Rakesh Sethi, BS, CAHP

Wellness Speaker/ Author/ 

Ayurvedic Practitioner

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Archive for the ‘Healthy Lifestyle’ Category

Are You eating Ideal Foods or Just Healthy Foods?

Posted on: December 30th, 2011 by Rakesh Sethi 2 Comments

Is there a difference between eating healthy foods and ideal foods? Yes, if you would like to eat the foods that are healthy and suitable for YOU! You can select healthy foods based on their fat, type of fat, carbohydrate, protein, sodium, and other contents.

But do you ever stop and think about how the nature (energy) of foods you are taking daily will interact with your unique nature. While it is important to select healthy foods by checking their contents, but for choosing ideal foods you need to go one step further to understand the effect of the food on your unique nature (body type). Download mini-course below to discover your body type (constitution).

Understanding the interactions between the two natures (food and yours) are very important for you. Why, because the interactions can either maintain a balance or create an imbalance in your body. So, even the foods which are healthy can cause imbalance. If you consume such ‘healthy foods’ regularly, the imbalance would accumulate over the years finally showing itself in some form of a disease.

For example, eating raw fresh vegetables are considered healthy. But for some body types these will not be ideal foods. Eating these regularly could cause digestive problems or even cause anxiety, mood swings, or insecure feelings in the mind.

ideal-foodsSo how do you select ideal foods for yourself from healthy foods? Here Ayurvedic (ancient) medical system comes to the rescue. Unlike modern nutritional systems that recommend ‘one-size-fit-all’ guidelines, Ayurvedic system approaches nutrition based on the uniqueness of an individual.

Download free Ayurveda body type quiz below.
Once you understand this system, it will be easier for you to prepare ideal meals. For example, hot spicy meals may be good for one body type, but may create problems for another body type. Preparing meals with ‘heavy’ oils may be excellent for one, but may be problematic for another.

To apply this system in your life, you must first understand your own unique nature- mind-body constitution. To help accomplish this, I have created a very basic mini-course that you can download free of charge below or get a copy of “Health + Happiness = Wellness” book with very comprehensive wellness for your unique mind-body. You will discover that your nature and nature of everything you eat and drink are made of 5 elements and 3 energies present in different proportions. The mini course walks you through in determining your nature and the nature of the foods ideal for you.

Remember: All ideal foods for you are healthy foods. However, not all healthy foods are ideal foods for you. The ideal foods not only provide the necessary nutrients but also keep your three energies in balance and do not produce toxins in your body.
Subscribe to FREE mini course below to discover your constitution:

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How to Prevent Heart Disease with Natural Remedies?

Posted on: October 30th, 2011 by Rakesh Sethi 1 Comment

We discussed in the last article how you could find out your risk level long before your cholesterol level goes up and this could give you years of jump on prevention. Even if you discover you are at a higher risk of developing a heart disease, it takes years to develop. Prevention with natural remedies can be too late after you are diagnosed with a disease. However, having years of jump on prevention can completely change the course of your life- prolonging your healthy years and quality of life.

If you discover your body constitution (subscribe below to discover) is of higher to moderate risk for heart disease then consider taking the following steps on how to prevent heart disease build up. Keep in mind the natural remedies only work if you regularly use them in your diet and life style.

• Keep your cholesterol at healthy levels using natural foods. You can get our free Lower Your Cholesterol Naturally e-book that covers this and much more in great detail when you subscribe to our newsletter

• Incorporate Indian Gooseberry, Amla, in your diet with or after your meal. Amla is a sour tasting fruit that reduces inflammation in the body and is an effective natural home remedy for heart disease. Amount should be taken as directed or consulted with Ayurvedic practitioner.

• Another excellent way to prevent heart disease is use of raw onions. They are in the family of bulbs like garlic and keep the cholesterol levels healthy by oxidizing excess cholesterol. If you are brave, the most effective way is to take one teaspoon of raw onion juice first thing in the morning.

