Font Size Larger Font Smaller Font
 PDF Print E-mail

vitamin_d_deficiencyWritten By: Cynthia Ross Cravit

 

Higher vitamin D levels could save 37,000 lives a year in Canada, a study says.  

This finding supports an already impressive body of research on the many health benefits of the sunshine vitamin. Vitamin D, long known to help prevent osteoporosis and tuberculosis, has also been linked to a myriad of other health benefits including reduced risk of cancer, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, depression and heart disease. (Get your Vitamin D.)  

So how much vitamin D do we need? Experts say optimal levels should be 100-150 nmol/L (which are measured in a blood test called a calcidiol test). For the study, researchers examined the impact of increasing blood levels to 105 nmol/l.  The results? Higher doses of vitamin D led to reduced rates of cancer, cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, Multiple sclerosis, influenza and pneumonia.

So how do you know if you're vitamin D-deficient? A simple blood test -- the calcidiol or 25(OH)D test -- can indicate if your vitamin D level is low, experts say.

It isn't called the sunshine vitamin for nothing. Exposure to the sun is the most abundant sources of vitamin D, making up to 10,000 International Units (IU) in full-body exposure at non-burning dosages, experts say. (In comparison, a glass of milk is fortified with about 100 IU.)

Because of the country's northern latitudes, Canadians can't produce vitamin D naturally from the sun for four to six months of the year. Because of this, many vitamin D experts recommend taking supplements and whenever possible, sensible sun exposure.  

In the meantime, experts recommend that you speak to your doctor or health care provider about having a blood test to check for vitamin D deficiency. If you are deficient, discuss with your doctor the daily amount you would need for optimum health.  

Additional sources: Statistics Canada; American Society of Clinical Oncology; Public Health Agency of Canada; Vitamin D Society news release.

Copyright © 2007 All Rights Reserved - Fifty-Plus.Net International Inc.

Republished by permission of the owner.

Back to NEWS