Why Vitamin D Is Important

By Nicole Stevenson
[Nutrition & Diet]
What food sources contain this wonder-vitamin?  Nicole Stevenson answers your questions about the most powerful vitamin out there.
You know that vitamins are important, that they come from eating healthy foods and you’ve no doubt heard about vitamin D’s special health powers, but do you know what this amazing vitamin actually does for you?  From making bones strong to preventing disease, vitamin D is perhaps the most important vitamin needed in the human body and also possibly the vitamin we are most deficient in.  But with more and more research suggesting incredible health benefits, vitamin D is finding its way into the news, supplements and fortified products.

Where Does It Come From?

The best source of vitamin D can’t be found in your local grocery store, but rather outside.  The quickest, easiest and most effective way to get a healthy dose of vitamin D is to soak up the sun’s rays for about 10 to 15 minutes daily.  Experts recommend spending a little bit of time outdoors each day without sun protection.  While excessive sun exposure is certainly harmful and can cause not only painful burns and premature aging, but melanoma (skin cancer) as well, vitamin D is an essential part of being healthy.  There are other ways to get your vitamins though.  Many dairy and soy products, like milk and cheese, are now being fortified with the vitamin.  The best food sources are fatty fish (salmon and tuna top the vitamin D charts) and egg yolks.  As you would have to drink about three litres of fortified milk in order to get enough vitamin D, you may want to take cod liver oil or vitamin D supplements to help bring your levels up, particularly in the winter months when it’s hard to catch some rays during routine outings.

What Does It Do?

The question should be, "What doesn’t it do?"  Vitamin D turns into a hormone in the body that helps maintain healthy bones and muscles and prevents diseases like multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, depression, arthritis, Crohn’s disease, PMS, hypertension, osteoporosis and cancer to name a few.  It even leads to anti-microbial peptides lining the respiratory tract and warding off respiratory viruses, like the flu.

Studies have shown that breast cancer rates were about 50 per cent lower in women with high vitamin D levels and that women with cancer who have low vitamin D levels have a higher chance of cancer recurrence and a lower survival rate.  When calcium and vitamin D work together, the risk levels for various cancers in pre- or post-menopausal women decrease and survival rates increase.  Colorectal cancer risks decreased with high amounts of vitamin D (around the 2000 IU mark) and men with insufficient levels have a higher chance of developing heart disease or stroke.  Unlike other vitamins, vitamin D turns into a steroid hormone, which means it operates in hundreds of tissues in the body, allowing it to prevent such varied diseases and conditions.

How Much Do You Need?

The general recommended daily intake of vitamin D is 1000 IU, but this can vary depending on age and situation.  Babies who are breastfed, for example, may experience a vitamin D deficiency and a 400 IU supplement is recommended.  People over 50, people who don’t spend much time outside and those who often or always wear skin covering clothing generally don’t get enough of the vitamin.  In order to reap cancer prevention benefits from vitamin D, you should not rely solely on a multivitamin, which contains only about 400 IU.  Those with darker skin have ancestral origins in sunny or tropical places and thus have pigmentation that filters out sunlight.  Because of this, darker skinned people require more vitamin D, like supplements or up to 10 times more exposure to sunlight than their fairer counterparts.  Though some nutritionists are recommending between 1000 and 5000 IU of the power vitamin, if you are not in one of the high-risk categories for vitamin D deficiency, you should simply focus on getting roughly the recommended 1000 IU, by getting enough sunlight or taking supplements.

Are There Risks?

You may not think about vitamins being risky, but you can get too much of a good thing.  An overdose—amounts in excess of 2000 IU—can lead to kidney stones and heart, lung and blood vessel damage.  Perhaps the largest risk to watch out for though, is the one associated with the production of the important vitamin.  Upon hearing that time in the sun is the only way to produce enough vitamin D to attain health benefits, many people are tempted to ditch the sunscreen and soak up too many harmful rays.  It’s important to remember that while skin cancers are usually easily diagnosed and successfully treated, they are still forms of cancer and potentially fatal.  Experts recommend 10 to 15 minutes in the sun without sunscreen and no more.  While vacationing in the Caribbean, don’t fool yourself into thinking about all the vitamin D you are getting by tossing skin protection.  The UVB rays helping your body produce vitamin D are the same UVB rays that can do damage to your skin.  It is still and will always be extremely important to slather on the SPF in order to prevent burns and reduce skin cancer risks.


Sources:
CBC
Cancer.ca
The Globe And Mail
ThatsFit.ca