Why You Need Vitamin D
How this Vitamin may Help You Ward off Aging
Vitamin D is known to be important for strong bones and helps protect against autoimmune disease. Recent research suggests that it may be important in slowing down aging.
A study recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests that vitamin D may slow the aging process. Researchers at King’s College London, led by Brent Richards, studied telomeres which form the protective ends to DNA strands. As we age the telomeres shorten and the cell’s genetic material becomes increasingly unstable, eventually leading to cell death and sooner or later, the person’s death.
The British team studied 2,100 women and found that those with the highest vitamin D levels had longer telomeres, suggesting that they were aging less.
Vitamin D was first isolated from cod liver oil by Dr E.Mallenby in 1930. It was known to be important in preventing rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. Deficiency symptoms include, in children: deformed limbs and delayed ability to walk and crawl. In adults: bone pain, muscular weakness and spasms occur.
Role of Vitamin D
Early research showed that one of the major functions of vitamin D was to promote the absorption of calcium and phosphate by the small intestine. In recent years research has suggested that vitamin D has a protective effect against heart disease and cancer. It may also help ward off autoimmune diseases such as diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.
Our vitamin D comes from two main sources. Firstly diet: foods such as fish oils, most fish, eggs and milk. Secondly, sunlight: cells in the skin form vitamin D in response to UV rays from the sun. Most people can make all the vitamin D they need simply by regularly spending a short time in the open air. However, people with dark complexions, if living in less sunnier climes, those frequently using high factor sunscreens, the elderly and those with inflammatory bowel disease are most at risk of vitamin D deficiency.
So the more you eat oily fish and sunbathe the longer you might live. However there appears to be a paradox here. Doctors have been warning for years that too much sunbathing is bad for us. That very same sunlight that helps us make all that vitamin D makes us more prone to developing skin cancer as well as aging the skin
Supplements
Rather than dry your skin out by spending lots of time in the sun you might be tempted to take vitamin D supplements. This could be a good idea but a note of caution. Just because a little bit of something is good for you, it doesn’t follow of course that a lot is even better. Like all fat soluble vitamins, too much vitamin D is toxic, with high levels causing nausea, vomiting and kidney problems. Because of this vitamin D supplements should be taken with care. The Linus Pauling Institute recommends taking a multivitamin supplement that supplies 400 IU of vitamin D per day.
