I have been seeing many social media posts and conversations about the benefits of using Vitamin D during our colder seasons. We can get ample Vitamin D in the summer months by exposing our skin to the sun for 10 minutes per day without sunscreen. Not so much from October to May.
There are some indications that vitamin D can help us better deal with Covid. That said please do not rely on a vitamin to keep you and the rest of the world safe against such a complex, deadly virus!
Much of the recommendations from our medical advisers and the government has focused on masks, staying home and staying at a safe distance from others. These are absolutely needed BUT there is a lack of information about how to improve our health and wellness as a whole not only to be more resilient if the virus gets to you but to ward off all of the other ailments that could make your life a living hell.
We are complex beings with many moving parts that work as a team. Emphasizing one part of the team usually leads to imbalance. I will show you what can go wrong and lead to an imbalance if we supplement with Vitamin D randomly.
I am all for supplementing with quality products, but I am even more insistent on checking with your naturopath or functional medicine practitioner about the proper doses and combinations that will be safe for your specific needs. What could be healthy for one person could lead to serious health issues for another.
I am not a medical practitioner, but I have done some research and have had discussions with naturopaths about the topic of supplementing and how taking one vitamin or mineral can lead to imbalances if another specific vitamin or mineral is not present in the proper dose.
In the case of vitamin D3 we need to take into consideration its effect on calcium.
Vitamin D gets calcium into your blood. This is a good and bad thing. We actually want the calcium to continue on and get absorbed into our bones to make sure that they remain strong in order to stay clear of debilitating Osteoporosis (degeneration of our bones).
Vitamin D3’s partner or match made in heaven is vitamin K2.
Vitamin D3 starts the job by getting calcium into the blood and Vitamin K2 gets the rest of the job done pushing the calcium from the blood into your bones. When vitamin D3 and vitamin K2 work in synergy, the inherent benefits of both are dramatically enhanced.
When there is no K2 to activate the proteins that send calcium to the bones, some calcium may settle in our soft tissues, which may lead to calcification.
It was once believed that calcification was an irreversible and inevitable result of aging—but now we know that vitamin K2 offers potent protection during the aging process.
Bottom Line: Taking K2 with Vitamin D3 allows calcium to bind with your bones (where it’s needed) and routes calcium away from calcifying on other unwanted places.
Here is a quick and dirty list of what a lack of Vitamin D is often linked with. Taking the right amount of Vitamin D, in combinations with other vitamins and minerals, can help combat the following:
- Fatigue
- A weaker immune system
- Bone and or muscle pain
- Poor memory
- Depression
- Longer recovery time from injury or surgery
- Hair loss
- Inflammatory bowel disease
- Increase in insulin resistance
- Poor cardiovascular health
- Erectile dysfunction
How much Vitamin D? With what other vitamins and minerals?
Don’t play the guessing game. Talk to a qualified medical practitioner that is well versed in supplementing. Get tested to see what you really need so that you can remain healthy or improve your health according to your specific needs.