Why Taking Vitamin D Is So Essential to Your Health with JJ Virgin

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Vitamin D generates antimicrobial peptides. It's effective at killing pathogens. It actually historically was once used as the treatment for infections before. Before antibiotics even existed. Who knew?

Here's jj, Virgin Triple board certified nutrition and fitness expert and four time New.

York Times best selling author.

It's time to reignite wellness.

Hey jj, here we are talking about the most important vitamin today for you to be taking. Because it's the vitamin, the fat soluble vitamin that a lot of us tend to be deficient in and that's a very bad thing if that's the case. So we will be talking today about vitamin D. I'm going to give you six big reasons as to why you're going to want to take it and also share with you what it does and why you're most likely deficient in it. Kind of hard to get from the diet alone. Okay. And also it's something that your body makes as well. So before we get into that and before we start talking about this underrated multitasking vitamin, it's actually a pro hormone that does so many different things in the body from helping you with weight loss to having great bones and a good immune system and a good mood. You definitely don't want to listen in to this. Before we dive in, I want to do a shout out to mking444 who gave a five star review on Apple iTunes and said as an RN and Health and wellness coach, I often refer my clients to JJ's products because they get results that are fun with zero deprivation. I'm so excited that JJ has podcast and I highly recommend following her to improve your life and I so appreciate that, especially since you are in the biz. So thank you so much for that and I'm going to put the show notes today@jjvirgin.com vitamin D and and of course you can always pop in if you haven't subscribed yet. Just go to subscribe to jj. While you're there leave a review so I can shout you out. And I've got one more thing to shout out and then I'll be right back with Everything you ever wanted to know about Vitamin D. Hey, jj, Virgin here.

