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If you have regularly taken vitamin D and read about all the articles that have been reported in recent years, you might think that you are a fool. Various studies have been published that suggest the lack of a clear link between vitamin D and cardiovascular disease or cancer. In early 2019, the VITAL study was published, in which nearly 26,000 participants participated. He too could not find a link.
Even world-clbad medical organizations have low consumption of vitamin D tablets, including the British National Health Service. In his advice, the body says that "most people do not need to take vitamin supplements and are able to get all the vitamins and minerals they need while dieting. healthy and balanced food ". The British Heart Foundation agrees, stating that "there is no shortcut in nutrition – supplements are no substitute for healthy foods".
They are right, and these snake oil dealers at the pharmacy are wrong, is not it? Not really.
First, the basics: Vitamin D is an endogenous vitamin, naturally produced by our body rather than by the food we eat. When our skin is exposed to ultraviolet light, the vitamin is generated by our liver and kidneys. For this reason, it is often added to several staple foods and is also available as a supplement. Vitamin D is essential for a healthy life because it helps us absorb calcium, maintain healthy bones and prevent inflammation.
"Vitamin D is currently in full battle," says Dr. Adrian Martineau, professor of respiratory infection and immunity at Queen Mary University in London. Since 2002, he has been studying how the vitamin can be used or not to treat various respiratory diseases. "And there are people who risk throwing the baby out with the bath because it has not shown the promises expected in some health zones," he said.
"It would be unrealistic to expect vitamin D to be the panacea that some may claim," said Dr. Martineau. "But," he added, "the fact that not everyone is healed does not mean it's not good for nothing." The problem, in his eyes, is that vitamin D is ineffective, it is people who think that vitamin D can do much more than it can really.
Dr. Martineau also addresses a very specific problem with the VITAL trial, stating that "even in the control group, [people] were allowed to take 800 [international] Vitamin D units. "In addition, as it was performed in the United States, where all milk is fortified with vitamin D," the prevalence of low vitamin D status at the beginning of the study was weak. "lack of coverage for those who have had enough, but compare the haves and have-nots, not to mention the fact that" a high proportion of participants were taking low-dose supplements anyway ".
"The [VITAL] Martineau, unlike the current trials in Mongolia, Pakistan and South Africa. In these countries where children with severe malnutrition and low levels of vitamin D, supplementation has been promising. Last year Queen Mary published the results of a study showing that high doses of vitamin D can stimulate weight gain and motor skill development in malnourished children.
"There is a lot of magical thinking about vitamin D," says Dr. Clifford Rosen, director of clinical research at Maine Medical Center. Because it's so widely consumed, people are trying to give it all sorts of properties that it does not have. "Take it, do [your] the levels are better and everything is fine, "said Dr. Rosen in the game.
"Because we can measure [it] easily, we have levels for everyone and set arbitrary levels of normality, "said Dr. Rosen, despite the fact that" a little vitamin D is enough "for just about everyone under normal circumstances." Some sun exposure is good, but for people at risk of melanoma, it is risky to throw supplements, "he added.
Limited exposure to the sun may be fine, but we could rely even more on vitamin D supplementation in the future. A study by researchers at the University of Oxford suggests that temperature increases induced by climate change will increase the risk of skin cancer. A cancer research group has already seen melanoma incidence rates increase by 128% since 1993. If sun exposure becomes more deadly, we will all need to absorb more vitamin D in one form. or another, to stay healthy in the shade.
So what can we do to navigate the seemingly complex rules surrounding vitamin D supplementation? "If you live north of the line connecting San Francisco to Philadelphia and Athens to Beijing, chances are you do not get enough vitamin D." This is the opinion of TC Harvard Chan School of Public Health, which adds "it's the same if you do not go out at least 15 minutes a day in the sun", as well as the elderly and in overweight.
In a 2009 TED talk, Nina Jablonski, a Penn State professor, said, "We live in environments where our skin is poorly adapted." Dark-skinned people living far from the equator may be short of vitamin D. According to Jablonski, the color of the skin affects vitamin synthesis because, as she says in her 2004 article, were moving away from the equator, UV rays – especially for vitamin D-inducing UVB – were significantly reduced. "
She thought living with such sun exposure meant that there was a low risk of vitamin D deficiency but a high risk of skin cancer. This is why people have evolved with more melanized skin because they were drowning in the sun and needed a natural defense. However, migration has meant that people with darker skin and living in darker climates may be deficient.
What is the good answer? It's complicated. As with any process that affects your health, it's not as easy as asking Dr. Google and taking the first result. Vitamin D may not be a miracle cure. In the same way, a standing desk will probably not make you slim or completely correct your posture. Some problems do not have simple answers.
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