The Mystery Hormone and why everyone needs it.

What is 1,25 hydroxycholecalciferol?

Drum roll please!………………..you may know it as “Vitamin D”

“Vitamin” D is not a vitamin; it is a critical hormone!

It is produced largely by your body in response to direct sunlit to large areas of exposed skin (meaning with no protective sun block). In the middle of the day in the summer, if you are wearing a bathing suit with no sun block (watch out for sunburns and increased skin cancer risk) your body will make 1000 units of vitamin D per minute. Most of us don’t get this total body exposure very often–we walk and run with clothes on(except in Portland, where nude running outdoors is legal!). Also, as we age, our bodies produce less and less intrinsic factor, which is required to produce vitamin D. Therefore even with total body sun exposure older people are still usually vitamin D deficient.

Smaller amounts of vitamin D come from your diet. The Vitamin D3 form (from red meat and fish) is far more active than the vitamin D2 from plants.

Vitamin D receptors are located in the bones, pancreas, intestines, kidneys, brain, spinal cord, reproductive organs, thymus, adrenals, pituitary and thyroid. That is why it is so critical for our health and wellness.

Causes of deficiency of vitamin D include: aging, sunscreen, and medications such as steroids.

Optimal levels are 70-80 ng/ml. Less than 35 is called deficient, and your doctor will probably treat you, that is, assuming your doctor routinely tests your levels. Most don’t don’t even do that! If it is measured (the test is called 25 OH vitamin D), your doctor may not be concerned if you are 50 or above. However recent published studies have shown that 70-80 ng/ml. Is optimal for cancer prevention and bone health, and who doesn’t want that?

The vitamin D3 doses needed to reach optimal range usually range between 5000 and 10,000 units/day. Most people rarely take more than 1-2000 units. This is not adequate to bring levels up to optimal. Too much vitamin D can cause kidney stones, so calcium levels should be monitored periodically during treatment with high doses.

Besides its preventative properties, such as reducing breast cancer risk and risks of macular degeneration(blindness) and osteoporosis, Vitamin D can be used to treat 14 different conditions and diseases.

Anti-aging physicians who are board certified and fellowship trained, as are all doctors in BodyLogicMD, routinely measure, correct and retest vitamin D in their patients. If your doctor is not well versed in this important natural hormone balance you should consider finding a BodyLogicMD doctor in your area at www.bodylogicmd.com