3 ms·

Do you have any more resources to read up more on these effects? After working in a windowless office I've started to notice some psychological issues with the

Do you have any more resources to read up more on these effects? After working in a windowless office I've started to notice some psychological issues with the lack of sunlight, especially during the winter, and with what you're saying I'm starting to wonder if the problems are worse than I'm even realizing.

adventured 12y ago
I got a blood test back that registered a 5 on my Vitamin D levels (30 being the desired floor, and 40 or 50 being closer to ideal). Everything else was perfect except for that VitD level. I was shocked, but after reading up on Vitamin D it made sense: I've had maybe two tans in 15 years, I don't get anywhere near enough sun exposure, and diet hardly makes a dent in the amount of VitD it takes to bring your blood levels up to a 40 or 50 range. I also felt fortunate after reading up on what very low levels of VitD can cause. I spent a few weeks reading just about everything I could get my hands on relating to VitD and what it does. I don't have all of my sources handy now, but I can run through some of what I came to understand. It has a role to play regarding depression, and or a general sense of malaise, having to do with serotonin levels. There are Vitamin D receptors in the areas of the brain linked to controlling depression. You'll find people often feel a significant pick-me-up when they correct low Vitamin D levels - often right from the first week of taking D3 supplements (whether that's a placebo effect or not, it seems to be very common). VitD is now believed to be an important regulator when it comes to neurological diseases / conditions such as multiple sclerosis and alzheimers. They've found a direct link to low levels of VitD in children and M.S. - which you can see in the rate of M.S. in people in countries far north of the equator. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D_and_neurology#Vitamin_D_and_neurological_disorders http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D_and_neurology#Vitamin... There have been some links made to schizophrenia: "A new study finds that vitamin D-deficient individuals are twice as likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia as people who have sufficient levels of the vitamin." http://psychcentral.com/news/2014/07/23/vitamin-d-deficiency-common-in-schizophrenia/72813.html http://psychcentral.com/news/2014/07/23/vitamin-d-deficiency... People with cancer and heart disease frequently have particularly low levels of Vitamin D. This is a bit tricky though, because that can just as easily tie into lifestyle; but it's interesting non-the-less. Common fatigue and bone pain often ties into very low levels of Vitamin D. As is well understood now, it has an important role to play in working with calcium and magnesium. VitD is very important to the immune system: "Deficiency in vitamin D is associated with increased autoimmunity as well as an increased susceptibility to infection." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3166406/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3166406/ VitD seems to play an important role in memory, and staving off age related memory loss (and perhaps keeping memory strong in general): http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-vitamin-d-memory-decline-20140927-story.html http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-vitamin-... There has been a variety of interesting discussion around whether Vitamin D has a role to play in type 2 diabetes. It's often found that type 2 patients suffer from especially low levels of VitD, but the counter arguments are that those low VitD levels have more to do with lack of physical activity: http://www.nih.gov/news/health/oct2013/niddk-21.htm http://www.nih.gov/news/health/oct2013/niddk-21.htm http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/34/6/1284.full http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/34/6/1284.full http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/283275.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/283275.php It's claimed that Vitamin D can help reduce levels of LDL cholesterol: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/vitamin-d-may-lower-cholesterol/ http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/vitamin-d-may-lower...
- aw3c2 12y ago
  Are you sure the blood sample was handled correctly? Vitamin D tests are cheap to do nowadays but most doctors have no idea that they have to immediately enclose the sample in darkness or it will be tainted. Vitamin D decomposes(?) in sunlight. I was tested deficient by one ignorant doctor, then another tested again and everything was fine. The second one told me about it. It is a pain to google so I cannot find proper sources in English.
  - adventured 12y ago
    It's a fair question. It was done by a hospital's lab by a dedicated lab worker, as a comprehensive, and then sent off to Labcorp (versus being done in a doctor's office by a nurse etc). So hopefully they knew what they were doing. Given the amount of Vitamin D you need to to get your levels up to a 30+ marker, and given most of the US population is Vitamin D deficient (and I get far less sun exposure than your average person) - it's probably a safe bet my D levels are very low. A 5 was a bit surprising, but it's no exaggeration that presently I'm probably as close as you can get to being a vampire without actually being one, sun exposure wise. My primary curiosity is whether my VitD levels have been single digits for ... a decade at this point. I think I'm fortunate that I was very active outside growing up, and that I got plenty of sun - as apparently having Vitamin D levels as a child akin to what I just tested at, is particularly dangerous.
- Kronopath 12y ago
  Thank you so much, I'll definitely look through these as soon as I have time.

