Written by Sarah Ainsley Harrison
Get That Gut in Shape: A little-known fact about Vitamin D is that it helps activate the stem cells in your gut. Without adequate amounts of Vitamin D your stem cells remain dormant. When your gut lining degrades you can experience malnutrition because no matter what you eat, you can’t absorb as much without that proper lining. In one study, malnourished children were given high doses of Vitamin D. As a result, all of the children had a significant improvement in nutrient absorption and gained a healthier weight without eating any more food. The Vitamin D made that food they were already eating absorbable.
Telomeres are end caps of your DNA. During DNA synthesis and cell division, telomeres shorten because of the incomplete replication of linear chromosomes (the ‘end-replication problem'). Studies show that people with the highest levels of Vitamin D had the longest telomeres, and the reciprocal is true - therefore Vitamin D promotes stem cells.
Are You Getting Enough Vitamin D?
Vitamin D toxicity is rare and deficiency common. One study showed that up to 40,000 IU per day can be consumed without toxicity and 9,600 IU per day is necessary for the average person not to be deficient. Ethnicity and environment actually place a role in your natural vitamin D production. Ethnicities from hot climates with more sun exposure evolved to produce less because of the abundance they did get from the sun and their food, and vice versa ethnicities from colder climates with less sun developed to need to produce more vitamin D during less times of sunlight. If you have less sun exposure than your ancestors then you will be more likely to be deficient in vitamin D and it is therefore even more important to supplement.
Immunity: Did you know that 80% of Covid cases were also found to be Vitamin D deficient? We know that vitamin D is a key player in strong immune system so this makes sense. Even if we consider that approximately 40% of the average population are vitamin D deficient, that is still a significant correlation to Vitamin D deficiency and Covid susceptibility.
