Vitamin D has taken the media & health care community by storm. We’ll maybe that’s a bit dramatic but it may do so in the near future. It is rumored that the current recommendation for daily Vit D consumption is a pre-historic underestimated level that does not apply to our current society. Vitamin D, or more properly defined as D3, is primarily obtained from absorption from the sun. I”m not sure about most, but when it comes to sun exposure I can be overly neurotic when applying gobs of high level spf 15+. However, now some doctors & scientists are sending a mixed message that we are in an epidemic of Vit D deficiency?
Gwyenth Paltrow has shed light on this issue after she was diagnosed with osteopenia (thinning of bone) after a knee bone fracture. Her Vitamin D levels were found to be dramatically low.
Fortunately other than loading up on sun overexposure, Vit D supplementation is readily available & affordable. Even more exciting is that the Vit D levels can be obtained from a simple blood test. Some literature suggests that over 50% of patients who present to a doctors office with complaints of pain are in fact Vit D deficient. Now Vit D is by no means a panacea, but it certainly has been linked to muscle & joint pain, fatigue & decreased mood.
After meeting with the UK olympic team physician here I could not ignore the grwoing patient inquiries about nutrition. Thsu we are putting a great deal of our time & research efforts into understanding teh role of Vit D as well as other notably talked about supplements including Omega 3 from plant extracts & glucosamine & MSM.
Dr Sampson & Dr Aufiero have been travelling around the country to study these supplements which are not regulated by the FDA.
More to follow.
