Importance of Vitamin D and its deficiency
In the past two hundred years with Industrial revolution following the agricultural revolution, we are becoming indoor people. We work in offices, factories or homes. With availability of air-conditioning we have become too soft and cannot stand sun or heat. This has further reduced our exposure to sun. It is a matter of recent knowledge that Vit D is formed in skin when it is exposed to ultraviolet rays of sun light. We are inadvertently losing this nature’s bounty because of which we are being hurt by many diseases.
As we know more about Vitamin D, it is becoming more apparent that this is more than a simple vitamin that we did not care much about until recently. Newfound additional knowledge Vit D is changing our respect towards Vit D. However, at the same time the modern life style that we are pursuing is inadvertently causing us Vit D deficient or insufficient resulting in many health issues. Let us see how this has happened?
Vit D was the fourth vitamin accidentally found early last century, after discovery of Vit A, B and C and hence it was named fourth in the alphabetical list. Vitamins are defined as “vital chemicals needed to complete metabolic and chemical processes beneficial to the body functions” and hence they are called Vitamins. These are not made within our body and hence have to come with our intake of food.
Similar vital chemicals “produced in the body” are called hormones, like in thyroid gland, pituitary gland, parathyroid, adrenaline glands etc. It was not realized in early days that Vit D is also produced in the skin and it is also a hormone. It's importance was not all that felt because it's production in skin while it is exposed to sun light containing ultraviolet rays B (UV B) was almost given because our life styles until century almost made it necessary for almost everyone to remain exposed to sunlight for certain part of the day. And that was just enough to produce necessary quantity of Vit D for our body functions.
With Industrial revolution more and more people started working indoors and exposure to sunlight reduced. Additionally, with the advent if air conditioning, staying away from heat of sun became more of an available comfort and people became habituated to stay away from sun. Now we also know that UV B do not pass through glass and hence if we are sitting in air conditioned space covered by glass windows, the skin is not exposed to the beneficial UV B and Vit D is not produced. It is estimated that we need about two hours exposure to mid-day sun to produce enough Vit D we need. In present day working in developed countries such a long exposure in hot sun has become either impossible or intolerable. Then the choice is to have Vit D supplements.
Vit D ids fat soluble. Fish is best source of Vit D. Eggs and beef also contains some Vit D. It is almost absent in vegetables. Vit D exists in two forms, I.e. Vit D2 and D3. Its daily need in body is minute and the presence of Vit din blood is measured in ng/ml of blood. One nanogram is one billionth of a gram. Its deficiency was not all that common except in Rickets, hence health professionals did not attach all that much importance to it.
We need to take care of our Vit D levels because of following reasons:
· Because of more indoor living in air conditioned spaces, the Vit D deficiency seems to be on an increase.
· As our knowledge about many prevalent conditions like Diabetes, Obesity, cardiovascular and Heart diseases, Depression, Alzheimer’s and Cancers etc is increasing, there is more and more evidence available that this Hormone/ Vitamin works at cellular levels. It is directly or indirectly affecting several thousand genes of our body. Some workers even connect Vit D with Multiple Sclerosis, ADD and many other conditions.
· Our knowledge of minimum levels necessary of Vit D is also not firmly agreed upon by all the concerned pundits. For example recently in November 2010, Institute of Medicine (IOM) has almost doubled the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) to be taken as supplements because more number of Americans and Canadians seem to be Vit D deficient.
· Until recently, <19 ng/ml was considered to be deficiency, and 19 to 29 ng/ml was considered to be insufficient. Those who swear by this Vitamin insist that probably 50 to 70 ng/ml is a satisfactory level, with 50 as optimal.
· They also dispute strongly with the recent RDA from IOM and say that RDA should be 2000 to 5000 IU daily for an average person who does not get enough exposure to sunlight every day. And because our exposure to sun light and UV B is drastically reduced because of our newly adopted life style, it is estimated that a substantial majority of North American population is Vit D deficient.
· Yet another recent awareness is that if we live around equator, we get sun light at a better angle and if we are away in North or South latitudes on planet earth, our exposure to sun light is reduced and we need higher RDA.
· Another new understanding is that the angle at which these rays fall on skin is also important. That is, if we are exposed to sun in morning or evening the angle is too small for UV B to produce Vit D. If our skin is exposed to sun at or around mid day the angle is better to produce more Vit D.
· Yet another surprise revelation is that even mildest usage of sunscreen reduces the UV B penetration in skin and hence production of Vit D is small to none.
With all the above scientific facts that have emerged and that we know that we have adopted a different life style than what our ancestors used to live in sometime about a hundred years ago, it is a matter of God given common sense and wisdom that needs to be applied. A measure needs to be adopted to ensure that we maintain an optimal level of Vit D in our body by doing the following:
1. Get ourselves tested for Vit D levels and try and keep it at above 50 ng/ ml.
2. Get the appropriate diet supplement to achieve the above.
3. It would be best to get enough exposure to sun light every day.
By taking those measures we can keep ourselves insulated from many diseases that are plaguing our citizens and incidence of such diseases is continuously becoming higher.
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