Green Body & Home - The Importance of Building Immunity - Vitamin D

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Last week we introduced the benefits of Vitamin C. Hopefully, you have all added more to your daily regimen for yourself and your children. This week we'd like to highlight another crucial vitamin for you that actually is more of a hormone than originally realized but very crucial for our overall health and well-being. From our immune system to our mental state and skeletal strength. Vitamin D is an often ignored star of the show.

Vitamin D: Since we are all spending more time indoors as we practice social distancing we have to be even more mindful of our Vitamin D levels. If you can find some time to get out and grab some sunshine please do! There is a free app available on most phones called Dminder.  You can use it to track the approximate amount of Vitamin D you are getting when you are outside based on your skin tone, location and how much clothing you are wearing. This is very useful to find that delicate balance between beneficial sunlight and sun damage. You can also get Vitamin D from multiple food sources such as fatty fish, mushrooms and eggs to name a few.

Vitamin D supplementation has been shown to cut the risk of infection with respiratory illnesses by 50% in people that were vitamin D deficient and by 10% in people with normal vitamin D levels.

According to the endocrine society, blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D below 20ng/ml are considered deficient, less than 30ng/ml is inadequate. People with levels between 30-60ng/ml are considered adequate. Meta-analyses have shown that people with serum levels between 40-60ng/ml have the lowest all-cause mortality. Studies have also shown that supplementation with 1,000 IU of vitamin D3 per day can raise serum levels by ~5 ng/ml.

If you are part of our older population or caring for someone please be aware that a 70-year-old may be up to 75% less efficient at producing vitamin D than they did in their 20's


https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/02/study-confirms-vitamin-d-protects-against-cold-and-flu/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3738984/ 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3166406/ 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4971338/  


Read more on the VIMSIA PTA Facebook group to learn more about Vitamin D. 

The “Green Body & Home” blog posts are brought to you by the PTA. They provide general information and discussions about health and related subjects. The information and other content provided in this blog, or in any linked materials, are not intended and should not be construed as medical advice, nor is the information a substitute for professional medical expertise or treatment.

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Green Body & Home - The Importance of Building Immunity

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The Importance of Building Immunity

The Coronavirus has been creating a lot of fear in people across the globe.  Obviously health practices such as washing hands and being mindful of being around others who are symptomatic are helpful, however we cannot forget about our biggest ally in keeping ourselves and our children well... our Immune System.  Each week this month we will share some supplements that we consider essential nutrition for our immune system to function well. 

Vitamin C:  This week's spotlight is on Vitamin C, which plays a critical role in our immune system.  Although you may have used this many times in the past, studies show that much higher doses of vitamin C than initially thought are where the positive changes happen for our immunity.  I personally recommend 500-1,000 mg every 1-3 days for prevention in children and adults (in children you can split the dose into two doses/day, so 500mg am, 500mg pm.  For active immune compromises you can does up to 6,000mg per day for adults, or 4,000mg per day for children.  The biggest side effect is loose stool, at which point you would want to cut back or split up the doses more. 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5409678/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10543583

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23700397

Read more on the VIMSIA PTA Facebook group to learn more about Vitamin C.

The “Green Body & Home” blog posts are brought to you by the PTA. They provide general information and discussions about health and related subjects. The information and other content provided in this blog, or in any linked materials, are not intended and should not be construed as medical advice, nor is the information a substitute for professional medical expertise or treatment.

PTA's Green Body & Home Initiative Kicks Off This Month

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Starting this month, the PTA will implement a Green Body & Home initiative to complement the Green Campus that our kiddos are so lucky to enjoy. We will be posting weekly in the Volt, which may be in the form of recipes, links, and quizzes (among other things).  At times we will implement Green Body & Home initiatives on campus as well.
Our goal is to give parents more tools to help them foster the growth and development of the most amazing humans they can!  
Here's a link to start off the year with a healthy treat

20 recipes for healthy homemade snack balls you can modify for any allergies/sensitivities.

These are a great way to sneak in lots of nutrition while keeping your kids taste buds happy!

The “Green Body & Home” blog posts are brought to you by the PTA. They provide general information and discussions about health and related subjects. The information and other content provided in this blog, or in any linked materials, are not intended and should not be construed as medical advice, nor is the information a substitute for professional medical expertise or treatment.

Photo by Jony Ariadi on Unsplash

Photo by Jony Ariadi on Unsplash