When I began nutrition studies in the mid 1980s, nutritionists did not have much to say about vitamin D. It’s important for bone health, especially in children. A lack of vitamin D causes rickets. Vitamin D is made by your skin from sunshine and is found in a few foods, mostly butter or cream, and liver. I didn’t pay much attention to vitamin D and didn’t think of any particular reason to take supplements.
But newly emerging research about vitamin D shows it’s not just about bones any more. It all started with the discovery that the closer you live to the Equator, the smaller your risk of getting multiple sclerosis (MS) a syndrome in which the sheaths that cover your nerves are destroyed by inflammation.
Scientists have been considering whether this fact was connected with vitamin D. The closer you live to the Equator, the more sunlight you get throughout the year, especially the right kind of sunshine that helps your body create vitamin D. As the researchers got going with their research, they made an amazing discovery.
One of the reasons why MS damages your nerve sheaths is that proteins known as cytokines are constantly being produced. Cytokines stimulate your immune system to produce a very destructive type of inflammation. They are produced in your body by cytokine-producing cells and these cells should have a very limited life-span. It seems that when you are lacking in vitamin D, cytokine-producing cells do not die as they should. They just go on producing cytokines.
This is an important discovery. Many degenerative such as rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes, are linked to the presence of powerful cytokines.
How Much Vitamin D Are You Getting?
Most people who live in Northern climates are at risk of vitamin D deficiency from October to March. Those most at risk are health-conscious people who protect their skin with sun-screen and try to eat a low-fat diet. Vitamin D is only found in a few foods: liver, butter, cream and full-fat cheese. If you reduce your intake of these foods and get very little sunshine on your skin, you will almost certainly become deficient in vitamin D. A lot of elderly people and those in nursing homes, prisons or other institutions are at risk.
Another interesting fact which has recently come to light about vitamin D is that if you take supplements of this vitamin you are less likely to get flu in the winter. Dr John J Cannell from the Vitamin D Council, has carried out this research and it’s interesting to see that the Canadian government is suggesting that vitamin D supplements might help to protect people from swine flu.
After all, flu strikes in the winter when vitamin D levels are lower. In June to August 2009 there was little swine flu in England and Scotland compared with the winter months, yet in Australia, where these are the winter months, the flu was widespread. The further north you go in the world, the more likely you are to be vitamin D deficient, and it seems that Scotland has had many more cases than England.
Increasing Your Vitamin D Intake
I’ve never been very keen on taking vitamin D supplements or multivitamins containing vitamin D. These are usually made with a synthetic form of the vitamin, and I just never trust anything synthetic. I myself take cod liver oil capsules, which are rich in both vitamin D and vitamin A. These two vitamins often occur together, and vitamin A is also very helpful to prevent infectious diseases, such as measles in children. If you do decide to take cod liver oil, use a purified brand to avoid contamination with dioxins and other pollutants that can occur in fish liver.
Linda Lazarides is a natural health expert specialising in the natural treatment of water retention.
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