November 2024

Seasonal Living – Fall

• Fall Into Fall – The Energy Of Autumn
• An Holistic Immune Support For Fall
• The Case For Vitamin D
• The Health Benefits Of Gratitude

As the night becomes crisp and the morning breeze forces another layer and a pair of socks, I feel my body shift into fall. In the fall, shorter days and the extra layer hide our skin from direct exposure to sunlight. When opportunities to expose our skin to sunlight, it’s time to make a case for vitamin D.

A Case For Vitamin D

WhY is vitamin D important for you?

Vitamin D – bones & muscles

Vitamin D promotes calcium absorption from the intestinal tract. Calcium and phosphorus mineralize the bones. People with deficient vitamin D have low calcium levels in their blood. Their bones become thin, brittle, and misshapen. A severe vitamin D deficiency causes children’s rickets and osteomalacia in adults. Vitamin D can also prevent osteoporosis in the elderly.

Calcium is involved in muscle contraction. Vitamin D deficiency causes low calcium levels in the blood, which causes muscle weakness and fatigue. This is especially important when we think about the heart. Acting as a muscle is just one of the heart’s functions, yet it is important. A severe deficiency in vitamin D might cause heart failure. Low vitamin D levels were found to be related to high blood pressure.

Vitamin D – metabolism and energy

Vitamin D improves mitochondrial function in cells. The mitochondria is an organ of the cell that produces the energy that the cell needs to perform all its functions. In the cellular respiration process, dioxide is released. Vitamin D acts as an antioxidant and reduces the oxidative stress in the cell. Doing that reduces the risks of sustained inflammation, autoimmune disease, and early aging.

Vitamin D in your gut

Vitamin D is essential for creating the tight junction that lines your gut. Think about the tight junction as velcro that binds together the cells of the guts. They keep large food molecules and bacteria from entering your bloodstream and initiating an immune response. When you are vitamin D deficient, you have “holes” in your tight junctions that cause local inflammation in the gut that travels through your body in the blood and initiates systemic inflammation.

Vitamin D and the immune system

Every fall between the fall equinox (September 22) and Thanksgiving, we hear about a steep increase in colds and flu, mainly because less exposure to sunlight leads to a decline in vitamin D. Vitamin D modulates the immune response of the body in a couple of ways:

Research shows a correlation between lower vitamin D during winter and respiratory tract infections. Macrophages and neutrophil cells are immune cells living in the airways’ linings. Think of them as small Pokemon swimming in the mucus of the respiratory tract and gobbling on pathogens. Vitamin D is needed for those cells to mature fully, allowing them to fulfill their job.

Vitamin D activates the T cells to do their job as part of the immune system. T cells are part of the adaptive immune system. They are why if you ever got chicken pox, you will never get it again. They ‘learn” specific pathogens and roam the blood looking for them. In adulthood, they are important in tracking chronic allergies and detecting tumor cells. In elderly people, T cells’ functionality decreases, making them more vulnerable to diseases.

Some drugs that reduce vitamin D synthesis are:

• Steroids
• Barbiturates
• Phenytoin ((such as Dilantin for seizures)
• Stomach acids and bile suppressant medication

Best conditions for vitamin D synthesis

The best time of day for the sun to initiate vitamin D synthesis is between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. when the sun is high in the sky.

Summer is a high time for creating vitamin D reserves. The winter sun is often weak, and you tend to cover your skin with layers, preventing significant vitamin D synthesis during the cold season. The exception to that rule is if you expose your body to the sun when the earth is covered with snow and sunlight is reflected from the snow on your body.

High altitude increases vitamin D synthesis, but air pollution and smog reduce vitamin D synthesis.

Supplementing with vitamin D

To act as an excellent preventive remedy for most diseases related to Vitamin D, you will need a serum (blood) level of 40-50IU/mL. For treating an already existing autoimmune disease, 50-90IU/mL is optimal. Levels higher than 100 IU/mL increase your risk of kidney stones and heart disease.

For most people, a dosage of 4000-5000 IU of vitamin D is all that they need. Because vitamin D is fat-soluble, it is best taken with a fatty meal or your main meal of the day.

Vitamin D works together with vitamin K2. Vitamin D helps calcium absorption, and vitamin K2 sends the calcium to the bones. I use Thorne vitamin D/K2. Ten drops daily give me about 5000IU of vitamin D and a gram of K2.

As we enter flu season, it is important to note that most of the measures taken by allopathic medicine aim to reduce symptoms and weaken pathogens. From the point of view of an herbalist, I would like to strengthen the host, meaning your innate immune capacity. For that, ensure your macro and micronutrient levels are replenished.