The Vitamin D Facts

I’ve read a lot of books on vitamin d, in preparing for this site.  Some have been excellent, some were just OK.  Since I know you’re interested in saving money, I only recommend what I consider the “best of the best”.  Fair enough?

That being said, I can’t recommend the book The Vitamin D Cure by Dr. James E. Dowd (MD) highly enough.  Not only is the information straight and to the point, but it’s also easy to read and find what you need.

The book hit home for me when I read about some of the signs of a vitamin d deficiency.  I’ve had a pain in my left hip and leg for a couple of years now.  At first I thought it was something along the lines of sciatica, so I went to a physical therapist.  While my lower back pain cleared up with the PT, the left leg and hip pain kept on.  It got to where I just figured it was arthritis (runs in my family) and I’d have to live with it.  Some days I can barely limp around (and I do mean limp).  Other days it’s not too bad — but the pain is always there.

I read The Vitamin D Cure and I realized that I don’t get enough vitamin d — not what my body needs to thrive.  Heck, I wasn’t even getting the measly 400 IU!  All the signs of a deficiency were there.  Fatigue, muscle and bone pain, restless sleep, overweight, foggy thinking…yikes!   And to make matters worse, I take a medication that inactivates most of what little I do take in — talk about adding insult to injury.

I live in Florida — the Sunshine State — but go out in mid-day?  Are you crazy?  It’s far too hot and humid most of the year for that.  So living here in the mostly sunny South Florida certainly isn’t a guarantee of getting enough sunshine for adequate vitamin d production.  Most people I know are in an office all day, and they certainly aren’t walking around in shorts and a t-shirt on their lunch break.  No, lack of sun on the skin is the rule here, not the exception.

Since starting the recommended supplementation in the book, I feel better.  I still have a long way to go — your body doesn’t react overnight to getting what it needs (unlike, say, vitamin b12).  No, topping up the tank with vitamin d takes longer.

There is a ton of information in the book The Vitamin D Cure — far more than I could ever hope to cover on this site.  How vitamin d interacts with calcium, magnesium and potassium was a real surprise.  It seems that I may not need to be taking the calcium supplements after all, even though I am a woman of a certain age.  I also found the link between a vitamin d deficiency and diabetes to be fascinating.

All I can say is that if you don’t regularly get enough sunshine year-round…you need to read this book.  Get it at your local bookstore or get it online, but get it!