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Alrighty. Welcome back. So I'm going to dive in and share with you why you should be taking vitamin D. There's a bunch of different reasons and we're going to go over six today. The first one being the probably the most obvious one. And that is for strong bones and teeth. Why? Because you can't absorb your calcium without vitamin D. Now, we all have heard calcium is needed for strong bones and strong teeth. And without vitamin D, it's not going to be absorbed. So it's super important here. And vitamin D is playing that key role for calcium to be absorbed by the gut. In fact, multiple studies showed just this one study Showing that vitamin D is important because it regulates calcium absorption and is what promotes calcium absorptions in the small intestine. And the other one showing that this regulation is what allows calcium levels to be within the normal range in the body and what helps promote bone strength without which can lead to conditions such as osteoporosis. And remember, it's all about balance and regulation, too. And one of the important things you're going to hear about throughout this podcast is that we're talking vitamin D, but we'll also talk about how vitamin D should be taken with vitamin K. And we're talking about D3 here as supplemental along with K1 and 2. Here's why vitamin D is going to help you absorb the calcium and vitamin K is going to direct it to go to the right spots. And this is important because you do not just want rogue calcium around that is where you can have it lay down plaque and create issues like atherosclerosis. So no rogue calcium. In fact, a little aside story about this. So my son Grant, and if you've read my book, Warrior mom, also known as Miracle Mindset, you know the story of my son Grant. In fact, I'll put the link in the show notes to my movie, you are stronger than you think. But in that he, he was hit by a car. He had multiple brain bleeds, torn aorta and 13 fractures. Now, most what I ever talked about was focused on the, the brain bleeds and the torn aorta because the torn aorta is what was his biggest risk initially that was going to make him lose his life within the first 24 hours. Then, of course, he was in a coma and had a massive traumatic brain injury. But the other thing and just shows you perspective at the time, I'm like, oh, so he's got 13 fractures. Like, I was solely focused after the torn aorta was repaired on the brain bleeds. But the other thing that happened after that was, was because he had all of these fractures. His femurs were broken in half. He had a crushed heel. I mean, it just went on and on and on. Basically his body was covered in casts, was that his body just started to throw out so much calcium in order to repair the damage. And some of that calcium went to the wrong spot and created something called a pseudo aneurysm that nearly cut off his blood supply and was another thing that nearly killed him. So it is super important to make sure that calcium is going to the right places and not the wrong places. All right, next one. And I want you just to Think about this. So one of the ways that we get vitamin D. Vitamin D is called the sunshine vitamin. We absorb it through the, from the sun, through our skin. We make it from the sun. We, we have the sun shining on our skin and we make vitamin D. Now think about why people get sick more often during the winter. Well, think about, you know, we have weather extremes, of course, but we also have less exposure to the sunlight, so we're making less vitamin D. So that is one of the things I want you to start thinking about here. Because as we start to talk later about dosing vitamin D, you may find that if you're someone who lives in a seasonal area, as opposed to me, I live in Florida. So it goes from warm to hot to warm, from sunny to sunnier to sunniest. Right. But if you're in one of those places that is, that does have real winters and you are inside, say Minnesota, you will need to rotate adjust your vitamin D intake based on the seasons. And this is really important to note as you may have to take two to three times the amount of vitamin D in the winter that you would need during the summer. All right, so vitamin D, why is it important for your immune system? And when people look at the immune system and they'll say, oh, I'm going to take a zinc lozenge or oh, I'm going to take more vitamin C, the number one thing I look at for boosting immune system beyond making sure that you're getting good sleep is vitamin D. That's the first one to me that is single most important here. Vitamin D generates antimicrobial peptides. It's effective at killing pathogens. It actually historically was once used as the treatment for infections before and it antibiotics even existed. Who knew? Also, it's been shown to promote the induction of cath. I hope I can say this right. Let's see. Cathin cathedins. Anyway, they're important peptides that compat path combat pathogens. So they are chemicals that kill off the bad guys. How's. How do you like that? For an easier interpretation. In fact, it's important as shown in tests and lab mice where deficiency in the genes that this peptide makes them more susceptible to skin infections. It's also vitamin D deficiency has also been found to be correlated with increased rates of other infections and has been hypothesized that epidemic influenza is associated with low levels of vitamin D. And just think about when we tend to have influenza because it's not in the middle of the summer, is it? So one of the things I would really look at here because we're going to talk about testing. Well, heck, I'll just bring it up right now is you want to test for vitamin D by having this done by your doctor. It's a 25 hydroxy vitamin D test. 25 hydroxy vitamin D test. And what you're going to look for there is optimizing your vitamin d somewhere between 50 and 80 ngs per ML. Again, if you live in a seasonal area, you're going to want to test this twice a year. Right. So you'll want to look at it during the summer and during the winter. So you really know where you need to be dosing your nutrients, your vitamin D at. And you always take vitamin D with K. I'm going to say that a bunch of times during this and I'm talking vitamin D3. Okay, now the other one and again, remember this vitamin D is known as a sunshine hormone, sunshine vitamin. Think about when we tend to get more mood disorders, seasonal affective disorder. It's during the winter. And so that is also key critical here. Now vitamin D is actually, we call it a pro hormone. It's actually a hormone which as we know hormone imbalances can, can mess up the way that you eat, you think and you feel. But we also know low, low vitamin D levels means a high risk for depression and mood issues. And that actually there was a study that showed that supplementing vitamin D can help improve mood and reduce symptoms of depression. So they did a study of 441 subjects and those who are given a higher dose of vitamin D, improve their mood and helped alleviate symptoms of depression. 