Are you getting enough sunshine?
Fri, Apr 10 2009 07:51
| Yin Yang Diet, Healthy Hearts
| Permalink
Sunshine exposure and vitamin D levels have been shown to influence, pain, heart disease, diabetes, parkinson's, cancer, infections, weight gain, mental health and many other conditions. Now that Spring has sprung, and the midday sun has enough power to activate your body's production of vitamin D, it's time to review your vitamin D supplementation.
1) Get your 25 hydroxy vitamin D levels tested. If you are lower than 65 you need to supplement and/or get out in the sun.
2) Get 15 minutes of midday (11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.) sunshine on your face and arms each day. Any type of sunscreen or UV coating on glass will stop your body from making the vitamin D. Many face creams and even make-up now has sunscreen added.
3) Take at least 2,000 i.u of vitamin D3 a day even during the summer.
4) If you cannot get out in the sun regularly you need to take at least 5,000 iu of D3 a day.
5) If your test shows your vitamin D levels are low, you can take as much as 10,000 i.u a day to recover from your deficiency.
1) Get your 25 hydroxy vitamin D levels tested. If you are lower than 65 you need to supplement and/or get out in the sun.
2) Get 15 minutes of midday (11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.) sunshine on your face and arms each day. Any type of sunscreen or UV coating on glass will stop your body from making the vitamin D. Many face creams and even make-up now has sunscreen added.
3) Take at least 2,000 i.u of vitamin D3 a day even during the summer.
4) If you cannot get out in the sun regularly you need to take at least 5,000 iu of D3 a day.
5) If your test shows your vitamin D levels are low, you can take as much as 10,000 i.u a day to recover from your deficiency.
Comments
Why lying in bed awake is good for you
Mon, Mar 9 2009 08:08
| Healthy Hearts
| Permalink
Dr. Thomas Wehr at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), studied what happens when we sleep very long nights, mimicking deep winter when night are very very long. Before electric lights we would go to bed early.
"Early to bed, early to rise, make a man healthy, wealthy and wise." -- Benjamin Franklin
In the early morning, it was still dark so we would stay in bed in a half-awake almost meditative state. Modern day brain wave readings of people in this half-awake state were similar to people in a transcendental meditative state. Dr. Wehr states that the hormone prolactin, released at night, "probably facilitates the switch to a 'quiescent wakefulness'." That's a fancy scientific way of saying half-awake. Now how many of you get out of bed to do something "productive" if you enter this phase of sleep?
My advice is don't. Stay warm in bed with the lights out. Daydream. Plan your day. Meditate. Pray. Envision world peace. Then get up when you are supposed to with the sun.
Dr. Thomas Wehr at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), studied the difference between getting a short night of sleep versus a long night's sleep. What he found was that short nights:
"Early to bed, early to rise, make a man healthy, wealthy and wise." -- Benjamin Franklin
In the early morning, it was still dark so we would stay in bed in a half-awake almost meditative state. Modern day brain wave readings of people in this half-awake state were similar to people in a transcendental meditative state. Dr. Wehr states that the hormone prolactin, released at night, "probably facilitates the switch to a 'quiescent wakefulness'." That's a fancy scientific way of saying half-awake. Now how many of you get out of bed to do something "productive" if you enter this phase of sleep?
My advice is don't. Stay warm in bed with the lights out. Daydream. Plan your day. Meditate. Pray. Envision world peace. Then get up when you are supposed to with the sun.
- reduced melatonin secretion which impairs your immune cells
- melatonin is a potent antioxidant and low levels reduce your body's ability to repair itself
- shifting of the hormone prolactin (in men and women) to daytime production which increases carbohydrate cravings