• Use honey as a sweetener. The heating property of honey is excellent in breaking down fat deposits to prevent all kinds of heart disease. Honey rejuvenates and tones up muscles including heart muscles thus improve the circulation. Consume one tablespoonful daily with or after food.

Caution: As always, consult with your physician and work with your Ayurvedic practitioner before implementing changes in your diet and life style. After implementing changes, closely monitor your progress. Be Well!

Subscribe below to discover your body constitution:

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Coronary Heart Disease: Are You at Higher Risk- New Ways to Check?

Posted on: October 22nd, 2011 by Rakesh Sethi 1 Comment

Before diving into new ways to check your coronary heart disease risks, you need to know something amazing about your hard working heart. Your heart is a muscle about the size of your clenched fist and weighs about less than a pound. It starts beating even before you are born. In an adult, it beats over 100,000 times per day and pumps over 4000 gallons of blood every day through over 60,000 miles of blood vessels supplying nourishment to every cell in the body. That’s what I call a full day’s work! In return, all your heart demand is also blood which is supplied by coronary arteries. I hope this helps you to realize amazing work of heart and inspires you to keep your coronary pipes whistle clean along with the blood that flows through them.

New Ways to Check Your Risks

Perhaps you are familiar with your lipid numbers in your blood test. Elevated cholesterol level is the main concern for coronary heart disease. Particularly increase in LDL (low-density lipoproteins) bad cholesterol level and or decrease in HDL (high-density lipoproteins) good cholesterol level. HDL is good because it acts like a vacuum cleaner picking up cholesterol deposits from the walls of blood vessels and delivering them to liver for flushing them out. However, bad cholesterol LDL is known to create plaque on the arteries walls causing blockage which plays a major role in coronary heart disease. We have been doing tests in this way for a long time.

The new part is if you conduct a more in depth blood test, you find out a level of Apolipoprotein which is found in both HDL and LDL. However, among many different types of Apolipoproteins found in HDL and LDL, it is Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) found in LDL is of main interest to us. ApoE is known to play an important role in coronary heart disease according to study see below (1).

The most interesting part is the genetic variations of ApoE gene. The ApoE gene comes in three types 2, 3, 4. This means having one gene from mom and one from dad, you could have genetic makeup of one of the following pairs: 2/2, 2/3, 2/4, 3/3, 3/4, or 4/4. Incidentally the genetic makeup 2/2 showed up in the Ayurvedic body type Vata, the 3/3 genetic makeup showed up in Pitta body type, and the 4/4 genetic makeup showed up in Ayurvedic body type Kapha. Just as Kapha is more susceptible to high cholesterol, diabetes, & heart disease, the person with ApoE 4/4 is also placed at higher risk for diabetes and heart disease. In the study cited below persons with ApoE 3/3 were at less risk than the ApoE 2/2 for heart attack. This also agrees with Ayurvedic assessment as the Vata type body is at increased risk of coronary heart disease because it is more vulnerable to nerves disorders and stress. Here is another instance where ancient Ayurvedic science and modern science are corroborating.

How could you benefit from it? You could find out your risk level long before your cholesterol level goes up and this could give you years of jump on prevention.

So in addition to in depth lipid blood test, you can request the ApoE genotype test plus have your mind-body constitution done by an Ayurvedic practitioner, especially if you have a family history of coronary heart disease. Look for a follow on article on how to prevent heart disease using natural home remedies.

1. Carlos Lahoz and Ernst J. Schaefer, et al, Apolipoprotein E genotype and cardiovascular disease in the Framingham Heart Study Atherosclerosis

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How Much Water Should I Drink in a Day?

Posted on: September 30th, 2011 by Rakesh Sethi 1 Comment

How much water should I drink a day? Most of us take water for granted. Perhaps this is the reason we do not pay attention to its consumption. Many of you are extremely vigilant of what kind of fat and how much of it you are consuming, what kind of carbohydrates and how much you are taking, and some of you are also measuring how much sodium you are taking in per day. This is excellent and you should.

