Vitamin D: The Real Young Gun

Do you remember the movie, "Young Guns"?  If you're a man I bet you remember the gritty 1988 action/ western with all-star cast members Emelio Estevez, Charlie Sheen, Keifer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, etc.  Or, maybe you women remember the Bon Jovi hit, "Blaze of Glory", from the sequel, Young Guns II.  Either way, this movie rocked, and I quoted it often (too often) as a teen trying impress.  Yet, here I am 25 years later quoting it, and again, I'm trying to impress.  But this time, what I want to impress is an idea into your mind.

In the movie Young Guns, this band of misfits called themselves "Regulators".  Maybe you remember the line,

"We're regulators. We regulate any stealin' of his property, we're damn good too. But you can't be any geek off the street. You've gotta be handy with the steel if you know what I mean, earn your keep." 

According to Merriam-Webster's online dictionary, regulators act as overseers, governors, or enforcers of the law or rules.  Regulators bring order, method, or uniformity to whatever they regulate.  There are regulators everywhere.  They are in your car, your thermostat, and your oven (just to mention a few).  They are in society (police), and they are also in your body.

Your body has a multitude of regulators and processes of regulation, but there's one particular regulator that's getting a whole lot of press these days... VITAMIN D.

As a vitamin, vitamin D is unique in the fact that it is actually a steroid hormone, and by design we manufacture vitamin D in our bodies when our skin is exposed to sunlight.  In fact with just 10-15 minutes of sunlight exposure to around half of our body, we can produce more than 10,000 i.u. (international units) of vitamin D. In recent years, vitamin D has also become readily available in supplement form too.  Vitamin D has historically been labeled as the "bone vitamin", and is needed in our bodies to effectively use calcium, and therefore create strong bones.  In reality however, vitamin D is responsible for so much more.  Not only is vitamin D absolutely necessary for normal bone growth (without it, children get rickets), but vitamin D also REGULATES other extremely important processes in our bodies including (but not limited to) cell division, immunity, digestion, and reproduction.  Not only that, but recent research has shown that low vitamin D levels play a role in cancer, inflammation, and even Alzheimer's.

So, why is all of this important?  It's important because according to research,  1 in every 10 children in America are vitamin D deficient, and just about as many adults are too! 

I really don't swear much, nor do I even pretend to.  BUT PEOPLE, WAKE UP! WE'RE FREAKING KILLING OURSELVES AND OUR CHILDREN WITH OUR LIFESTYLE CHOICES!

It is too easy to get vitamin D from our environment or as a supplement to be vitamin D deficient!  I mean, seriously, for at least half the year, it's free.  Just get outside in a pair of shorts and a t-shirt or less (with good taste of course) for 10-20 minutes a day.  In fact while your out there, exercise a little and you'll reap even more reward.  Also, don't believe the "sun is evil" people.  God created you to manufacture vitamin D via sunlight exposure.  Do you think He got it wrong?  The sun does need to be respected though.  Sunburn can increase your risk of skin cancer, but you cannot create vitamin D in skin you've smothered with sunscreen.  So, give you vitamin D factories a chance to work briefly each day, preferably in the morning or evening (protect your skin after 15 minutes if your out in the mid-day sun or if you'll be in the sun for an extended period of time).  If you're going to use sunscreen, make sure it's a physical block and not a chemical sunblock.  Chemical sunblock has itself been implicated in causing skin cancer recently too. In the fall, winter, and spring (times when you're not getting adequate sunlight exposure) supplement your diet with vitamin D.  And please if you need help with this stuff, let me know.  I'm always happy to help.