adventured 12y ago

I got a blood test back that registered a 5 on my Vitamin D levels (30 being the desired floor, and 40 or 50 being closer to ideal). Everything else was perfect except for that VitD level. I was shocked, but after reading up on Vitamin D it made sense: I've had maybe two tans in 15 years, I don't get anywhere near enough sun exposure, and diet hardly makes a dent in the amount of VitD it takes to bring your blood levels up to a 40 or 50 range. I also felt fortunate after reading up on what very low levels of VitD can cause. I spent a few weeks reading just about everything I could get my hands on relating to VitD and what it does. I don't have all of my sources handy now, but I can run through some of what I came to understand. It has a role to play regarding depression, and or a general sense of malaise, having to do with serotonin levels. There are Vitamin D receptors in the areas of the brain linked to controlling depression. You'll find people often feel a significant pick-me-up when they correct low Vitamin D levels - often right from the first week of taking D3 supplements (whether that's a placebo effect or not, it seems to be very common). VitD is now believed to be an important regulator when it comes to neurological diseases / conditions such as multiple sclerosis and alzheimers. They've found a direct link to low levels of VitD in children and M.S. - which you can see in the rate of M.S. in people in countries far north of the equator. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D_and_neurology#Vitamin_D_and_neurological_disorders http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_D_and_neurology#Vitamin... There have been some links made to schizophrenia: "A new study finds that vitamin D-deficient individuals are twice as likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia as people who have sufficient levels of the vitamin." http://psychcentral.com/news/2014/07/23/vitamin-d-deficiency-common-in-schizophrenia/72813.html http://psychcentral.com/news/2014/07/23/vitamin-d-deficiency... People with cancer and heart disease frequently have particularly low levels of Vitamin D. This is a bit tricky though, because that can just as easily tie into lifestyle; but it's interesting non-the-less. Common fatigue and bone pain often ties into very low levels of Vitamin D. As is well understood now, it has an important role to play in working with calcium and magnesium. VitD is very important to the immune system: "Deficiency in vitamin D is associated with increased autoimmunity as well as an increased susceptibility to infection." http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3166406/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3166406/ VitD seems to play an important role in memory, and staving off age related memory loss (and perhaps keeping memory strong in general): http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-vitamin-d-memory-decline-20140927-story.html http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-vitamin-... There has been a variety of interesting discussion around whether Vitamin D has a role to play in type 2 diabetes. It's often found that type 2 patients suffer from especially low levels of VitD, but the counter arguments are that those low VitD levels have more to do with lack of physical activity: http://www.nih.gov/news/health/oct2013/niddk-21.htm http://www.nih.gov/news/health/oct2013/niddk-21.htm http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/34/6/1284.full http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/34/6/1284.full http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/283275.php http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/283275.php It's claimed that Vitamin D can help reduce levels of LDL cholesterol: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/vitamin-d-may-lower-cholesterol/ http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/vitamin-d-may-lower...

aw3c2 12y ago
Are you sure the blood sample was handled correctly? Vitamin D tests are cheap to do nowadays but most doctors have no idea that they have to immediately enclose the sample in darkness or it will be tainted. Vitamin D decomposes(?) in sunlight. I was tested deficient by one ignorant doctor, then another tested again and everything was fine. The second one told me about it. It is a pain to google so I cannot find proper sources in English.
- adventured 12y ago
  It's a fair question. It was done by a hospital's lab by a dedicated lab worker, as a comprehensive, and then sent off to Labcorp (versus being done in a doctor's office by a nurse etc). So hopefully they knew what they were doing. Given the amount of Vitamin D you need to to get your levels up to a 30+ marker, and given most of the US population is Vitamin D deficient (and I get far less sun exposure than your average person) - it's probably a safe bet my D levels are very low. A 5 was a bit surprising, but it's no exaggeration that presently I'm probably as close as you can get to being a vampire without actually being one, sun exposure wise. My primary curiosity is whether my VitD levels have been single digits for ... a decade at this point. I think I'm fortunate that I was very active outside growing up, and that I got plenty of sun - as apparently having Vitamin D levels as a child akin to what I just tested at, is particularly dangerous.
Kronopath 12y ago
Thank you so much, I'll definitely look through these as soon as I have time.