Vitamin D (April 8, 2014)
Two very large (including over a million people) recent studies strongly implicated low levels of vitamin D in both cancer and cardiovascular disease. In addition, people with with lower levels of it had greater mortality overall. In one of the studies, the people who were taking a D3 supplement (the type most commonly sold – check the label) had lower mortality than those who did not. Vitamin D seems to play a basic part in many fundamental aspects of our health in a way we did not suspect even a few years ago.
More than two-thirds of us are thought to be deficient in vitamin D. It is not that easily obtainable from food – we were meant to produce it ourselves from sunlight, and most of us don’t get enough of that. Also, smoking and inflammation both reduce levels of it.
Vitamin supplements generally are still a controversial subject. Even if someone has low blood levels of a nutrient, good science requires that you prove taking a supplement of it not only safely raises the blood level of the nutrient but provides the same benefits as obtaining that nutrient from food before you can really recommend supplementation of a nutrient for a particular problem. With what we know right now, anyone with low levels of vitamin D should be supplementing it for general health reasons.
--dr. diane holmes
Copyright © 2014
Two very large (including over a million people) recent studies strongly implicated low levels of vitamin D in both cancer and cardiovascular disease. In addition, people with with lower levels of it had greater mortality overall. In one of the studies, the people who were taking a D3 supplement (the type most commonly sold – check the label) had lower mortality than those who did not. Vitamin D seems to play a basic part in many fundamental aspects of our health in a way we did not suspect even a few years ago.
More than two-thirds of us are thought to be deficient in vitamin D. It is not that easily obtainable from food – we were meant to produce it ourselves from sunlight, and most of us don’t get enough of that. Also, smoking and inflammation both reduce levels of it.
Vitamin supplements generally are still a controversial subject. Even if someone has low blood levels of a nutrient, good science requires that you prove taking a supplement of it not only safely raises the blood level of the nutrient but provides the same benefits as obtaining that nutrient from food before you can really recommend supplementation of a nutrient for a particular problem. With what we know right now, anyone with low levels of vitamin D should be supplementing it for general health reasons.
--dr. diane holmes
Copyright © 2014