Anyone who has sat through goes to the grocery or watches TV has no doubt been exposed to the alphabet soup of vitamins – A, B, E, D, K, not to mention the myriad of minerals, herbs, etc that are pushed on us by doctors, health guru, and the food industry.

What should you be taking?

The answer, of course, is that everyone is different; depending on your lifestyle, your food intake, your environment you may need different levels and types of help – because that’s what supplements are, additional help to add to your healthy diet, not a substitute for a healthy diet.

If you’re like me you love living in Chicago.  We get to experience world class culture and art, the lakefront, all in all a vibrant environment to live in.  One consequence of our decision to live in Chicago are the long, grey winters.  This is especially important in the realm of health and Vitamin D.

Vitamin D may be one of the most overlooked vitamins, many people come into our office taking some sort of supplement – we see lots of Vitamin B and C’s for example.  We don’t see a lot of Vitamin D.

Most people know of Vitamin D from the milk we all drank in grade school – fortifide with Vitamin D.  Vitamin D is, as the Vitamin D Council explains

“Technically not a “vitamin,” vitamin D is in a class by itself. Its metabolic product, calcitriol, is actually a secosteroid hormone that targets over 2000 genes (about 10% of the human genome) in the human body. Current research has implicated vitamin D deficiency as a major factor in the pathology of at least 17 varieties of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, muscle wasting, birth defects, periodontal disease, and more.”

Why Vitamin D is a major concern to us living in Chicago is that your body makes Vitamin D when exposed to direct sunlight.  This is great for us in the summer, but unfortunately it leads to deficiency when we begin our winter “hibernation”  from the cold.

The answer to this is supplementation.  According to the Vitamin D Council we should maintain a blood level of 50–80 ng/mL.  In order to achieve this they recommend supplementing 5000 IU of Vitamin D3 each day for 2-3 months then testing your blood levels.  (Please note:  Vitamin D toxicity can occur if you take too much, as always you should consult with your health care professional on appropriate dosage and supplementation for your individual needs).

One of our collegues, Dr. Meyer Eisenstein of Homefirst Health in Rolling Meadows, is on the forefront of Vitamin D supplementation.  Here’s a video from a presentation he gave on Vitamin D.

The number 1 health issue of the past year is obviously the so-called swine flu pandemic.  Vitamin D plays a huge role in the function of your nervous system and your ability to fight off the flu.  I’ll let Dr. John Cannell of the Vitamin D Council explain.

Supplements are not a substitute for a good diet.  But in cases such as the winter in Chicago, they are necessary for body to function properly.  If you have any questions whether or not Vitamin D is right for you please click here to send us a message, or talk to us at your next visit.

Here are some links with more info on Vitamin D.

Vitamin D Council

Recent JAMA Article

HomeFirst – Dr. Meyer Eisenstein

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