Tips for boosting your winter vitamin D levels and overall health
Courtney Carter
/ Categories: WELLNESS, 2024

Tips for boosting your winter vitamin D levels and overall health

Vitamin D is often called the ‘sunshine vitamin’ because it’s produced by our bodies when skin is exposed to sunlight. Thanks to limited winter daylight hours in the northeast, maintaining adequate vitamin D levels can be challenging and have very real consequences on our health.

Here are just a few of the ways vitamin D levels can impact your physical and mental health:

Bone Health: Vitamin D is essential for calcium absorption and bone mineralization. Without it, our bodies can absorb only 10 to 15% of the calcium we consume, which can cause our bones to become thin, brittle, or misshapen, leading to conditions like osteoporosis in adults and rickets in children.

Immune Function: Vitamin D helps modulate immune function, potentially reducing the risk of infections.

Chronic Disease Prevention: Adequate vitamin D levels may help reduce the risk of various chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes and certain cancers.

Mental Health: Vitamin D is involved in brain development and deficiencies and can contribute to mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, irritability, and feelings of sadness.

Sleep Quality: Adequate vitamin D levels are associated with better sleep quality and regulation of the sleep-wake cycle. Fatigue and daytime sleepiness can be symptoms of Vitamin D deficiency.

The easiest way to combat low vitamin D levels is by taking a supplement. Current guidelines recommend taking 400-800 international units (IU) or 10–20 micrograms (mcg). However, your doctor may recommend taking more or less based on your age, skin color, current blood vitamin D levels, sun exposure, and more.

You can also boost your vitamin D intake by eating foods with high vitamin-D levels. These include:

  • Wild-raised salmon and oily fish

  • Egg yolks

  • Fortified milk and breakfast cereals

  • Cod liver oil

  • UV-exposed mushrooms

  • Vitamin-D-fortified cow, soy, and oat milk

  • Vitamin-D-fortified ready-to-eat cereals

When possible, spend time outdoors during daylight hours. Wearing sunscreen (as you should) will not impact your body's ability to produce vitamin D. 

In severe cases of deficiency, light therapy may be recommended.

By being proactive about vitamin D intake, you can help optimal levels of this crucial nutrient and support your overall health now and throughout the year.

 

Kristin Irace, RD, LDN, is a registered dietitian in in-patient, renal dialysis, oncology, and cardiac rehab services at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center.

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A Very Unusual Road Race

Matthew Vernon, MD, radiation oncologist at the Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center, and his wife Elisa Donato love running road races. In just the last 2 years, the couple has completed one full marathon, nearly 30 half marathons, and a generous sprinkling of races of other distances. They love to get the finisher medals at the ends of their races and take great pride in their extensive collection of them.

In February, they set out on a trip to run a 20-mile trail race up and down a volcano on an island in shark-filled Lake Nicaragua. And they thought that race would be their most unique of the year.

Matt and Elisa were training for their second full marathon, scheduled for April 26th in New Jersey, when COVID-19 hit.

"Of course the race was canceled," Dr. Vernon remembers. "But we couldn't be marathon-ready and not run." They had toyed with the idea of organizing a race of their own, so this seemed like the time to do it.

That is how the COVID Bridges Marathon/Half Marathon/10K/5K/AnyK was born. (The name is a quippy take on the popular Covered Bridges Half Marathon that happens in Woodstock, VT, each year. And yes, their marathon course also included covered bridges.)

Once the name stuck, they designed and ordered a finisher medal for everyone who signed up.

And as long as they were going to the trouble to start a virtual/distanced road race in the middle of a pandemic, why not raise some money, too? They started a Facebook group and a GoFundMe page, set a goal of $1,000, and designated the Cancer Center as the recipient. They recommended an entry fee of $10 per person, and lots of people signed up, including many colleagues from Southwestern Vermont Health Care.

"We were originally going to pick April 26, the same day as our marathon, but we thought we had a better chance for good weather in May," Dr. Vernon shared. They picked May 9. That day turned out to include heavy snow.

As a virtual race, however, they clarified that the run could occur at the time of the participant’s choosing, over the course of their choosing, of any distance. A few even bicycled in place of running. Many participants brought their kids along.

The event raised $1,045 for the Cancer Center. And people had a good time bonding over running and walking during this unusual time.

"In the end it was a great experience," Dr. Vernon said. "We had a blast, inspired some people to get out of the house, and raised some money for a good cause. And those medals will certainly inspire unique feelings when we see them hanging there among our collection."

 

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