But remember this that your body is 70% water. A good way to remember is just like earth is 2/3 water and 1/3 land. You can not ignore this. Your body continuously loses water and it needs to be replenished with clean fresh water. Not drinking enough water per day is the root cause of many diseases.

If you have been following my writings on prevention, you know I often mention the main root cause of a disease lies in our minds. If you do not regularly “flush” toxic thoughts, stress, and stagnant weight on your mind, your mind will become a cesspool for giving birth to diseases. And ultimately the diseases manifest in your physical body. The same principle applies to water. If you do not flush your body with enough clean fresh water every day, dehydration and toxic levels increase. This compromises the function of many organs in nutrition absorption and discarding waste, and subsequently giving birth to some disease.

So how much water should I drink a day? A good rule of thumb is in this simple formula:

Divide your body weight in pounds by 2 and take the number you get for drinking that many ounces in a day. For example, if you are 150 pounds & dividing it by 2 gives you 75. You should be drinking at least 75 ounces of water in a day.

While it is important to know how much water you should drink in day, equally important is to know the right time for drinking that water. Plus, almost never drink ice water. Drinking water at the right times throughout the day maximizes its effectiveness on your body. So based on your weight select the amount from:
• 10-16 oz. of lukewarm water after waking up; it helps refresh and activate internal organs
• 8 -10 oz. of warm water 30 minutes before a meal; it facilitates digestion
• 10-16 oz. of room temperature water 45-60 min. after each meal; it helps the flow in GI tract
• 8-10 oz. of water before going to bed; it reduces risk of stroke or heart attack
So how much water should I drink a day is just as or perhaps even more important than watching how much fat, carbohydrates, or other things you take in a day.

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How Do You Improve Memory and Keep It Sharp?

Posted on: July 31st, 2011 by Rakesh Sethi 2 Comments

As we age something strange happens to the best of us. You walk into a room looking for an item and forget why you came there. Or another interesting thing happens we start to work on a chore A but along the way we find something else needs attention so we start to work on that, chore B. While working on chore B we realize another chore C that was left unfinished and immediately get on that. Some of us may even start chore D and E as well. My point is- are we losing our memory, sharpness, and focus? Or are we just carrying too much on our mind? While the latter of course makes the matter worse but how do you improve memory and stop it from getting worse. To that fact, Ayurvedic medical science shows us there is something else at play here.

As we age, “Air” (Vata) energy increases in us. Just as air moves from one place to another and cannot stay still in place, our mind takes on the same quality of air. We move from one chore to another and cannot stay focused on one chore and would like to finish all the chores at the same time. But this only explains our behavior. What about our focus and memory?

Do we lose our memory and focus as we age? Short answer, no! However, wrong diet, drugs, alcohol, and sedentary life style can penalize our sharpness and memory over the years. You can turn this around and improve your memory by taking few simple steps.

How Do You Improve Memory? Take the Following Corrective Actions:
• Reduce or remove high saturated fat from your diet
• Include green leafy vegetables, broccoli, avocado, and root vegetables in your diet
• Consume 1-2 tablespoon of vegetable oil (change varieties) per day
• Get 6-7 hours of sleep at night and must also manage fatigue efficiently to improve his memory. Fatigue is caused by a myriad of factors, not just physical activity or long working hours. For example, excessive coffee consumption or increased sugar intake can also exacerbate the symptoms of fatigue in the long-term because the body becomes dependent on short bursts of energy.
• Take B12, D, & E vitamin supplements

Great “Divine” HerbBrahmi herb Tablets to improve memory
Gotu kola or Bacopa, also known as Brahmi (a great divine herb) strengthen memory and sharpness. In several studies, this herb has shown impressive results in treating mental and nerve diseases. Take as directed or consult with an Ayurvedic practitioner.

