With the long winter days here, most of us go to work in the dark and get home in the dark so it’s the perfect time to be thinking about your vitamin D levels. It is one of the most common nutrient deficiencies I see in clinic and as it acts more like a hormone than a vitamin, a deficiency has far reaching implications.
Vitamin D has the ability to affect over 10% of your genes – to either turn them on or off. If you have a family history of insulin resistance, cardiovascular disease or obesity, imagine if you could turn that gene off! This is the field of epigenetics and it is absolutely possible that vitamin D deficiency can increase the ability of these genes to turn on. Your diet, lifestyle and environment have a huge impact on gene signalling.
A study released in the Anticancer Research Journal in March this year concluded that breast cancer patients with higher vitamin D levels were twice as likely to survive than patients with low vitamin D levels. That is phenomenal research! I highly recommend that you have your vitamin D levels assessed, especially if you have been diagnosed with cancer.
Vitamin D increases your ability to fight infections and when vitamin D receptors are present, blood flow to tumors is minimized and the growth of the tumor restricted.
Check out the app Dminder for an easy way to monitor your sun exposure to maximise vitamin D production.
Watch the video below where the researchers of the breast cancer study discuss their findings and PLEASE test your Vitamin D levels!