8 week placebo test on 78 adults over the age of 60 with moderate to severe depression showed that vitamin D supplementation can help combat depression. And finally, low levels of calcitol, which is vitamin D2 or levels of calcitol vitamin D2 were lower in those who had depression or anxiety compared to the control of healthy individuals showing that lower vitamin D levels are associated with depression anxiety. Here's the thing, if you are dealing with with mild to moderate depression, and I must say I'm not a doctor nor do I play one on this podcast. I'm not talking about extreme but like with every single person, to me the basic things you should be looking at are fish oil and vitamin D. And of course we know one of the great places you can get vitamin D3 is in fatty fish. So give yourself a two for one and eat some great wild salmon. If you are brave enough, eat Those sardines. I really want to be a sardine eater. Yikes. But sadly, they still scare me. We'll see. We'll see. One of these days, I just, I just feel like I'm going to get them worked into my diet. I have great recipes in my cookbooks for them. Okay, next one. Vitamin D. And if I haven't gotten your attention so far with the immune health, mood health, bone health, how about makes your weight loss easier. In fact, studies show that vitamin D can help control appetite, help you lose weight. One study found that overweight adults who supplemented vitamin D lost more weight than those who did not. And multiple studies showed that vitamin D deficiency is associated with higher BMIs or obesity. And that vitamin D, and having more vitamin D in the diet has been shown to help with weight loss versus those who had lower vitamin E. Now, here's one of the mechanisms of action for this, is that vitamin D can help support good insulin sensitivity. Remember, when you eat, blood sugar goes up and insulin responds to, to bring blood sugar back down. But if insulin is. Your body can't hear it as well. If you're more resistant to it, if insulin stays higher than it should, it makes it hard to burn off fat. It makes you more inflamed, which is its own risk factor for obesity. It makes you hungrier, right? So improving insulin sensitivity is key, key. And if you do have any type of issues with blood sugar, insulin, vitamin D, it's gotta have vitamin D at optimal levels on board. But I hope you're kind of getting that. We all need to have optimal levels of vitamin D on board. And my big shout out is this should be like, we go to the doctors, we get blood tests. This needs to be a part of every single blood test. It is key, critical to monitor your vitamin D levels. And there are some people who genetically just do not make vitamin D well and will always have to supplement. I am one of those people and I very rarely find someone who doesn't need to supplement vitamin D. It's just as you'll see from the foods that I'm going to walk you through. You know, it's just not in that many of the foods we eat. Okay, next one. Vitamin D helps you maintain a healthy heart. And remember, this is our number one killer here as we get older is heart disease. So it's got properties that help protect the heart. And vitamin D deficiency is associated with heart failure, hypertension and heart disease. Also remember what I said before, anytime you're improving insulin sensitivity and it also can help reduce Inflammation, it's going to be important for your heart as well. So here are some studies that show how vitamin D is important for your heart. There was one with men who had a history of vitamin D deficiency, twofold risk for a heart attack. And then another one in Germany on elderly women. I wonder what elderly is anymore. To me, elderly now just keeps, I keep pushing that, pushing that number back, kicking that can down the road. All right, so elderly women over an eight week period show that vitamin D supplementation helped regulate blood pressure as compared to the control. Okay, and next one, it is super important for having healthy muscles. And so, you know, remember, as we age, if you don't use it, you lose it. But we also want to do everything we can to help support good muscle function. So you want to make sure that especially as you're working out, you've got good vitamin D on. Remember, vitamin D is fat soluble, so you might even only have to take it once a week. That's one of the ways to do it, is to take a high dose once a week. I take it every day in my daily Dixie cup full of supplements that I take. But you can also dose it once a week as well at a higher dose because it is fat soluble and stored. But you do want to make sure that you have good levels, optimal levels rather of vitamin D on board because it will help improve muscle function. Important. Okay, so why are we not getting enough vitamin D? What the heck is going on? Turns out, I mean, really go outside 20, 30 minutes a day in the sun without sunscreen. Remember, sunscreen blocks vitamin D. So this is a big challenge. That's the first one. Or just not getting out in the sun for that 20 to 30 minutes. In the perfect world, you're out in the sun, walking around with skin exposed, not naked. I think you get arrested unless you, like, live somewhere where you can pull that one off. Some kind of crazy commune or maybe out in the middle of nowhere. But for the rest of us who do not have that, you know, arms and legs are exposed 20, 30 minutes a day. Well, if you live in a climate where it's 30 degrees, that's probably not happening. Or your indoor days, or it's overcast, et cetera, or you're wearing sunscreen. Also, as you age, your ability to produce vitamin D goes down. Also, there are different types of medication, the purple pill, for example, that can reduce vitamin D in the body. So, you know, here's a couple things you're going to want to do again. You want to test, test, test Test, test, test, don't guess. So super important is that you're going to want to test. That's number one. Number two, you want to optimize for 50 to 80 ngs per milliliter. And I'll put the link to this. My kind of my, my go to guy on Vitamin D is Dr. Holic. He has done the majority of the research on it and so we will put him in the show notes. Here are some of the and we'll also put a list of the top foods and their vitamin D levels. But some of the ones big ones are fatty fish, salmon and sardines cheese. If you are not dairy sensitive, I find most people are dairy intolerant. So that's kind of off the list. Beef liver, not one of my favorites. I don't know about you. And if you are doing that, make sure you're having grass fed grass finish liver. Oh my gosh, mushrooms. Mushrooms have so many great things about them too. So and especially hen of the wood mushrooms. Whenever I can find those out, I get them. And egg yolks if you're not intolerant. Although most people, if they're intolerant to eggs, it's the egg white. And remember with EG yolks this is where it's key critical. Remember this saying, remember you are what you eat ate. That is so important to remember. So your egg yolks, you want to make sure that you're getting pastured eggs to really get the key nutrients that are in that egg yolk. And if you've been one of those people that's been avoiding the egg yolk because of cholesterol, do not be fooled by that. First of all, to really absorb the protein of the white, you need the yolk in there too. There's so much good stuff in the yolk, one of it being vitamin D. And you want to get that real yellow yolk the pastured eggs have. And where do you get in trouble? The best way to have an egg is to have a poached egg. When you like fry it at heat, at high temperature and oxidize it or you know, powdered egg yolks, that's where the challenges can be. Okay, so one of the things you can kind of see is it's hard, challenging to get vitamin D on a consistent basis. This is where getting a good vitamin D supplement is super important. And you also want to make sure that you're always taking that vitamin D with K. Very important. Remember you want to do that because you want to make sure that not only you absorbing your calcium but you're directing it to the right place. All right now after the break I'm just going to give you a little wrap up your action steps, your marching orders from this. So hang with me. I'll be right back.

