The Happy Vitamin - You are my sunshine

I have found a new meaning to healthy living. If you want to know how intelligent you really are, you should eat right, exercise and rest well. You will be amazed how incredibly bright you are or can be. Good health is truly not luxury but a necessity.


When you begin, it might feel like a tall order but keep at it and before you know, you will move mountains. These days my energy level is beyond exhaustion and believe me, it feels super great.


I’m sure we all know of Vitamin D, today I want to emphasize its importance to our overall wellbeing. You probably already know it can help you build and maintain strong bones. You may even know that it is produced in your body when the sun’s ultraviolet B (UVB) rays shine upon your skin. What’s the impact on our health when we get enough, too much, or too little of it?


‘We estimate that vitamin D deficiency is the most common medical condition in the world.’ Dr. Michael F. Holick


To begin with, this sunshine vitamin is different from other nutrients because it also functions as a hormone — a change that takes place when your body absorbs the vitamin. That means it acts as a messenger in your metabolism, potentially affecting everything from weight to organ functioning.


Do you feel tired and weak all the time? You may be lacking in Vitamin D, an essential nutrient for your body to be at its best. It manages calcium in blood, bones and guts, and helps body cells communicate with each other.


Vitamin D is important to the health of every system in the body and yet most of us don’t have enough of it. Living in the tropics is not a guarantee that you will have enough, especially if you’re dark skinned. 


Melanin is the pigment that provides skin colour and individuals with darker skin have more of it than those with lighter skin. Having more melanin reduces the ability to synthesize vitamin D from the sun, resulting in lower D levels. Further compounding that can be age, clothing that covers up your skin, sunscreen and seasonal variations in sunlight exposure.


Another factor affecting the amount of vitamin D in your body and how it is used is the presence of vitamin D binding proteins, which carry the nutrient through your bloodstream to various organs.  Asides the fact that black people need more sun to produce Vitamin D, there seems to be reasons to believe that we have different Vitamin D binding proteins that make us more vulnerable to variations in sunlight.

Vitamin D is produced when our skin is exposed to sunshine. However, the amount produced depends on the season, the time of the day, the amount of pollution and cloud cover, where you live (places near the equator have ultraviolet (UV) light levels, whereas it’s the Ultraviolet B that causes the skin to make Vitamin D) and of course the melanin content of the skin.

There may be no symptom of a deficiency if it is not severe, symptoms may include fatigue, muscle pain, low immunity, depression, broken bones & stress fractures and hair loss. Whether or not you’re experiencing symptoms that could be caused by a lack of Vitamin D, it’s a good idea to monitor its level in your body. The best way to know is by having a blood test.

Getting enough of this vitamin may protect and possibly treat conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure, immune system disorders, falls in elderly people, some types of cancer (colon, breast and prostate) and multiple sclerosis. Taking vitamin D has been known to reduce the odds of developing a respiratory infection.

The sources of this essential vitamin include sunlight, a small number of foods like oily fish, liver, egg yolk, red meat, fortified foods and supplements. 

Vitamin D, without question, the miracle of the century.” Mike Adams

Till next time, don’t be sun-shy people! 

Comments

  1. Another blockbuster! Great show Titi, I don't play with it at all.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great article Titi and so true. There is no sunshine in the UK at the mo😒😊. It is freezing 🥶. So we take a vitamin D supplement daily, which I don't joke with. Have a great day and looking forward to the next article.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Enjoy the snow and pop the vitamin D for better mood in the dark weather. 😉

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