Vitamin D - The Winter Supplement

As I sit here in Fuerteventura bronzing myself in thirty odd degrees of heat my mam has just texted me to inform me that it's bucketing down at home.

It got me thinking about not just the miserable weather at home but also the miserable moods people do be in and maybe it's not 100% their fault. 

I'm sure by now you've heard about the importance of Vitamin D. I touched on it in a previous blog on supplements which you can read HERE. 

But just like a quality night’s sleep I think most of you underestimate the importance of vitamin D. Particularly in an average Irish and UK diet and Climate. 

Technically Vitamin D isn't a Vitamin at all. It's more of a hormone similar to that of cortisol (only way better).  

So what's it good for? 

There are 36 tissues in the body with vitamin D receptors.

Benefits include:

  • various studies have shown that people with adequate levels of vitamin D have a significantly lower risk of developing cancer

  • Studies from September 2012 show that low levels of vitamin D may decrease the risk of heart attacks

  • It may reduce the risk of developing multiple sclerosis

  • Aids the immune system

  • Maintaining Cognitive Functions

  • Healthy Body Weight

  • Asthma Symptoms and Frequency

  • Rheumatoid Arteritis

  • Protection against damage from low levels of radiation

Sunlight is the best way for your body to produce its own vitamin D which then gets sent to the kidneys and converted to VD3. 

VD3 is going to be the supplement you see in the shops. For the vegetarians you can take VD2. I personally take 5000 IU daily of either Purepharma or Da Vinci Labs A, D, K. Phil Richards incorporates the Vitamin D in with his Fish Oil supplements. It's meant to help prevent the fish oil going rancid. Some people say its bullshit, I say I've yet to see someone say it’s a bad thing so why not? 

Bottom line. Living in Ireland or the UK? Then you need to be supplementing with Vitamin D. You can also read up on tanning beds and UVB Sunbeds (which I'll have one in the gym soon) and make your own educated decision on whether or not you should start using one.

 

Until next time, 

Get that glow back,

 Love and Happiness,

John T.

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