Vitamin D plays a crucial role in cognitive health, mood regulation, and immune function. Insufficient levels can lead to cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s, depression, and a weakened immune system. Our bodies primarily produce Vitamin D through sunlight exposure, but levels can drop during winter, causing increased depression and flu. Regular testing and supplementation can help maintain optimal levels, improving mental health, mood, bone strength, and immunity.
Vitamin D: the all-round important vitamin for brain health and more
Transcript
How do you know you are getting enough Vitamin D? It’s another brain essential both fight or for your memory and your mood. If your vitamin D level is low, your risk of cognitive decline is 19 times higher. If your level is high, your risk of Alzheimer’s is five times lower. People who supplement vitamin D have a third less risk of dementia, so it’s really important. And also supplementing vitamin D improves mood. Having low vitamin D is very, very strongly linked to depression. We’ve all heard about SAD, seasonal affective disorder getting the winter blues. And the reason for this is so startlingly obvious, vitamin D is primarily made in the skin and the presence of sunlight. You do get some from eating fish, particularly a little bit in eggs, a little bit in milk. And what happens is from October to March, the angle of the sun is just not sufficient to make vitamin D. If your shadow is longer than the height of your body, you do not have sufficient sun intensity to make vitamin D. And even though it stores, it doesn’t store for very long. So in November it’s getting low. In December, even lower and January and February are the two months where vitamin D level is really low. They’re also the months where depression instance is the highest, where suicides are the highest, and also the months when flu incidents is the highest. Because vitamin D is not just vital for your mind and your mood and your bones, but also your immune system. So it’s really, really important to test your vitamin D level and know where you stand. If you spend very little time outdoors with very little skin exposed, maybe have darker skin, these are all factors that are gonna make it more likely that your vitamin D level is not high enough. If you live in America, the measure will be in nanograms per mil and you want to get somewhere between 30 and 50 that’s optimal. Uh, if you are in the UK or Canada, it’s measured in nano moles per liter, and the range you want to be in is 75 to 125. That’s the level, but the blood test will tell you what your score is and what it should be. Now most people need to supplement in the winter from October up until the end of March, 3000 units a day. So make sure you keep your vitamin D at the right level because it’s going to improve your mind, improve your mood, strengthen your bones, and boost your immunity so you’ll be much more resilient to colds and flu. So vitamin D is not only a brain essential, it’s a body and an immune system essential too.