Vitamin D

12Mar 0

Do you feel feel blue a lot of the time? The link between Vitamin D deficiency and depression could be the key to helping you beat the blues… naturally.

Could low Vitamin D levels be contributing to your depression? What makes vitamin D unique is that it is a vitamin and also a hormone your body can make from the sun. Despite the ability to get vitamin D from food and the sun, an estimated 40%-75% of people are deficient.

How Much Vitamin D Do You Need?

Bone health was the single focus of the Institute of Medicine’s recommendations on how much vitamin D and calcium people should get.

The recommendations for adults up to age 69 rose to 600 IU/day, and to 800 IU/day for adults starting at age 70. Older adults need more vitamin D because as they age, their skin does not produce vitamin D efficiently, they spend less time outdoors, and they tend to not get enough vitamin D.

How Much Is Too Much?

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin. Fat-soluble vitamins can build up in the body and are not as easily excreted as water-soluble vitamins. The IOM committee set a level of 4,000 IU as the ‘tolerable upper limit’ or the maximum amount that is safe to consume daily.

Here’s a great chart that breaks it down by everything you needed to know on the impact of Vitamin D.