As some of you may know I recently got my first smart phone. and on it there’s now a fun little app called D-Minder, intended to help track your vitamin D exposure. The app looks at your skin tone, size, location, local weather and sun angle to determine how much vitamin D you can get at any given time, or when your next vitamin “D opportunity” is.
Today, Nov. 15, the app says “your next D opportunity is in 113 days.”
Sunny Arrowleaf balsamroot, to remind you of summer.
All of this is a great reminder that at northerly latitudes like Portland’s, the sun’s angle is just too low for natural Vitamin D production for a big chunk of the winter. The D-Minder folks created this video, which gives the clearest explanation I’ve seen of how this works.
Why do you care? Vitamin D improves immunity and healthy bone building, protects against cancer and diabetes, regulates blood pressure and balances inflammation that’s thought to be a primary underlying cause of many debilitating chronic diseases. (Oregon State University’s Linus Pauling Institute offers this monograph on Vitamin D.)
What to do through the winter? If you can’t get a break to the tropics or the southern hemisphere, recommend a simple lab test to assess your individual need and then appropriate use of a high-quality Vitamin D3 supplement.
(How much Vitamin D is enough? My reading of the research, coupled with clinical experience of myself, my colleagues and my mentors, suggests the U.S.-recommended daily values are too low. But seriously, testing is the best way to know what’s right for you.)
To find out more about Vitamin D, why you need it and whether supplementation is right for you, please call or email us to schedule a time to speak with Dr. O.
Want to read more on Vitamin D?
The Vitamin D Council website is filled with great information, including options for testing and the best ways to get the Vitamin D you need. This site was created by one of the doctors who pioneered Vitamin D awareness wave in the U.S.
