There are so many things I love about these outings--the visual of the snow's gleaming plumpness, the feeling of my heart pumping rhythmically in tandem with my breath, and last but not least, being able to soak up the sun for a good long time, even in temps made more for polar bears.
And that leads me to my point--Vitamin D, peeps. The one we get from the sun. It's a vitamin that's been totally dissed compared to the others--C, for colds, B's for stress and energy, etc. etc. But lemme tell you something, D's time has come. New research has shown that Vitamin D is involved in many more physiological processes than scientists realized. Yeah yeah, we all know it enables us to absorb calcium for strong bones and teeth, but now they've found it's responsible for the regulation of over 2000 of our 30,000 genes. Which is one reason why lower levels of Vitamin D have been associated with a much higher risk of cancer, diabetes, arthritis, heart disease, etc.
You gettin' this? Check it out--A ten year study involving 18,225 men, aged 40-75 and initially free of heart disease, showed that those with the lowest levels of Vitamin D were twice as likely to experience a heart attack as men with the highest levels. The study also showed that low levels of Vitamin D increased the risk of heart attack as much as high blood pressure or smoking (Arch Intern Med 08:168:1174-1180). And cancer? Listen to this--the first large scale, randomized placebo-controlled study showed that Vitamin D can cut cancer risk by as much as 60% (American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 85(6):1586-91 June 2007). This is like, amazing news. So you see what I'm sayin'? Get your butt outside, bundle up, do whatever you have to do, just get out and get some sunshine.
And D's near miracle properties don't end there--it's also a potent antibiotic--it increases anti-microbial peptides--which we need to fight off cold and flu germs. Ever wonder why people always get sick in the winter? Hmm. Could it be the lower levels of Vitamin D? There's strong evidence to suggest that.
It's also been found that Vitamin D helps insomnia and depression and even enhances athletic performance.
So you're probably wondering how much do you need? Well 15 minutes a day with at least 40% of your body exposed (without sunscreen) is the minimum amount we need. And this way of getting D--as opposed to supplementing with a capsule--is best. It's the way nature intended. In winter, however, you most likely won't have 40% of your body exposed when you're outside unless you're into snow-shoveling in your Speedo (and if you are--right on--and please send photos which I'll post). So either go for more time outside, or supplement with D3--NOT D2. D2 is a synthetic version and is inferior to D3.
And as for dosage--there's a big debate now on that--the FDA recommends 400 IU's a day for an adult. But many researchers now believe this is far too low. In Canada, for instance, the Canadian Pediatric Society recommends that pregnant women take 2000 IU's a day because low levels in mothers has been associated with a number of problems--including autism--in their babies. For general health, you can easily take 1000 IU's a day--I take 2000 IU's a day.
(And btw, the fear about getting too much Vitamin D is based on a minimum of 40,000 IU's a day.)
So like I said--get outside--walk the dog--do some snow-shoeing or extreme snow-angel making. I mean, if Nature intended for us to be inside and not get sun, we'd be like those little blind Mexican fish or we'd fly around at night by sonar and go "eeek"--stuff like that. Personally, I prefer the Speedo snow-blowing.
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