The One Thing That Will Lower Your Risk of Dying Prematurely

If you could do only one thing to lower your risk of dying prematurely, what would it be?  Exercise?  Lose weight?  Become vegetarian?  Or eat paleolithic?  Take a statin drug to lower cholesterol?  Quit smoking?  All of these have been espoused for longer life.

Of course all of these (well, maybe not taking a statin drug) will improve health and possibly prolong life.  However, the one thing that beat these hands down was having enough vitamin D in the body.

A new German study was published in the April 2013 issue of The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (ACJN).  (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23446902)  The German scientists measured vitamin D levels in almost 10,000 people ages 50 to 74 years.  They were followed for an average of nine and a half years, recording all deaths, which ended up being about 10% of the study participants.  43.3% died from cancer, 35% from heart disease, and 5.5% from respiratory diseases.

People with the lowest vitamin D levels were more likely to die of all causes.  The lower the vitamin D, the higher the mortality rate.  Low vitamin D specifically increased death rate from cancer, heart disease and respiratory diseases.

Of course vitamin D deficiency is famous for causing rickets in children, and has been considered a third world disease.  There is a belief that rickets no longer exists in the US since vitamin D was added to infant formula and milk.  However, stories are showing that the rate of rickets in children is growing.

Vitamin D is made from cholesterol after being exposed to UV light from the sun.  Being in the sun has been so maligned that we cover our children and ourselves in suntan lotion (which, by the way, has never been proven to protect from skin cancer).  The sun is a life giver and a life saver.  When we have adequate vitamins, minerals and antioxidants in our body, the sun does not cause cancer.  We should be taking a high potency multivitamin-mineral supplement rather than use sun block.

Vitamin D is also in fish, beef, and eggs.  Beef and eggs went on the no-no list when doctors decided cholesterol was the bad guy.  So they stopped everyone from eating beef and eggs and gave them medicine to lower cholesterol.  Because we were already staying out of the sun, there is a huge epidemic of low levels of vitamin D.  The great majority of my patients who are not supplementing are low in vitamin D. 

(It has never been proven that low cholesterol prevents heart disease.  However, it has been proven that low cholesterol in the elderly increases overall death rate.  Besides being the pre-cursor to vitamin D, cholesterol is the molecule that makes all of the sex hormones, along with cortisol, the body's stress hormone, and aldosterone, which controls the body's fluid level and blood pressure.  Cholesterol is important for a healthy immune system.  Also, dietary cholesterol is NOT a strong contributor to body cholesterol levels.  The body increases cholesterol to deal with stress and illness. It needs it.  However, inflammation can cause cholesterol to attach to the walls of the arteries.  Inflammation is usually the culprit, generally not cholesterol.)

Other studies show that:

• Low vitamin D is the leading cause of osteoporosis; not low calcium.
• Low vitamin D increases the risk of pneumonia.
• Vitamin D improves muscle function
• Pregnant mothers taking at least 2,000 IU of vitamin D3 improved their rates of infection, premature labor and premature birth.  The newborns had higher levels of vitamin  D and lower rates of infection
• Women who were in the sun at least 1 hour a day had a 40% lower rate of fibroid tumors. 
• Vitamin D is important for gene expression that assists in DNA repair, immune response and response to stress.  The genes affected by vitamin D act on more than 160 pathways linked to cancer, cardiovascular disease, and autoimmune disorders.
• Taking vitamin D and calcium while on a healthy weight loss diet increases loss of body fat.

So this summer, go out in the sun (start slowly and work your way up--it is still not safe to burn a lot), eat fish, beef and eggs, and supplement with vitamin D3. 

Because of the importance of vitamin D, SuperMulti Plus contains 2,000 IU of vitamin D3, more than almost any other multi, along with good levels of antioxidants to protect from sun damage.  www.springtreehealth.com

Until we meet again,
Dr. Judi