Importance of Vitamin D

Vitamin D, like many other nutrients, is essential to maintaining a healthy body. Since it can be rather difficult to get natural Vitamin D, in amounts that are considered absolutely imperative for health, from natural sources, many of our foods today are fortified with Vitamin D. That simply means that Vitamin D is added to the food source. Milk, for example is probably the most well known product in this country to be strengthened with the vitamin. This fortification of our milk supply began in the 1930s to combat rickets, a major health problem at the time, caused by lack of Vitamin D, calcium or phosphate.

Rickets causes softening of the bones in children, leading to bone fractures and bone deformities. Many times serious malnutrition accompanies the economic downturn, the Great Depression of the 1930’s, for example. When that occurs, children don’t get enough of the basic staples to maintain health, and without Vitamin D in their diet, which is hard enough to obtain normally, they fall ill and become prime candidates for a host of diseases, especially rickets. Rickets is almost unheard of nowadays partially due to the government’s milk fortification program eighty years ago, but also because of vitamin supplementation.

Some of the foods that have naturally occurring Vitamin D are beef liver, fish, egg yolks, some mushrooms and fish liver oils. Fish liver oils, along with the meat of tuna, mackerel and salmon are actually the best sources for natural vitamin D. It’s easy to see why poverty and rickets go hand in hand as these foods can be quite expensive for people with very small budgets. However, now with Vitamin D fortified foods and vitamin supplements, people are maintaining their health much longer and keeping the diseases of the last century at bay. There is another source of Vitamin D.

Sunlight. Most of the population in this country manages to take in enough Vitamin D, either through food, supplements or ultraviolet light from the sun. Some Vitamin D experts say that, depending on the person, of course, anywhere from 10 – 30 minutes of exposure to the sun, between the optimal hours of 10 AM and 3 PM, two or three times a week, will do the trick. However, there are so many variables, such as how much UV protection is one wearing, is it a cloudy day, how sensitive is the skin of the person and many more things to consider.

The important thing to be conscious of here is to make sure to get all of the vitamins and minerals you need to stay healthy. Each nutrient is important and essential in differing quantities. Where do you get your Vitamin D?

Chiropractic care is also a very important part of a person's health. Complete Health Chiropractic in Temecula California is a chiropractic clinic serving Fallbrook, Menifee, Lake Elsinore, Murrieta, and Temecula.