(25-09-12) Are stress and high cortisol depleting your vitamin D?

by PF Louis

(NaturalNews) According to recent studies reported by the Body Ecology
website, cortisol, the flight or fight hormone, can disrupt your body's vitamin
D3 uptake.

If cortisol is produced by chronic stress that can't be acted upon by running
or fighting for your life, the cortisol builds up in your body. This is the
situation with many of us who try to suppress chronic low level stress and
carry on with what many consider "normal" life.

Here's another factor according to the report: Normally, cortisol production
decreases from midnight to 4 a.m. Staying up past midnight creates an irregular
cortisol production pattern that may result in increased cortisol in your body
as it tries to compensate. That's not good news for us night owls.

How does this happen? Vitamin D is a steroid hormone, and so is cortisol.
Hormones need receptors in the body to perform their magic. The receptors for
vitamin D3 are called simply vitamin D receptors (VDR).

So regardless of how much Vitamin D3 we take in, if it can't find receptors,
it just floats around in the blood with deceptively high D3 blood level counts.
Cortisol is also a hormone. It is a prominent member of the glucocorticoid
class of hormones, which diminish VDR capabilities.

Therefore, in addition to maintaining or increasing vitamin D3 intake, try to
sleep regular hours and learn to stress less. (http://www.naturalnews.
com/033850_meditation_brain.html)

Here's a vitamin D3 review to remind you of the benefits.

Sources, recommended amounts, and benefits of vitamin D3
You won't get sufficient D3, technically a hormone precursor - not a vitamin,
from foods. Sunlight and supplements are the keys. The sun's UBV rays on
exposed skin mixes with cholesterol, yes cholesterol, in your skin to start a
series of metabolic biochemical changes that culminate in your liver and
kidneys to produce D3 for those VDR receptors.

When you take natural animal or plant based supplements, you bypass the
sunlight exposure phase that creates the vitamin D3 precursor. Instead, you get
naturally derived precursors that go directly into the liver and kidneys for
processing.

Your liver and kidneys take over to produce the hormonal activities and
functions needed for a variety of situations. Do not use a prescription drug
vitamin D or buy it off a shelf unless you are absolutely certain it's a
naturally based D3, not D2.

The best way to determine your vitamin D3 blood level is from a blood analysis
known as the 25-hydroxyvitamin D or 25(OH)D test. If you don't have access to a
local lab or a trustworthy doctor, there is an organization that can work out
home testing with you here.

Almost everyone is deficient with this hormone/vitamin. The negative effects
are often sub-clinical. One factor is the low RDA (recommended daily amount) of
supplements well under 1,000 IU (international units).

Another factor: The "medically acceptable" range of D3 blood levels, 20 to 30
nanograms per milliliters (ng/ml) of blood serum doesn't cut it, according to
the Vitamin D Council, Dr. Mercola and others.

They say optimum health protection occurs with a blood level of 50 to 70
ng/ml. Under 50 ng/ml is considered deficient. For treating cancer, they
recommend 70 to 100 ng/ml.

Over 100 ng/ml can be toxic. However, tests have determined that supplementing
up to 40,000 IU of D3 is safe for short periods of time. (http://www.
naturalnews.com/031577_vitamin_D_scientific_research.html)

The health benefits of D3 are numerous, from preventing or reversing
Alzheimer's (with curcumin), cancer, and minor flus and colds. It is an anti-
inflammatory compound and immune system regulator that increases or decreases
the immune system as needed.

Often ignored immune system overreactions can cause allergies and auto-immune
diseases. (http://www.naturalnews.com)

Sources for this article include:

http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/about-vitamin-d/vitamin-d-deficiency/

http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/vitamin-d-and-your-health.htm

http://www.worldhealth.net

http://www.huffingtonpost.com

News

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In evidenza

"L'informazione presente nel sito serve a migliorare, e non a sostituire, il rapporto medico-paziente."

Per coloro che hanno problemi di salute si consiglia di consultare sempre il proprio medico curante.