Vitamin D May Be Our Most Important Vitamin Supplement

Vitamins are those special chemicals that help our bodies function properly. Most studies support getting our vitamins in food rather than in supplements. Food products naturally balance the content of nutrients including vitamins, and it is possible to take too much of some vitamins if we take supplements. Besides Vitamin D, discussed here, the other most important vitamin supplement is folic acid (a B vitamin) if you are a woman and might get pregnant, and during pregnancy.

Recent studies show that Vitamin D is beneficial for many things, from preventing diabetes and heart disease to preventing cancer and having healthy bones. Vitamin D is not really a vitamin but a hormone substance that is vital to the body. Hormones are chemicals produced in one part of the body and travel to other parts to help the body function. The thyroid gland, the ovary and the testicle are examples of organs that make vital hormones. Turns out, Vitamin D is made in the skin from sun exposure and travels throughout the body doing good work.

To avoid skin cancer, and because of living indoors much of the time, we are not getting as much Vitamin D as our ancestors. Sunscreen blocks the sun absorption that produces Vitamin D. There is a lot of discussion today about getting enough "healthy" sun exposure to both produce Vitamin D and yet not raise the risk of skin cancer. About 20-30 minutes a day of direct sunlight to our skin seems to be more beneficial than harmful. Natural sun is preferred rather than "tanning booths" that only give certain UV radiation.

Vitamin D can be taken as oral supplements. In the past, 200 - 400 IU was considered an adequate daily dose, and many calcium supplements have this amount of Vitamin D. The Institute of Medicine Food and Nutrition Board now feels that we should be getting 1000 - 2000 IU daily. Stay tuned to this as the discussions are ongoing. The good news is that Vitamin D is readily available and inexpensive to take. It may be the most important of all vitamin supplements for children and adults of all ages. People with limited sun exposure, dark skin, over age 50 and overweight or obese have an increased need for the supplement. It is safe in doses up to 2000 mg for adults. Supplement doses for children are still being worked out.

So, put Vitamin D down on your list of important health habits and consider both your regular "healthy" sun exposure and taking a supplement.

Are We Getting What we Pay For?

In today's Wall Street Journal, Deepak Chopra, MD and his colleagues wrote a very interesting opinion piece on the mainstreaming of alternative medicine. But I really thought the core message of the article was that, in the US, we are spending billions on health care, procedures, medication, and technology when much of what we are buying could be reversed with simple lifestyle change.

Instead of needing coronary stents or expensive cholesterol, diabetes or blood pressure medicine, patients really need to embrace smoking cessation, exercise, stress reduction, better nutrition, and having a more active and more supportive social life.

Physicians should be as excited about advocating healthy lifestyles (and providing guidance on how to do it) as they are in making complex diagnoses and prescribing procedures and medications.

Let me know what you think about this issue.

Four Ways to Prolong Life

Greetings! I have been recovering from knee surgery for the last several weeks, so I haven't posted for a while. But, I'm happy to say that I'm doing well, and planning to return to work in a week.

How would you like to live an average of 14 years longer? A study reported today by Kay-Tee Khaw and colleagues at the University of Cambridge in the UK suggested that 4 behaviors would prolong life by an average of 14 years. These were:

1. Drinking only moderately (this is usually defined as no more than 2 alcoholic beverages per day)
2. Quitting smoking (or not starting if you don't)
3. Exercise (usually defined as 30 or minutes of aerobic exercise on 5 days of the week)
4. Eating five servings of fruits and vegetables per day.

The authors questioned 20,000 people between 1993 and 1999, assigning them one point for each of the above healthy behaviors. After controlling for age and other factors, they found that persons with a score of "0" were four times more likely to die.

The researchers tracked deaths among the participants until 2006 and found that a person with a health score of 0 had the same risk of dying as someone with a health score of 4 who was 14 years older, thus the presumption that the healthy habits were likely to proling life.

I have long advocated keeping simple goals such as these four behaviours for maintaining health. Therefore, I'm delighted to see quantifiable evidence of benefits. Since I haven't seen the original study or analyzed the data, I can't be certain that the study doesn't have some statistical flaws, but I am willing to accept that there is life-extending benefit to these behaviors and recommend them as the basis for good health.
In this season of resolutions, why not adopt these four simple, but profound, lifestyle changes and make a choice to lead a healthier and longer life!