, from around October to March, if you happen to live in the northern hemisphere, north of approx 30-35 degrees latitude (roughly north of a line from Los Angeles, California, over to Atlanta, Georgia), the sun is too low in the sky to stimulate vitamin D production, even if you’re outside on a sunny day at mid-day. And if you live even further north, like in Canada or northern Europe, you will need to supplement your vitamin D close to nine months or more out of the year.
The problem is that many of us have become so sun-phobic and afraid of skin cancer that we are now seriously lacking in this essential pro-hormone. But—increasing Vitamin D levels from regular small doses of sunshine can actually decrease one’s cancer risk! According to Dr. William Grant, a noted vitamin D researcher, skin cancer rates in people living at higher latitudes, such as Iceland, are approximately 4 times higher than the skin cancer rates of those living at the stronger sun areas in lower latitudes in the tropics. It may seem at first glance as one of those “paradoxes”, but in reality, it’s simply the anti-cancer protective effect of getting more vitamin D from regular sun exposure.
Our human ancestors functioned well with continual exposure to sunlight, which was estimated to produce levels of 10,000 to 20,000 IU of vitamin D a day in our ancestral skin!
Humans were never really designed to get vitamin D solely from food—we were made to get it from being outside in the sunshine. While many of the foods we buy may say, “vitamin D fortified”, in truth, very few foods such as fatty fish (cod liver oil), eggs, and organic liver, naturally contain vitamin D. In fact, the paltry amounts of vitamin D in most vitamin D fortified foods means most people would need to eat 8-10 servings just to meet the current RDA (Recommended Daily Amount), and as we know, the RDA is the bare minimum, not the optimal amount.
The best form of vitamin D is from sun exposure. You cannot overdose on this kind of natural vitamin D; the body converts only what it needs for optimal health. However in winter months when the sun is not strong enough to create vitamin D, or if you are indoors during the day or live in a far northern latitude, you will need a supplement.
When choosing a vitamin D supplement, it is important to take the natural form of vitamin D, which is vitamin D3. The optimal healthy range of vitamin D in the blood is around 50-70ng/mg, which can be achieved by taking a supplement of at least 1000IU to 5000IU per day, according to Dr. Heaney at the Creighton University Medical Center.
According to Dr. Joseph Mercola’s recommendation, however, some people may need more than 5,000 IU’s of vitamin D3 per day to reach the optimal levels of 50-70 ng/ml, which should be modified for the seasons if you are in the sun more during the spring and summer. Too much supplemental vitamin D can lead to toxicity, so it’s a good idea to consult with your physician to get vitamin D levels measured to get a more accurate idea of how to much to take.
Always take vitamin D with meals. When vitamin D is taken with the largest meal of the day, studies show the highest increase in blood levels of vitamin D. Since vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, taking it with a meal that contains some healthy fats help it absorb in the body better.
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