Now there are no reasons for you NOT to improve your memory as you age, and have a sharp memory and focus in your mature years. However, you will need to prepare and take supportive and preventive actions now to improve and maintain your memory for benefits in later years. Also see Aging Gracefully. Be Well!

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Natural Home Remedies for Diabetes: Diet for Diabetics

Posted on: June 19th, 2011 by Rakesh Sethi 1 Comment

Recent statistics reveal that the Diabetes Mellitus (type 2) cases are on the rise, especially, in age group 20 and younger. And herein lays the URGENCY to raise a healthy next generation. One of the main contributing factors is increase in processed and fast food diet and sedentary life style. Good news is you can treat this type of diabetic condition by using simple, easy, and natural home remedies for diabetes. Bad news is, if you let it slide and ignore, you will face life altering risks of:

• Robbing you of your normal quality of life
• Making you more vulnerable to life threatening diseases- High Blood Pressure, heart disease, nervous system, stroke, kidney failure, amputation, and blindness
• Taking your wounds longer to heal
• Increasing your risk of death 2 times the people without diabetes

I hope these life threatening risks would inspire you to take immediate action after consulting with your doctor.

Causes

Diabetes Mellitus is a disease more probable when you are:
• Over Weight
• Overeating- not just sugar products but also proteins, fats, and carbohydrates
• Eating wrong diet- refined sugar, cereals, and white flour products
• Living under constant stressful and inactive lifestyle

Treatment with Natural Home Remedies for Diabetes

The natural remedies will be effective only after you remove the causes and then follow the changes in your diet and life style as described below:
• Remove fatty & fried foods
• Avoid all together or limit cheeses
• Replace wheat grains, rice, and white flour with oats, barley, millets, or quinoa
• Add bitter melon and okra to your vegetable menu (or 2oz. of bitter melon juice per day)
• Add sprouted fenugreek seeds in your diet about 100gm per week (2000mg in capsules/day)
• Use sunflower oil in place of all other oils
• Cook recipes that use garlic, onions, and ginger. In fact take ginger tea 2-3 times a day
• Other add-ons you can frequently use in cooking are; cinnamon, holy basil, cayenne, coriander seeds
People familiar with Ayurveda should note that basics behind diet suggested here is Kapha pacifying diet.

Role of Exercise


There is an incredible amount of evidence that regular vigorous (aerobic) exercising benefits all factors of diabetes. If you are just starting, start with gentle walking and work up to more intense routines.
Yoga is excellent in exercising and stimulating the functions of the internal organs along GI tract, liver, pancreas, kidneys, etc. Do the Following Yoga positions- Cobra pose, Fish pose, Spinal twist, and Janushirasna

Herbal Support

There are many herbal solutions to support you with the above diet. Take Glucostat as directed. If in doubt, please see an Ayurvedic practitioner for assessment. Gradually,  it is possible your natural home remedies for diabetes, mainly your diet, may be sufficient and you may not require additional herbal support.  If you are taking prescription drug, please consult with your doctor.

Summary

Whether you are over or under 20 years of age, these natural home remedies for diabetes can help you reverse and prevent the diabetes from occurring again in your life time. Yes, it will require some changes and good discipline. I think you’d agree that these changes are much smaller to face than the risks of not making any changes and taking medications for the rest of your life. Be Well!

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Techniques for Aging Gracefully and Looking Younger

Posted on: June 12th, 2011 by Rakesh Sethi 7 Comments

First I would like to remove a myth about aging. So far there is NO natural or manufactured products in the market that can reverse aging. Some hormone supplements seem to work in slowing down the aging but we are unsure of their side effects in the long run. So the best bet is to accept the notion of aging and age gracefully as oppose to fighting it.

