Gimme a D!

Vitamin D is no longer just for strong bones. In fact, it might be useful for a whole host of ills, from diabetes, multiple sclerosis, cancer and heart disease to boosting your immune system, curing chronic muscle pain and fibromyalgia and preventing depression, anxiety and even memory loss. There’s even suspicions that a deficiency increases the risk for obesity. What’s more, you possibly need a whole lot more than you think. Happy, fit people place this vitamin at the top of their to-do list.

Up until recently, vitamin D’s only know job was to help prevent bone loss associated with diseases like osteoporosis and rickets. That’s because vitamin D is critical for the absorption of calcium and also ensuring the mineral gets deposited into bones. If you’re low on vitamin D, it’s a given you’ll only absorb about 10% of the calcium you consume, which is a surefire way to end up with osteoporosis later in life, even if you take lots of calcium. Getting enough vitamin D and calcium can significantly improve a woman’s chances of avoiding osteoporosis.

While we used to think only bones were sensitive to vitamin D, experts are finding that almost every tissue in the body has receptors for vitamin D, suggesting that it works its magic everywhere in the body.

We now know that vitamin D aids in the prevention and/or treatment of gum disease, diabetes, insulin resistance, arthritis, multiple sclerosis, hypertension and certain cancers, including colon, breast, pancreas and prostate cancers. Vitamin D also reduces the incidence of falls by up to 60% in seniors. A few very recent studies even suggest that vitamin D is critical for brain function in general, helping to boost not just mood, but also memory, reaction times and thinking.

In addition, we know that a deficiency of this vitamin is typically found in people who have risk factors for obesity, such as heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. It also is clear that overweight people are prime candidates for a vitamin D deficiency.

Happy, fit people also might get their mood boost from this vitamin. People prone to the blues have low levels of vitamin D, while happy people’s vitamin D levels are much higher. Even healthy, relatively happy people report a mood boost when they add extra vitamin D to their diets. The research is strongest for people battling seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, whose mood worsens as the seasons progress from fall through winter. For years, the only known cause was thought to be lack of sunlight. But it might be vitamin D these people lack.

Vitamin D really isn’t a vitamin at all. It’s hormone. You don’t need to get it from your diet, since your body can make vitamin D if its’ exposed to sunlight long enough. When it comes to SAD, it might not be the lack of sunlight that causes the winter blues, but rather the lack of sunlight means the body can’t make enough vitamin D, which otherwise would have sparked a perkier mood through the winter months.

That’s what the research shows. Deficiencies of vitamin D escalate from 38% to 60% from fall to spring in people who battle SAD. Give them extra doses of vitamin D, and voila! Their mood improves and anxiety drops. Although not yet studied, winter depression typically goes hand in hand with weight gain. Sidestep the blues and you might have a better chance of fitting into a swimsuit by spring.