With summer drawing to a close, most of us will be going back inside.  Florescent office lights instead of sunshine, school classrooms instead of the pool. This means that we will be getting less sunshine and the sunshine vitamin — vitamin D. 

Why does it matter? New information about vitamins is always in the health magazines and the media in general, and it can be easy to dismiss it either as hype to sell supplements or as just too confusing to try to figure out. Vitamin D has been one of the media darlings the past several years — and I wanted to explain a little about why it is so important, what having enough and not having enough can do for your health and suggest some ways to get it.

Vitamin D is a steroid vitamin, a group of fat-soluble prohormones, that promote the absorption and metabolism of calcium and phosphorous. Beginning in the 1990s, scientists have come to understand more about this vitamin and what role it plays in health.  We now know that it is not just a fat soluble vitamin, but a hormone.  Some studies show that vitamin D actually helps regulate our metabolism – bone development, muscle function, insulin activity, as well as our balance of calcium and phosphorous. 

Many studies are underway researching vitamin D’s effects on our overall health. In a recent study, published in the journal Anticancer Research, researchers found that a much higher intake of vitamin D is needed to reach blood levels of vitamin D that can prevent or cut down the incidence of breast cancer, colon cancer,  multiple sclerosis, and Type 1 diabetes. According to a recent National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, only 10 percent of Americans are in the target range suggested as optimal by this study. Studies like these are still ongoing, and the Centers for Disease Control simply says that there is disagreement about the appropriate levels and recently raised the recommended dosage to 600 IUs/day for most people. 

With new studies emerging all the time, we can expect to learn much more about the importance of vitamin D and what our optimal intake should be. Right now, some studies suggest that vitamin D may play a role in the prevention and/or treatment of conditions such as: asthma, various cancers, MS, chronic fatigue syndrome, depression epilepsy, hypertension, epilepsy, insulin resistance, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, and others. 

Vitamin D toxicity can occur so it is important to get your levels checked by your doctors to make sure have enough, but not too much in your blood. 

Assuming that you find you are deficient what are your options? One of the best sources of vitamin D is the sun. There is currently a lot of debate about how our caution in the sun may be hurting our overall health. Obviously you don’t want to sit outside and fry, but sun block does prevent the absorption of vitamin D from the sun. Depending on your skin, and any personal or family history of skin cancer, you may consider spending 5 to 30 minutes in the sun (during non-peak hours) without sunscreen a couple times a week. 

From November to February, we just can’t get enough vitamin D from the sun in our area, no matter how long we spend outside. So it is important to consider adding more vitamin D rich foods to your diet, especially during the winter months. Foods with a lot of vitamin D include (in order of amount vitamin D density): salmon, shrimp, sardines, 2 percent cow’s milk, shitake mushrooms, cod and eggs.  Some foods are fortified with vitamin D, but food with naturally occurring vitamin D are a healthier alternative if you like them. 

Finally, you may want to consider supplementing with additional vitamin D. Vitamin D3 is now considered to be much more effective than the other forms, and you can pick it up at almost any drugstore or grocery store. I take a liquid version that was recommended for me by my doctor. Most of us don’t get enough sun or eat enough vitamin D rich foods to get all the vitamin D we need, so a supplement could be a good option. 

The research into Vitamin D is exciting and we can expect to learn much more in the coming years. The potential for prevention and treatment of so many conditions is really amazing. Use your best judgment, and talk to your doctor when figuring out the best way for you to optimize your vitamin D levels.