Aging Gracefully and Looking YoungerSenior Couple on Computer
To age gracefully, we must keep in mind that aging has physical, mental, intellectual, and spiritual components. All these components are inter-twined and together they make us a “whole” person. As part of aging gracefully, what we loose in physical is made up by gaining experience, wisdom, and peace in mental, intellectual, and spiritual. To focus only on the physical and try to stop or reverse the aging would be going against nature.

Earth, stars, universe, everything around us is aging. It is a law of nature. So you as a part of this nature, if try to go against this natural law, you would only create aggravation and unstable mind. Try to understand this concept from your mature spiritual side; a humble acceptance will replace the aggravation in unstable mind. If you don’t, agitated and stressful mind would only speed up the aging process.

Once we embrace the aging as natural part of us with healthy mental attitude, we can focus on the physical. The basic idea is to slow down the rate of physical decline as we approach the later years of our life. However, preparation to achieve this begins in 30’s and 40’s by eating right foods and having right life style with exercises (or activities).

Physical:
Imagine our body as a building where each cell is a “brick” in this building. And if the walls of a building have bricks missing here and there, the strength, integrity, and shape of the building is compromised. Our goal is to continue building healthy new cells to replace the old dying cell for as long as possible. If the old cells are not replaced with new cells, skin becomes wrinkled and body looses its strength and shape.

Techniques for Aging Gracefully and Looking Younger
• Form a diet plan with foods based on your mind-body constitution that can help you usher in growth of new cells while creating least amount of toxins in the body. This diet is anti-inflammatory and can be further supported by use of turmeric and ginger to reduce internal inflammation and cleanse (detoxify) the body.
• Include the right vitamins and herbal supplements- NOT to supplement good foods but only to cover the gaps.
Detoxify your body regularly- a weekly fast, a monthly fast, or a quarterly cleanse based on your life style.
• As we age, natural tendency of the body is to loose its muscle mass and to replace it with fat mass. Our goal is to slow down the rate of muscle mass conversion to fat mass and retain as much muscle mass for as long as possible.
• No matter what age, we must stay active. Follow a routine of age appropriate exercises and activities that can help retain the muscle mass, reduce fat buildup, and keeps us flexible.

Mental:
Besides foods, we need to be aware of the stressful thoughts and emotions we take in from outside or cultivate within. We must figure a way to “metabolize” stress out of our system to remove “mental inflammation.” This can be a cause for many nerves related and other diseases.

Techniques for Aging Gracefully and Looking Younger
• Utilize our life experiences and spiritual knowledge to shift our mental attitudes to neutralize emotions or thoughts that are source of stress.
• Do breathing exercises in yoga and meditation can also help release the stress and eliminate mental inflammation.
• Keep the mind occupied by continuously learning new interesting and challenging things.
• Get good rest at night by sleeping at least 7 hours

Spiritual:
Spiritual component supports the both mental and physical. Studies have shown people with strong spiritual connections heal faster and have better immunity. I regard spiritual awareness as the cement holding the bricks together in the building. While the physical and mental components change with age, it is the spiritual component that remains unchanged and is a pillar of support in our aging gracefully.

Techniques for Aging Gracefully and Looking Younger
• Let your conscious be your guide
• Live in harmony with nature within and without (personal and social conduct according to laws of Nature)
• Find out your “gift” and make it a calling to share with the world

As you can tell, all physical, mental, and spiritual are inter-twined, support each other, and make us “whole.” We must identify with each component & address each for our “total” health and wellness in life’s journey while aging gracefully naturally without any risky aging products.  Be Well!

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8 Simple Steps in Lowering Blood Pressure Quickly & Naturally

Posted on: June 4th, 2011 by Rakesh Sethi 4 Comments

High blood pressure (hypertension) is perhaps one of the most common ailments in people over forty. Lately because of the life and diet style, high blood pressure is showing up in people in their twenties and thirties. High blood pressure is often called a “silent killer” and must take actions in lowering blood pressure quickly.  One way is to take a prescription drug in lowering blood pressure quickly. This may be desirable for an immediate short term fix. However, any medication taken for a long term can have ill effects on the body systems. So I would like to offer a natural alternative for lowering blood pressure and keeping it low naturally in the long run.

