Sunny Vitamin D

You can get vitamin D from diet in eggs, butter, fatty dish, and milk, but you can also get it from the sun. There is a broad range of the necessary amount of vitamin D for optimum health, but it's somewhere between 400 and 1200 IU per day. You could even get ten minutes of sunlight each day!

Vitamin D helps you maintain normal levels of calcium in the blood. A deficiency of vitamin D can lead to rickets, poor bone development due to inadequate calcium deposits. Adults needs to worry more about osteomalacia (soft bones) and osteoporosis (holy bones) with lower levels of vitamin D deficiency.

Lack of vitamin D is also associated with heart disease, insulin resistance (diabetes), autoimmune diseases, and some cancers. The first signs of vitamins D deficiency are low back pain, muscle weakness, fatigue, head sweating, aches, and pains. With low levels of sunlight, vitamin D deficiency may contribute to depression, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndrome.

You could be low in vitamin D if you have kidney or liver issues, are lacking sun exposure, eat a low fat diet, or have trouble converting sunlight (such as in aging).

With shorter days coming up, be sure to get out in the sun a little. Walk during lunch or read near a window! If you're lacking light in your life, an energy lamp may do you some good.