Dr. Priti Nanda Sibal identifies nine reasons vitamin D deficiency is so common: less sun exposure, low cholesterol from diet or statins, stress raising cortisol, poor sleep, and an imbalanced omega-3 to omega-6 ratio, often 1:20 in Indian diets. Impaired bile production and over-supplementation also block absorption and synthesis.
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Welcome to the next video of Food Medicine and Life channel, and you all must have heard my previous videos on vitamin D, but I am still getting lots of questions. The question for today is, why is vitamin D low in so many people? More than almost 90% people have low vitamin D. So let's look at that. Number 1 reason is, we— you all will agree, we all have started going less in the sunshine, and we all know that the sun rays fall on our skin combined with cholesterol, and that is when vitamin D is made, right? Number 2, but very, very important, is till now We were not testing for vitamin D very commonly. I remember about 8 years back, my sister was complaining of pain in her legs. This increased to such an extent that she had to stop driving her car and she had to keep a driver. And finally, she met a doctor in South Delhi who told her to get her vitamin D checked, and that was just 7. The moment her vitamin D came back to normal, her all the pains went away. Now testing has increased, and therefore we exactly know how many of us are deficient in vitamin D. Number 3, cholesterol. How many of you are eating good fats every day? Answer this question to yourself. Are you eating desi ghee, coconut oil, saturated fats? Because If cholesterol is low in your body, if you are on drugs like statins, what will happen is vitamin D will not be formed even if you're going in sunshine. So that's one big thing which we all need to correct. Number 4, what happens when we take a lot of vitamin D or we pop a lot of calcium supplements without knowing why we are popping them in? It increases calcium, it leads to stones, kidney stones, gallbladder stones, and other stuff. But most importantly, it also impacts our vitamin D levels. Number 6— number 5, I missed that one. So it is less bile being produced by our gallbladder. Do you know the bile salts which are exceptionally important for metabolism of fat. And vitamin D is what? A fat-soluble hormone. Therefore, having good bile salts and excellent bile flow is very, very important to have good amount of vitamin D in your body. Number 6, and you know the answer. Have you ever been in stress? If your answer is yes, it is not surprising that your vitamin D is low. Why? Because stress means increased cortisol. And let me tell you, friends, cortisol, vitamin D, all these hormones run for the same receptors. And therefore, more stress you have, cortisol goes and binds there, and less vitamin D is produced, and you have less vitamin D. Number 7, I am sure we all now are addicted to Netflix and TV and gaming despite corona times when we are not going out, but our sleep hours are not at 10 PM. We generally sleep late at 12, 1, and less you sleep, less vitamin D you have. Please keep your ears Open and alert, because now what I'm going to tell you is going to actually make you wonder. Nobody talked about it before. Yes, you know what? Vitamin D has to be in balance with vitamin F, and I'm sure you've not heard about it because when vitamins were renamed, somehow this vitamin was renamed as omegas. Now something is clicking, right? So vitamin D, what it does is It, you know, increases the calcium and takes us in the blood vessels. But vitamin F, what it does, it takes the calcium from the blood vessels and takes them to the skin, right? And that is where the whole process happens. Now, why does vitamin F go low? Because first, polyunsaturated acids, especially linolenic acid and alpha-linolenic acid, are very, very critical for our body's functioning. When our diets are deficient in cod liver oil, in flaxseed oil, almond, safflower oil, sunflower oil, all of these leafy vegetables, they decrease vitamin F. The symptoms would be you would have hives, thick skin, sunburns, muscle cramps, If you have any of these symptoms, friends, just keep in mind, are your omegas right? What is the function of vitamin F? It actually helps you burn calories, it helps give your cell a shape and structure, manages blood pressure, and most importantly, it also maintains your immunity, right? So having said this, A lot of connection has been seen that post summers, you know, when vitamin D goes high after all the sun exposure, vitamin F goes low. A lot of viral infections pop up— HPV virus, poliovirus— most of them pop up post summers. This is also because when your vitamin F is low, the viral infections increase, right? And 9th but very, very important point which is connected to vitamin D, vitamin F connection is Omega-3 and omega-6 ratios, which should be 1:1 to 1:2. But today, friends, what we are finding out is it is 1:20 in a lot of Indians. And the more screwed this ratio becomes, lesser the vitamin D our body produces. Stay healthy, stay happy, and keep your nutrients, your fats, your omegas in balance and enjoy a very healthy life. If you have liked this video and learned anything new in this video, please click the share button and share it with all your friends and family. Maybe they are taking vitamin D but still are not taking omegas. Happy New Year and all the best.
