Welcome to Day 20 of 31 Days of Mom Mojo – Tackling Time Management.
If your body’s not right, the rest of your day will go all wrong. Take care of yourself. Terri Guillemets
We talked about getting good nutrition yesterday and I wanted to take it one step further to focus on one area that can often be forgotten or overlooked – Vitamin D. Again, I am not a medical doctor, but have taken time to research this topic from my personal journey dealing with depression and also Cutaneous Lupus, which prevents me from getting Vitamin D through sun exposure.
Having low vitamin D levels or Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to several mood disorders. Premenstrual syndrome,Seasonal affective disorder (also known as winter blues) and major depressive disorder. In addition, low vitamin D levels can contribute to a decreased cognitive performance, which can include memory and thinking processes.
Symptoms of a Vitamin D deficiency are muscle pain, weak bones, low energy, fatigue, lowered immunity, and symptoms of depression; moods swings, and sleep irregularities.
Vitamin D can increase the levels of serotonin, which controls your moods in your brain. Your vitamin D receptors are located in bone, skeletal muscle, immune cells, and several body tissues like the brain, prostate, breast and colon. So, it is important!
Do any of the following sound familiar or ring true for you?
Do you suffer from symptoms of irritability, crying, depression, over sensitivity, and mood swings right before menstruation? You probably suffer from premenstrual syndrome (PMS) which is an emotional and physical disturbances occurring after a woman ovulates and usually ends with menstruation.
Do you find yourself experiencing depressive symptoms in the winter, but feel great the rest of the year? Seasonal affective disorder, or winter blues, is a mood disorder that affects people in the winter months.. This usually happens year after year. A person with seasonal affective disorder may sleep too much, have no energy, and crave starchy foods and sweets. There’s a reason why some healthcare professionals give their patients Vitamin D supplements in the fall and winter – it’s been shown that a lack of Vitamin D plays a role in SAD, or Seasonal Affective Disorder.
Major depressive disorder is when you have low self-esteem, and loss of interest in things that once pleased you. This type of depression is more common that most think, especially in woman.
Because the body makes Vitamin D through exposure to sunlight, experts believe that the lower levels of sunlight in fall and winter may contribute to lower levels of Vitamin D, and hence depression.
There have been many cases of people experiencing a much-needed mood boost by consuming even more Vitamin D than the US RDA recommends (which is 200 IU). Most sources agree that 2000 IU is the safe limit of supplemented Vitamin D, although your body can synthesize much, much more than that in just a few minutes of sun exposure, sources point out. This is my favorite Vitamin D Supplement.
So how do you get more Vitamin D in your diet?
Supplements are an option, but many people prefer to get vitamins through foods. Here are some foods that are rich in Vitamin D.
- Oatmeal – It’s nice that a cold-weather breakfast cereal – which you might instinctively reach for when the weather turns colder – provides around 188 IU of Vitamin D per serving.
- Salmon – Have you ever wondered how people in far northern climates, where the sun doesn’t even shine for months in the winter, get enough Vitamin D? Their diets are rich in fatty seafood. Research supports the positive effect of fish oil on mood, and fish oil contains Vitamin D. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, so getting it through a (healthy) fat-rich source makes sense. Sources note that wild-caught salmon is best. (Other fish with Vitamin D include cod, herring, sardines and trout.)
- Mushrooms – Canned or fresh, mushrooms are a good source of Vitamin D, with almost 170 IU per 1-cup serving. White mushrooms and shitake, even dried, are considered the highest in Vitamin D.
- Eggs – One egg has about 20 IU of Vitamin D. Organic, free-range eggs may be higher in this vitamin than conventional eggs.
- Fortified Foods – While it’s not a natural form of Vitamin D, you can find significant amounts of this vitamin in enriched breakfast cereals and fortified cow’s milk.
Vitamin D can be found in food, but only a few foods are a good source of it. Because only a few foods have a good amount, some people should take vitamin D supplements if they are not exposed to sunlight on their skin on a regular basis.
Another source of vitamin D is sunlight.
Sunlight is far more likely to provide you with your daily vitamin D requirement than your food intake will. It only takes about ten to fifteen minutes of sunlight for your body to take in the vitamin. After this time you should apply a sunscreen of at least and SPF of 15 to protect your skin. You want to expose your face, hands, arms, or back at least two times a week to the sunlight without sunscreen to get the adequate amount of vitamin D.
To make sure you do not get a vitamin D deficiency; allow yourself limited, unprotected exposure to the sun, eat a diet that’s rich in whole foods, take a multivitamin everyday to make sure you are filling in any gaps of vitamins you may not be getting enough of, and take a vitamin D supplement on a daily basis. You can also see your health care provider to get tested to see if you are vitamin D deprived and come up with a plan to get you on the right track.
The US Recommended Daily Allowance for Vitamin D is for women up to 50 years of age is 200 IU of Vitamin D per day.
If you feel that you could be vitamin D deficient, try incorporating some foods that contain vitamin D into your diet and see how you feel. If that does not increase you energy level or improve your symptoms, then perhaps it is time to see your doctor.
Do you think you could be suffering from low vitamin D levels?
