Do you find yourself thinking the cicadas are chirping longer and louder than usual?
If your ears are ringing, it could be a good time to have your vitamin D levels tested.
Research presented at the 2013 Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy showed that vitamin D deficiency increases the incidence of ear infections and inner ear issues like tinnitus and vertigo.
Vitamin D is a bit of a buzzword at the moment — with good reason, as there’s mounting evidence that vitamin D has far-reaching influence on overall health and defence against heart disease and cancer. And if grey weather gives you the blahs, don’t worry, it’s not all in your head. Seasonal Affective Disorder has been linked to a drop in vitamin D levels, courtesy of less quality sun time.
Other symptoms of vitamin D deficiency include:
- general muscle pain and weakness (often misdiagnosed as fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue)
- psoriasis
- gum disease
- joint pain
- headaches
- poor concentration
- severe asthma in children
- frequent falls in the elderly
- frequent infections
During winter, we tend to get less sun, but it’s so important to continue getting your daily natural dose through UVB rays stimulating your production of vitamin D. And guess what — it’s free! And cheerful!
In the past, it was commonly recommended to do your sun worshipping when the rays are gentle first thing in the morning or late afternoon, but according to leading vitamin D specialist Dr Michael Holick, research indicates we can only make vitamin D between 10:00am and 3:00pm (non-daylight saving time, so adjust if you need to). So that’s when to head outside a few times a week and roll up your sleeves or pants for long enough to generate good stores.
Also important to note: you cannot produce vitamin D from sunlight coming through closed windows, as glass filters out most of the UVB rays, leaving the harmful, aging UVA rays behind. And you don’t want those.
How much is enough?
Now, there’s much controversy over exposure to sun without wearing sunblock, and it’s all about balance as well. But how do you find your optimal level of sun exposure? Yes, there’s an app for that!
Called DMinder, you can download it for your smartphone. Software designer Rob Williams gives some neat insight into vitamin D and his DMinder app in today’s video.
At the time of writing, I haven’t yet taken it for a road test but I’d love to hear if you have. (Chat with me over on Google + or via our contact page.)
How about supplements?
While a safe and healthy serving of sunlight boosts your feel-good vibes as well as your vitamin D, sometimes I supplement this with my favourite source, Young Living OmegaGize³™ capsules, because they provide me with vitamin D-3 plus two other core daily supplements: omega 3 fatty acids and CoQ10 (ubiquinone).
This will also connect you up with The Good Oil Team for our personal support and coaching. We'd love to help you on your journey to vibrant well-being the natural way!
Any questions? Please get in touch via our Contact page.
If supplementing, it’s important to monitor your vitamin D levels and ensure you’re staying within the therapeutic range of 50-70 ng/ml year-round.
And consider adding Vitamin K2, depending on how heavily you’re supplementing. According to Dr Mercola,
“The biological role of vitamin K2 is to help move calcium into the proper areas in your body, such as your bones and teeth. It also helps remove calcium from areas where it shouldn’t be, such as in your arteries and soft tissues … when you take vitamin D, your body creates more vitamin K2-dependent proteins that move calcium around in your body. Without vitamin K2, those proteins remain inactivated, so the benefits of those proteins remain unrealized. So remember, if you take supplemental vitamin D, you’re creating an increased demand for K2. Together, these two nutrients help strengthen your bones and improve your heart health.”
I’ve only scratched the scratch here and highly recommend you check out this article by Dr Mercola for more in-depth information and an interview with Dr Holick. But all in all, a touch of sun sounds like a good recipe for a happy and healthy life.
