Vitamin D

I can't remember if I blogged about my last visit to my enocrinologist, which was a couple of weeks ago. Everything looks good, my thyroid levels were good for the first time in years, my kidneys and liver were good, which is super awesome, but there is a question about vitamin D defeciency.

My doctor said that everyone north of Georgia in the US doesn't get enough sun for vitamin D after September or so. The sun is at the wrong angle and not strong enough to do its job. Milk products can help but he said unless you're drinking it all the time you aren't getting enough D. He also said supplements aren't much help.

New studies are strongly linking obesity, metabolic syndrome and vitamin D deficiency, especially in teens and children. The darker the skin the greater the deficiency as melanin does its thing and keeps the sun from activating the vitamin.

Here's a disturbing article the BBC ran that talks about how widespread this deficiency is.

Among the 50 to 70-year-olds living in China that the scientists studied, 94% had a vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D) deficiency or insufficiency and 42% also had metabolic syndrome.

It's even worse than I had heard. You might want to talk to your doctor and where you stand.