Page 11 - Leisure Living Magazine: May 2021 Edition

Are You Getting Enough Vitamin D?
By Theresa Bowen, Ph.D., Email - theesajb@gmail.com
Vitamin D, sometimes called the sunshine vita- min, regulates the absorption of calcium and helps your immune system function. Your immune sys- tem helps fight diseases and research suggests it can reduce your risk of getting heart disease, the flu, and multiple sclerosis. An estimated 40 to 75 percent of all adults are vitamin D deficient ac- cording to Alzheimers.net.
Your body makes vitamin D naturally when your skin is exposed to the sun. Most of us can get some vitamin D this way but as you get older your skin does not produce vitamin D as well as when you were younger. Also Ultraviolet radiation from the sun can cause skin cancer. Health experts rec- ommend using sunscreen but sunscreen limits vitamin D production. So if you can’t get enough sun safely, what other ways can you get vitamin D?
There are ways to get more vitamin D through some foods. Vitamin D only occurs naturally in fatty fish such as salmon, tuna, trout, and mack- erel. Other foods that are fortified with vitamin D like milk, orange juice, and yogurt are the most common dietary sources that provide vitamin D for people in the United States. Checking the nutrition facts on labels can help determine the amount of vitamin D in a food or a drink. There are two forms of vitamin D in supplements, D2 and D3, but D3 might raise your level more and for longer than D2. Fish oil supplements are also available if you do not have access or like to eat fish.
The vitamin D requirements depend on your age. Adults nineteen to seventy years old need 15 micrograms (mcg) or 600 International Units (IU) daily. If you are seventy one years and older you need 20 mcg or 800 IUs according to the Nation- al Institute of Health. One micro gram of vitamin D equals 40 International Units. For example, all of the milk in the United States is fortified with 3 mcg or 120 IU of vitamin D per cup.
JAMA Neurology (jamanetwork.com) pub- lished a study linking low vitamin D levels to a cognitive decline. This study involved 382 partici- pants with an average age of 75 years old. It was a mixed group of participants, some had dementia,
Vitamin D is the sunshine vitamin.
some had mild cognitive decline, and the others were healthy. The researchers took blood tests ev- ery year for five years to evaluate vitamin D lev- els. They found that participants with dementia had a lower vitamin D level than the rest of the groups. Their tests showed that participants with lower levels of vitamin D showed a greater decline in both cognitive ability and episodic memory. Ep- isodic memory is the memory of your own per- sonal experiences or events that can be stated and took place at a specific time and place. For exam- ple, your birthday party that occurred when you were twelve. The researchers were astonished that the link was twice as strong as they expected. Of course more research is needed to determine if vitamin D deficiency is one of the risk factors for Alzheimer’s Disease.
Your doctor can diagnose a vitamin D deficiency through a simple blood test. They might even rec- ommend a painless bone density test. If a deficien- cy is present vitamin supplements will be recom- mended. Maintaining healthy vitamin D levels is a good thing. It can reduce the risk of osteoporosis when combined with calcium and may play a part in the prevention of diabetes and hypertension. It also helps your muscles to move, your immune system to fight off invading bacteria and viruses and is a nutrient you need for good health.
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