Vitamin D….. Yep, it’s that time of the year again.

Living in the pacific northwest, we get to enjoy all 4 seasons (especially this past year!).  As we enter the season of seemingly endless rainfall and shorter days, I think it’s a good time for a friendly reminder about vitamin D deficiencies. 
During the summertime, our skin is more likely to be exposed to the sunlight, which converts cholesterol in our bloodstream into vitamin D (see, cholesterol isn’t necessarily the enemy).  Vitamin D is then processed into its more active forms via the liver and then the kidneys, ultimately leading to calcium and phosphorus balance inside of the body.  There’s a bit more to the actual mechanism, but essentially this means it helps balance your nervous, muscular, and skeletal systems.  It’s important to note that vitamin D is available in the foods we eat, as well as in supplements, so you don’t just need to get it from the sun.
When someone is vitamin D deficient, they typically don’t even know it.  Short-term signs and symptoms may include pain, decreased strength, decreased cognitive function, and depression.  All those probably sound all too familiar for most.  Long-term vitamin D deficiency can also have severe consequences including osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. 
As chiropractors, we largely work with the skeletal system and know the importance of strong bones as well as an optimally functioning nervous system.  Therefore, as fall provides less sunlight exposure, you may want to consider supplementing this awesome vitamin. As always, before starting to take any supplement, talk to your doctor about it, as your needs may be different than others.

Yours in health,

Dr. Bryan

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Scroll no further for these fun facts about your spine

Here are some fun facts that you didn’t know about your spine -As we get older, it’s not uncommon to lose about an inch in height.  This is due to the discs in your spine wearing down and “shrinking”. -Most humans are born with 33 vertebrae (“backbones”).   However, some naturally fuse together as we grow and we end up with 26 as adults. -Both humans and giraffes have 7 cervical vertebrae (neck bones).  However, a giraffe’s neck is about as long as a full grown human is tall. -A newborn human spine is C-shaped.  The S-shape develops as the baby learns to hold their head up, crawl, and ultimately walk.  It’s the S-Shape that allows us to walk upright with two legs. -You wake up in the morning slightly taller than when you went to bed.  This is because your discs (essentially your shock absorbers) tend to lose water throughout the day due to supporting your bodyweight.  Sleeping at night gives the discs a chance to rest, rehydrate, and ...
Read more

Sciatica- It's a thing!

Hi all, This past year I’ve been teaching both human biology and general biology to students at Clark College.  Thus you haven’t seen a new blog from me in quite some time.  I thought now would be a great time to get started again by blogging about an all too common aliment known as sciatica (sciatica= irritation to the sciatic nerve causing leg pain). Before I get started on that, note that the word doctor comes from the Latin word doc ēre, meaning “to teach”.   I’ve been busy lately teaching college student’s complex neurological pathways.  The sciatic nerve pathway, like many others, is fairly complex.  If I were teaching my college students I would explain how the sciatic nerve originates from anterior and posterior divisions of the lumbosacral plexus (L4-5 and S1-3), the nerve roots then join together forming the sciatic nerve,  pass through the sciatic notch, down the thigh to the popliteal fossa, and then split into the tibial and common ...
Read more

Sitting is killing YOU!

Headaches and Prolonged Sitting If you’re someone that spends many hours a day seated at a desk or working on a computer, chances are you will or already do suffer from headaches.  Reason being is that sitting for prolonged periods of time produces static tension on the muscles that hold your head up.  Think of it this way: the human head weighs about the same as a bowling ball. Would you think it would be easier for you to hold a bowling ball with one arm straight OR close by your side? When you sit at a computer desk you are asking the muscles of the neck to work harder than they should. This chronic tension causes the nerves to be upset which can refer pain into the head producing headaches.  Sometimes it may even refer down into the arms causing numbness and/or tingling.  Simply put, we as humans are not designed to be sitting 8-12 hours a day in front of a computer.  So here are a few tips to help reduce this tension: -Take frequent breaks (very impo...
Read more