The body cannot function without it.
It’s Essential for all Organ Functions!
Your Target Vitamin D level should be between 50-80 ng/ml.
- Vitamin D, 25-Hydroxy, Total, Immunoassay
- Vitamin D, 25-Hydroxyvitamin D (D2, D3), LC/MS/MS (QuestAssureD™)
Men’s Health Tests
It’s not readily available in our food.
The other thing to think about is the sun. The sun is really where we get vitamin D, and it’s completely free. We just need to go outside at the right time of day. We can get exposure to UV radiation which converts vitamin D on the skin, and then through the miraculous physiology of the body goes to the kidneys and the liver and turns into vitamin D and does all these great things for the human body.
-Dr Chad Larson
Free Vitamin D – Sunbathe between 12-3pm!
But what about when I go to my dermatologist and they say you can’t spend time in the sun, you’ve got to cover up, you’ve got to put on sunblock? It’s true that too much sun exposure at the wrong time can be bad for the system. But there’s a bit of a formula you can use: you only want to be out in the sun between 12 and 3 pm for half the time it takes you to burn. And it’s relative to your skin type. So if you’d normally burn in like thirty minutes, you want to be unprotected, fully exposing as much skin as is appropriate, for about fifteen minutes. In those fifteen minutes, you’ve probably made between five and 10,000 IU of vitamin D. And then you want to protect and use sunscreen or put on more clothes or something like that. You know, I live in Southern California. This is where my practice is. I test everybody for vitamin D and I find low vitamin D all the time. And the reason is that even people who think they’re outdoorsy, they’re not really as outdoorsy as they think they are, at least relative to our genetics. Because most people go outside and, guess what, they have clothes on. Or some people even put on sunscreen before they even walk outside, so they’re already blocking the effect of the vitamin D.
Obesity can inhibit vitamin D production.
So that’s one, we oftentimes are over protected from the ability of the sun to produce vitamin D in the system. But also people who are overweight and obese, unfortunately that blocks the receptors that allow vitamin D to be produced properly. As we get older, and frankly it starts at about age 40, we have a decreasing ability to produce vitamin D in the system. And then things like metabolic issues, if we have blood sugar dysregulation and internal inflammation, these will also inhibit the body’s ability to produce vitamin D. So there are lots of things that may disrupt vitamin D. But we can get vitamin D for free from the sun, and I very much encourage you to get your Vitamin D tested and then take the right amount supplementally and/or get it from the sun using that formula. Really get your Vitamin D up to those optimal levels, because it’s vital just for general health.
Get Your “D”!
So, get your Vitamin D. Absolutely not a scam. It’s one of the most important nutrients, and one of those that I see most commonly insufficient, if not deficient, in a large majority of people. Hopefully this was a little food for thought. Get your vitamin D. Enjoy the sunshine. A little extra bonus: go exercise outside so you can get two birds with one stone, and enjoy the vitamin D. Until then, I’ll see you next time. Keep it real.
*The midlife health minute in this episode of Keep It Real with Dr. Chad Larson is possible with the help of Pure Prescriptions. Visit our friends over at PurePrescriptions.com by using the link in the show notes and to learn more about this great family-owned company.
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