Causes:

For natural remedy to work in lowering the blood pressure quickly, you need to understand the potential causes of high blood pressure and MUST eliminate them. The most important causes of high blood pressure are stress and a wrong style of living. You can assess from the following which of the causes apply to you:

  • Continuous living under stress and tension- if such a lifestyle continues for a long period, the high blood pressure could become permanent even if the stressful lifestyle is altered or removed
  • Continuous consumption of high fat, low fiber, refined foods, and processed food diet
  • Excessive usage of alcohol, smoking, caffeine (coffee, tea, & cola drinks) in lifestyle can cause disruption in natural process of cleansing and detoxifying body systems. This disruption results in lodging of poisonous waste and toxins in the blood vessels walls and that hardens the blood vessels and or can form blockage.
  • Sedentary lifestyle combining with the above causes results in obesity and diabetes, and that can lead to high blood pressure
  • Recent studies have shown lack of sleep (5-6 hours) to increase risk of high BP by 350%

Natural Remedies in Lowering Blood Pressure Quickly and maintaining it low:

Carefully assess your life and diet style. Remove the leading causes contributing to the high blood pressure. Now follow the natural remedies in lowering the blood pressure quickly:

  1. Take a tablespoon of Amla (Indian Gooseberry) fruit juice (if desired with honey, as it is very sour) with breakfast.
  2. Take 8 to 12 oz. of Concord grape juice or black cherry juice per day.
  3. Take 2500 to 3000mg of garlic per day. That is about a clove of garlic with two meals.
  4. Squeeze fresh lemon or sprinkle lemon juice on lightly cooked vegetables.
  5. Eat real natural food (absolutely avoid refined processed foods that can stay good on the shelf for months). Replace processed food snacks with fresh fruits or vegetables. If you are familiar with Ayurvedic diet, follow the Kapha pacifying diet.  If not, you can learn it here.
  6. Exercise- 30 minutes of walking, bicycling, swimming, or jogging is an excellent help to relieve tension, retain muscles, and promote healthy blood circulation
  7. Yoga exercises such as sun salutations, crocodile pose, fish pose, dead man pose, vajrasana, and particularly pranayama are beneficial. However, if the blood pressure is 200mm or greater, please consult your doctor before taking on exercising.
  8. Make sure to get 7 hours of sleep every night.

Herbal Support:  Take BP Balance herbal formula as directed to help balance your body’s long-term response to stress and its effects. Take organic garlic vegetarian capsules, if you cannot eat the cloves.

Please note if you are already taking a high blood pressure medication, work with your doctor while you incorporate these changes in your diet and lifestyle. As you progress in time with these natural remedies, you will not require any prescription medication in keeping blood pressure lower. Make sure to consult with your doctor before discontinuing your medication. Be Well!

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8 Simple Steps to Natural Gastritis Cure

Posted on: May 16th, 2011 by Rakesh Sethi 165 Comments

herbal natural way to gastritis cureHeartburn, Gerd, Acid Reflux, or Gastritis are all signs of increase in “fire” energy in body.  This creates inflammation and irritation in the inner lining of the stomach. If left unattended, it can lead to ulcer and can contribute to other conditions. It is extremely important to have good digestive system for overall physical and mental health. This is the engine that pulls all the other body systems to health. Taking over the counter medications can help you suppress the symptoms but not eliminate the cause. Follow below the simple natural steps for gastritis cure.

