5 ms·

People eating healthy food and living a healthy livestyle (outside as much as possible especially during winter, go by foot instead of driving etc.) do not need

• pyre 15y ago
  Depends on where you live. There are places like the Pacific NW that get very little sunlight, and going outside during the winter isn't enough to satisfy your Vitamin D needs.
  • holri 15y ago
    If the place you live makes you ill, change it.
    • rwallace 15y ago
      Every place on earth has its own endemic health hazards. You're going to need protection strategies wherever you live. As protection strategies go, taking vitamin D pills is unusually cheap, safe and effective.
      • holri 15y ago
        So for every place on earth a different pill? How about adjusting lifestyle to living conditions? Vitamin D pills are in no way a surrogate for outside activities. Those give you fresh oxygen, nature, exercise, sun and so much more than any superficial pill.
        • DanBC 15y ago
          But some places don't have enough sunlight for people to get adequate vitamin D, and some people (pregnant women; people with very pale skin; children under 5) don't get enough time in the sun to get vitamin D. Combine that with advice (which is perhaps being taken a bit too rigorously by some) to avoid skin cancer and you can understand that a few people are not getting enough vitamin D. It's great if someone can get 15 minutes of bright sunlight every day. But if they can't there's nothing wrong with a supplement.
          • holri 15y ago
            Vitamin D is no real vitamin but a hormone. There are risks in overdosage: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17014620 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17014620 I doubt that there a populated places in the world without 15 min sunlight a day.
            • DanBC 15y ago
              People living in Scotland are at risk of too little vitamin D, especially during the winter months, especially if they are fair skinned or if they wear clothing which restricts sunlight (burqas etc). I agree that overdose is a risk. I'm not suggesting mega dosing with vitamin supplements. I'm suggesting that a few people (the few people who don't have access to 15 mins bright sunlight per day) would benefit from Vitamin D supplements. EDIT: (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-16255661 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-16255661) (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-11355810 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-11355810)
              • JoeAltmaier 15y ago
                Surely fair skin Helps absorb vitamin D? Do I have it backward?
                • DanBC 15y ago
                  Fair skin helps absorb vitamin D. But people with fair skin are warned more heavily about sunburn, and they tend to cover up and use sun block. But you're right, I should have been clearer. People in Scotland (where the sun is only strong enough between April and September) with dark skin are also at risk of not enough vitamin D.
  • dualogy 15y ago
    There are no eggs, seafood or liver in the Pacific NW?
    • pyre 15y ago
      The parent post was saying that the only thing necessary to get enough Vitamin D was to 'just go outside.' I'm failing to see how this validates that premise. Attempting to eat more eggs/seafood/liver to gain more Vitamin D would seem not that far off from attempting supplementation if the only reason that you're eating them is for their Vitamin D content.
  • eli_gottlieb 15y ago
    Even worse is the Northeast. 75% of everyone here is Vitamin D deficient.
• kls 15y ago
  http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=vitamin-d-deficiency-united-states http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=vitamin-d-d... We evolved spending most of our time outdoors for most of our history, only after the industrial revolution and now the information revolution did we gradually work more and more in doors. Vitamin D deficiency is at almost epidemic proportions. Short of switching careers to a road crew, Vitamin D deficiency should be very high on the list of suspects any time the symptoms of any form of depression are observed.
  • holri 15y ago
    Vitamin D deficiency is a symptom. What is missing is not vitamin D but sunlight. Giving superficial vitamin D is doctoring on ONE symptom not on the cause of multiple deficiencies. A correct therapy would be for example: * Do short ways (<2km) per foot. * Do medium ways (< 20 km) per bicycle * Do longer ways as a combination of public transport and foot. * Do programming in parks, outside cafe terrace or in the garden * Get a dog and go with him every day * Start jogging etc. There are lot of possibilities to change your modern life to a for the human race suitable lifestyle. Swallowing a pill instead of getting sun, fresh air and exercise is one way to burn out. It takes effort to change your live instead of swallowing a pill and costs more time in the short run, but it extends lifetime and saves illness time. Therefore it saves time in the long run and makes live happier. "I have not time to hurry", Igor Strawinsky