Wonderful D3

How do you feel when you wake up in the morning...blissfully rested or like you have just gone 10 rounds with Mike Tyson? I must admit that although I love my two wonderful creations, since they were born, I wake up feeling like a burst couch. Even if I manage to get a long lie on a Sunday, or if I ever get the rare chance to sneak back to bed, although this usually means I have succumbed to some sort of man flu or mysterious illness, I never wake feeling rested. As the years have passed, I have just put this bone-weary fatigue down to 'how one feels passed the age of 40' syndrome and accepted that jumping out of bed in the morning shouting "yay, I'm alive!",  is something I do in my head, not for real. I know I'm not the only one to feel like this. I have had many conversations with friends who all agree that come 10 o'clock in the evening (or earlier), most of us are propping our eyelids open
with matchsticks while the drool runs down the side of our mouths. Oh yes, most of us have had the humiliating picture taken of us with our heads back, mouths open and snoring like Percy Pig while 'watching' TV.  BUT all that is in the past because I have discovered the new wonder drug and it's name...ta, da, is Vitamin D3. Oh yes! I am a new woman!

"So tell me all about it" I hear you shout!  Well, since this whole cancer curfuffle,  tiredness reached new limits for me. I will not be beaten though! Rebuilding my immunity (no thanks to chemo) and strengthening my liver, are key priorities to me... hence the whole vegan diet thing, getting back to exercise and adding a whole array of nutritional supplements. And I was feeling good. I felt happier, stronger, healthier, slimmer and cleaner on the inside, so the changes I was making were definitely helping. But to be honest, I still felt tired. And yes, I do recognise that it takes some time to recover from the Big C (and it's nasty treatments). I am impatient to be jumping out of bed shouting "yay!" Recently however, I was discussing the role of high dose Vitamin C and other supplements with my sister. She said my brother -in- law had been reading about how important Vitamin D was and although I was taking a Vitamin D supplement, I had skipped over articles discussing it when I was researching Vitamin C. Coincidently (or not. I don't believe in coincidences. Rather that, if you are meant to stumble across it, you will), I came across a YouTube video where some U.S. M.D. was discussing the merits of Vitamin D in relation to a myriad of diseases where deficiency is present. I was intrigued...could Vitamin D be that important? Wouldn't we know already?

The reality is that the role of Vitamin D isn't fully understood and research is still ongoing. But hey, I am not waiting 5-10 years on research facilities finally getting round to telling Joe Public...I'm impatient (didn't you know!). So, I've been looking at the current research and yes, it is impressive (and there is plenty!).  First you need to know what Vitamin D is and does, so click on the links below...
What is Vitamin D
What does Vitamin D do?

So, hopefully you have an idea of the importance of Vitamin D. For the majority of us, unless you are jetting off to sunny climes every other weekend, you are going to be deficient. And ironically, when the sun does come out for that one day in Scottish summertime, we are so paranoid that we get skin cancer (because we have the bejeebies scared out of us by the media and sunscreen companies), that we lather sunscreen on before even stepping outside and so deny our desperately, deficient bodies of making that vital D vitamin. Even if you were able to get a good holiday and top up your Vit D levels, come winter, your blood levels will be back in their boots.
The symptoms of vitamin D deficiency may not be apparent but studies have shown that it is linked to depression, bone pain, muscle weakness, hypertension, dementia, hypertension, heart disease and various cancers. It starts to make some sense then why so many people get sick come Autumn/Winter and why those with darker skin are at greater risk (I will put some links to research at the end).
So, it looked like this vitamin was pretty darn good but I don't just pop any drug in my gob without finding about toxicity and side effects (which we all should do even if your GP has prescribed it!!!) The good thing is you have to take mega high doses for a pretty long time to become toxic (I decided on taking the high dose oral spray for convenience).
Apart from sunbathing, the best way to ensure you get an adequate amount of this vitamin is by taking a supplement. So, I did...and I noticed an improvement in my health pretty quickly. The first thing I noticed was an improvement in my mood (and while getting my tax return completed was a call to celebrate,  the only other change was, I had started to take vitamin D). I have also noticed that I'm sleeping better and waking, feeling much more rested than normal. And strangely, the right side of my lower back (which niggles from time to time) has eased considerably. For me, improving my mood and feeling rested are a huge bonus.
The other bonus that I'm hoping to achieve is avoiding cancer recurrence, osteoporosis (these two are pretty important for someone such as myself) and other chronic disease, such as Alzheimer's and according to research, vitamin D plays a huge role in that (again, see links at end). My suggestion to you all is get yourself some high dose Vit D (D3 is better) and try it for yourself...maybe we can all start jumping out of bed in the morning shouting "yay!"

Here are the links:-

Vitamin D and it's role in cancer prevention

Vitamin D in health and disease - current perspectives

Vitamin D in adult health and disease: a review and guideline statement from Osteoporosis Canada

Vitamin D3 enhances mood in healthy subjects during winter

and there are so many more...just have a look in google scholar....happy reading!