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All right, welcome back. So jjvirgin.com forward/itamin D. We will put the resources in here. I'm going to put in a link to my vitamin D plus I have a vitamin D with vitamin K1 and 2 in it. And remember you're supplementing with vitamin D3. The only difference would be if you are a vegan but you are not going to get it's way better to take the D3. This is one where if you can just take the D3 you're gonna be better off. You can also get vitamin D from mushrooms as well. So that's another option. But remember D with K. The only difference would be if you are on a blood thinner. That's where you want to talk to a doctor. Because K is super important for helping direct calcium to the right places in the body. It will interfere with your blood thinner. So you do to talk to a doc if you are on blood thinners you're going to get that test 25 hydroxy vitamin D. We'll also link to my buddies over at Lab iq. So if you need to do that test and you want to do it inexpensively, you'll be able to do that there. You'll be able to hit that link and then the big reasons. Remember 25, 25 hydroxy vitamin D. We'll put the name of the test and you're optimizing for 50 to 80 ngs per milliliter. Why? Because vitamin D, strong bones and teeth, healthy immune system, good moods, weight loss and appetite, heart, healthy insulin sensitivity and good muscle function. And well I think that's pretty well says it all. And remember cycling it during the summer and winter if you live in seasonal places. So this is one that you might find that during the summer you only need 2,000 IUs and during the winter you need 10,000 IUs. So you may have to rotate rotate this, which is totally normal if you live in a seasonal place. And again, jjvirgin.com forward/itamin D Alrighty, I'll see you next time. Oh my goodness, I almost forgot. Love to shout you out with a review as well. So if you've not left a review, please, please please. There's my humble ask to leave a review. It helps us out a ton and I will shout you out. Alrighty jj virgin.com vitamin D and you can subscribe to the podcast so you don't miss any of the goodness at. Subscribe to JJ.com See ya.

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