Spending a little over half our year (if we’re lucky..) in the snow, cold weather, overcast skies, and icy roads, many Minnesotans are lacking a vital nutrient, Vitamin D. While your body can synthesize Vitamin D when sunlight your skin, let’s be honest. We don’t get a whole lotta sunlight up here in Minne-SNOW-ta.
Let’s take a step back and understand why Vitamin D helps is so essential to our health.
1.) Pregnancy
If you’re pregnant, your midwife or doctor may be telling you to bump up the Vitamin D levels. Sufficient levels of Vitamin D in pregnant women lead to less a likelihood for the mother to experience Preclampsia and/or a cesarean section.
Vitamin D also helps prevent Gestational Diabetes Mellitus and Bacterial Vaginosis.
Infants benefit from Vitamin D, as it helps them maintain an ideal birth weight and build strong bones.
2.) Cancer Fighter
In simplistic terms, Vitamin D is one of the best tools to kill Cancer cells in the human body by effectively starving them, while helping to build new, healthy cells. Not to mention, Vitamin D also helps with overall Immune System health and is known to help prevent Cardiovascular disease, Multiple Sclerosis, and the Flu.
Sounds like a win-win?
3.) Bone and Dental Health
Vitamin D helps your body absorb Calcium, which helps to keep your bones and teeth strong and healthy.
Adequate Vitamin D absorption is important for growing kids, as well as, adults to avoid any long term effects such as Osteoporosis or Rickets.
Those stories you hear of people falling and breaking a hip are unfortunately more common than you think, so better to get those bones strong now because it is much easier to take care of your bones now than later in life.
4.) Reduced Risk of Diabetes
Studies have shown that people with insufficient Vitamin D levels are more likely lead to poor insulin secretion. Vitamin D essentially helps stimulate the pancreas to create Insulin. Studies also state that infants with sufficient Vitamin D levels are less likely to develop Type I Diabetes later on in life.
5.) Depression
People have reported an improvement in depression symptoms when adding Vitamin D to their daily regimen.
Interestingly, people suffering from depression and anxiety have been associated with Vitamin D insufficiency as well.
This probably does not seem as much of a shock to the system, as we all know how amazing it feels when Springtime starts to peak around the corner. Bring on the sun!
To learn more about how to obtain Vitamin D sufficiency in your diet, please Contact Us, and we will be happy to help you!
