Vitamin D
Are you getting enough of this sunshine substitute? If you are going to make any resolution - I hope it is to take supplements of Vitamin D in the new year.
For the last 2+ years, I’ve been taking 4,000 IUs of Vitamin D. I feel it has made a major difference to my health, especially in terms of COPDs - Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, triggered by those flus, colds, year upon year lung, throat, nose illnesses. COPD kills a person every 14 seconds. It’s a huge killer and something public health is doing so poorly combating.
The last time I was sick was over 3 years ago. Read about it below - true story! After describing it to many doctors over the last few years - the consensus is that I didn’t have an airborne illness but probably Dengue. Anyway - it was horrible. A lost week of my life, with chills, sweats, and weakness beyond belief.
But back to the Vitamin D.
No matter what you are told - if you live in the Northern Hemisphere, above the 37th parallel (that’s about where L.A. lies) it is impossible for you to get enough natural Vitamin D outside of the summer months. And this has profound immunological consequences. A depressed immune response due to Vitamin D deficiency makes us susceptible to many of the air-borne illnesses of the winter season. [Covid among them].
Viruses and bacteria will also trigger COPD. For me, it was bronchitis. It was there since childbirth and every winter, damn, damn, damn, I’d suffer from it. My mother, up all night with the humidifier humming, and the Vicks rubbing. Once I hit puberty, it went away but then later in my 40s, it came back again annually. Makes sense, as your youthful vigor declines, the viruses that prey on our weaknesses, creep back into town for easy pickin’s.
I would like everyone to become a fan of Vitamin D. Make it your 2023 resolution! You can’t go wrong. Most of us need to - Vitamin D deficiency has been rightfully called a pandemic, a silent pandemic. Chronic Vitamin D deficiency is a killer and most of us are by default deficient.
Think of Scandinavian countries. They have very low mortality in terms of COPD compared to other countries with dark winters. Why? They all fortify their basic foods with Vitamin D. Why Canada, the US, Korea, Russia, Germany do not - is beyond me. It’s a huge public health failing. We need a health reset.
We need a bigger focus on prevention in public health. Where are the commercials promoting low-cost preventative health measures? All I see are pharm commercials dealing with symptoms. Go figure. Take just 1% of the effort, money, and time spent there and apply it toward prevention and you’ll empty out our hospitals. You will! Vitamin D deficiency. Obesity. Two of the biggest we can drastically cut down.
I believe you should take at least 4,000 IUs a day at a minimum. Many governments have raised their recommended daily allowance but most set limits way, way too low. There is no evidence that even up to 50,000 IUs of vitamin D daily will reach toxicity levels.
Trust me. It’s a gift you must give yourself. Worth the price of reading this, for sure! Just do it! Plus, Vitamin D has many, many other benefits besides keeping your immune system strong.
Here is the best time you’ll ever spend learning about how to become healthier.
A Week In Nassau
Got here.
Raining pigs and elephants.
Casino.
Lost a few thousand
in a few minutes
went outside
to clear my head and
bought a $25 ice cream cone.
Took the limo home
and chatted with the driver
about how cold it was
14 degrees,
they’d closed a school in Freeport!
We talked about
how life was so unfair
so shitty —
we laughed the
whole Bahamian roundabout
way home.
In the door.
A glass of water.
Crawled into bed
sick as a dog
— the FLU …..
Spent 5 days
in my upstairs room
rolling around, moaning
waiting for some brave sod
to come in
and put me down.
Nobody did so
I finally was able
to get up and
went downstairs
and looked outside
at the emerald blue sky.
I couldn’t believe I was still here.
It was all worth it,
this trip.
What doesn’t kill you
allows you
the opportunity
to do it all over again
only better.
everyone ahead of the curve, good to know. Spread the gospel.
My doctor recommended it, then had me tested, told me to take it every day. Another doc told me it was a fad, and I told him I went by personal experience, and I felt better.