First avoid the following causes before starting gastritis cure treatment outlined below:

  • Eating “poor” foods combination, uncooked foods, or overeating
  • Drinking excessive alcohol or caffeine drinks (completely remove these drinks till cured)
  • Eating excessive chili, pepper, and sour (acidic) sauces
  • Excessive worry, chronic anxiety, and continuous stress
  • Note cancer treatment chemotherapy can damage the stomach lining, wait after chemotherapy is over

Simple Steps for Gastritis cure, Acid Reflux, Heartburn, or Gerd:

  1. Keep fast for 2 to 3 days using only liquid diet of milk, soy or almond milk, and buttermilk (Only if your medical condition and body strength allows) Note fasting gives time to inflammation in your stomach to subside and cleanses your system of toxins
  2. Drink coconut water. It is an excellent natural food remedy for gastritis. It gives the stomach necessary rest and provides vitamins and minerals
  3. After fasting or if you can not keep fast, take smaller meals and in between take milk or plain yogurt drinks (buttermilk)
  4. Take 500mg of turmeric with each meal up to 4 times in one day
  5. Take fresh fruits like apple, banana, all berries, and grapefruit separately (not with milk or meals)
  6. Take only steamed and cooked vegetables with cilantro or mint and ginger
  7. Drink 60/40 combination of carrot juice and spinach juice
  8. Last meal should be taken at least 2 to 3 hours before bed time

Continue the above regimen till you see improvement in your gastritis cure. Gradually lower the turmeric to 1000mg per day and take 1000mg of Triphala after the last meal before bed time with warm milk.

Herbal Support: If you have occasional indigestion, use herbal formula Aci-Balance to promote balanced digestion.

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Vitamin D Foods: What’s so Hot About the Sunshine Vitamin?

Posted on: April 30th, 2011 by Dr. Pankaj Vij 5 Comments

In the past 5 years or so, we have seen a renewed interest in the sunshine vitamin because new data suggest benefits extending beyond bone health. Possibility of association of vitamin D deficiency has been described with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, pain, asthma, allergies, depression, multiple sclerosis, and even mortality. These reasons should be enough to convince us to add Vitamin D foods in our diet.

Rickets was first described in the 1600’s, as a disease of rich children (because they were getting less sunlight exposure than the poor). It was characterized by weak bones: bow-legs and bone pain. There is no question about the role of Vitamin D in bone health. Widespread use of cod liver oil and fortification of milk, foods containing vitamin D, led to the virtual disappearance of rickets in North America and Europe by the 1930’s.

Types of Vitamin D
Vitamin D comes in 2 forms: D2 or Ergocalciferol and D3 or Cholecalciferol
D3 is produced in the skin in response to sunlight (UV B radiation) or can be obtained from animal sources in the diet. D2 can only be acquired from a few plant sources.

Vitamin D Food sources: For vitamin D3 deep sea fatty fish, egg yolks, liver
Vitamin D Food sources: For vitamin D2 : rare sources in plants; primarily produced commercially by irradiation of yeast for fortification and supplementation

Foods containing both forms of vitamin D undergo identical metabolism. Both are converted to 25-hydroxyvitamin D in the liver and this 25(OH) D is used to measure vitamin D level in the lab. In the kidney, 25 (OH) D is further hydroxylated to 1, 25 (OH) D, which is biologically active form of vitamin D.

Vitamin D Deficiency and Diseases Research
1, 25 (OH) D has been well known to involve with calcium metabolism and bone health. The association between vitamin D insufficiency, sometimes defined as a level of 25 (OH) D below 30 ng/mL, and cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, pain, asthma, allergies, depression, multiple sclerosis, and mortality is being intensely investigated. The most promising research is a National Institutes of Health funded clinical trial with 20,000 participants which started this year, and will last 5 years. This should help clarify the benefits and risks of vitamin D supplementation in our diet.

Vitamin D Dosage
Until the research results are in, it is perfectly reasonable to find out your vitamin D level. Include foods with vitamin D plus take 1000-2000 units of D3 as a supplement along with your fish oil and low dose Aspirin(if over 45 or as recommended by your doctor) to maintain your health and wellness.

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