DO YOU DO “D”?

by LynnD

No that is not “D”, but I have your attention don’t I? LOL I am talking about Vitamin D. You might look as sexy as this if you are getting enough D.

Last year when I went for my yearly exam my Doctor asked me if I was taking Vitamin D. I said no. She informed me that she recommends all of her patients take 1,000 to 1,500 IU a day. Now I had a basic understanding about Vitamin D but really did not know much about it. She informed me that many people are Vitamin D deficient and that was her new policy for her patients.

Well about a month after I saw her I was at the grocery store and thought what the heck and bought a bottle of 1,000 IU Vitamin D. Started taking it. Really did not think there was much of a difference until about Christmas time. All of sudden just before Christmas I was feeling run down, nervous and depressed. At first I thought it was just stress. Then I started to think about it and realized I had run out of Vitamin D and had not taken any in about a week. I wondered could this be the reason? Well I hit the store and picked up another bottle and started taking it again. Within a few days I was calmer and felt more grounded and the depression had lifted. Well it does not have to take a brick to wake me up. It was the difference. I have since upped my daily dose to 2,000 IU’s a day.

I also started to notice several articles and TV shows were featuring information about Vitamin D. Did you know that they believe about 80 percent of Americans are Vitamin D deficient? Yes I said 80 percent. Even in the sunshine states like Arizona and Florida. What they find is that many people stay inside and with the advent of sunscreen many of us are not getting our daily natural dose of D. Those of us who live north in colder climates really miss out in our winter months.

Our bodies are designed to get our daily dose by being in the good old sunshine for about 20 minutes a day. It has been recorded that when this happens our bodies produce as much as 10,000 IU’s naturally. What our bodies don’t use is then naturally flushed out of our system.

Vitamin D helps our nervous system, helps to absorb calcium and new studies are showing that it may even help prevent different types of Cancer.

Two weeks ago I happened to have the TV on and it was showing Doctor Oz. Normally I don’t watch this show but the lead in was about Vitamin D and Epstein Barr disease. You know the kissing disease, Mono. Well the lead researcher in the country was on and she was explaining how people are affected by Epstein Barr. Most people might have a case of mono and our bodies fight off eventually. Then there are the people that get mono and then they remain sick. The gist of the show was about how the virus creates rogue white cells that the body can’t fight and in some cases they are mutated and take over. These people end up with a lifetime of Epstein Barr. It is a terrible debilitating disease. What they are finding is a link between Epstein Barr and a Vitamin D deficiency. The woman researcher stated that they are even looking at upgrading Vitamin D from the vitamin category to a hormone. Most vitamins we ingest through food and drink, our bodies don’t produce them on their own. Vitamin D is actually produced by our bodies with the advent of Sunshine. Therefore a hormone not a vitamin. Interesting huh?

I keep wondering if this could be the medical equivalent of aspirin a simple new discovery that can help so many. I know it is helping me tremendously.

You can find out if you are vitamin D deficient through a simple blood test that your Doctor can order. I will let you know that I have three friends and two relatives who have just been diagnosed as severely vitamin D deficient. In two of those cases they have been prescribed 50,000 IU’s of Vitamin D every 3 days. Your doctor has to write a prescription for vitamin D in this large of a dose. What that means is that there is basically no vitamin D in this persons system. Not Good at All!

My suggestion if you are feeling depressed, stressed fatigued you might consider checking your Vitamin D levels. I hope this helps someone just by imparting some of the information, because I don’t go a day without my “D”.