Maybe you listened to the State of the Nation Address (SONA) last night.
Then again, maybe you didn’t. You had something more important to do, like ironing clothes or sweeping out your kitchen, or cleaning the fridge.
Those who listened, came away with an intense sensation of De Ja Moo (the feeling that you’ve heard this bull before). In fact, it’s the same video tape that’s been playing at every major political event for the past how many years. Promises and no action.
Talk about a foot-in-mouth epidemic…
At least there is one thing everyone can agree on: The nation is in quite a state.
Sound a bit like your 2026 New Year’s Resolutions, right?
Let’s have a State of the Body Address (SOBA). Yes, it makes for sobering reading.
- Are you still fighting addictive behaviours or did you slip back? Are you now making excuses for why you are not even fighting anymore?
- Are you (still) eating the right kind of food (food that spent little or no time inside a factory on its way to your table)? Or are you cheating and defending your choices?
- Are you still sticking to good habits like regular walks or quality time with friends or family? Or are you making excuses why you cannot find the time?
- Are you supplementing with the right nutrients at the right doses? Or are you again following the “shot gun approach” (buying cheap multivits to cover all the bases)?
Ouch.
It is easy to point fingers at waffling politicians, but bear in mind: some fingers point back at you.
We’ve written extensively (in fact, ad nauseum) about the most important nutrients you need to supplement (yawn). Were you listening?
Today, we (again) focus on the single most important nutrient you need to supplement. This is the conductor of your body’s hormonal orchestra, the master builder, the cleaning janitor, the deep-digging miner and the healing physician.
Yes, we’re talking Vitamin D. Again.
Modern life has quietly (?) turned us into an indoor species. We wake under artificial light, work under artificial light, exercise under artificial light and wind down under artificial light. Notice a pattern? Then we wonder why our energy flickers, our mood swings and our immune system dips.
Our bodies weren’t made for this.
For most of us, our bodies see as much sunlight as a Victorian ghost or a particularly dedicated basement gamer.
We were built to roam the great outdoors, but here we are, steadily evolving into indoor cats with wifi.
“So what?” you ask. “I’m quite comfortable in the flickering indoors. And we have wifi.”
If living indoors was fatal, we’d think twice before spending our entire life in man-made caves. The thing is, living indoors isn’t fatal, it just weakens every aspect of your health. This means all manner of chronic illness and pain befriend you, which, in turn, results in you giving your life’s savings to Big Pharma in exchange for a solution that never works as advertised.
Yes, it sounds like “The Matrix” – your mind and body feeding invisible, nameless parasitic beings.
Who would have thought that sunlight could be so political? Choosing sunlight over artificial light is almost an act of civil disobedience, tantamount to treason. In background, you hear faint shouts of, “Are you wearing sunblock?” and “Don’t forget to put on a hat!” Even the weather report warns us to fear sunlight.
Oops! Sunlight has no wifi…
Understanding the Sunlight / Vitamin D connection
Strictly speaking, Vitamin D is no nutrient. It’s not present in food in substantial amounts.
Also, still strictly speaking, it is not a vitamin, since our bodies produce it (from cholesterol, nogal).
But, thank goodness, it was declared a vitamin, which allows you to supplement it without a prescription (sort of).
The rays that turn cholesterol into Vitamin D are known as UV-B. Coincidentally, these are the rays you are told to avoid at all costs.
Sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or more blocks 97% of UVB. In other words, no Vitamin D is produced in skin underneath sunblock.
A fair-skinned person exposing about 25% of skin (free from sunscreen) to the sun for 15 minutes will produce about 10,000 IU of vitamin D.
Perspective: 10,000 IU of vitamin D will raise your blood Vitamin D level by 0.05 ng/ml…
Put another way: You need a LOT of UVB sunlight to substantially raise D levels.
Remember this “10,000 IU” number. It turns out to be close to what our bodies need EVERY DAY under ideal conditions. As you can see, it does not raise our blood levels much, but if our bodies get this amount daily, we can replenish what we lose daily. For most of us, the number is higher, since our bodies swim in a sea of man-made radiation. Welcome to the 21st century!
Even Hawaiian surfers using sunscreen have low Vitamin D levels. Those who don’t, have levels around 65 ng/ml, which should be considered “normal”, not the upper end of normal. In fact, at 65 ng/ml, some labs will flag the result as High (No, that has nothing to do with the stuff surfers smoke).
Frankly, my dear, you’re not getting enough UVB.
It Gets Worse…
Cholesterol is the brick that builds Vitamin D. One thus also has to wonder about cholesterol-lowering drugs and low-cholesterol diets, which remove this basic building block. Remember the war on eggs in the diet? And against red meat?
And… there is growing evidence suggesting that electromagnetic radiation (EMR) from mobile phones and wireless devices may negatively impact vitamin D levels.
No, we’re not making this up.
In fact, the past 100 years could correctly be termed, “The Secret War on Vitamin D.” It is beginning to sound like a conspiracy, right?
Anyone who stands between you and higher Vitamin D levels is not your friend.
Dietary Sources of Vitamin D
There isn’t much Vitamin D in food.
The highest food source, cod liver oil, contains about 10,000 IU / 100g (when last did you drink 100 g of cod liver oil??). Other sources contain much less.
No other food source comes close to cod liver oil (and none taste as vile).
You simply cannot get enough Vitamin D from food.
There is a different dietary path to Vitamin D, but it doesn’t help us much. Eating foods high in cholesterol (= eggs), you provide your body with the building block it needs to produce Vitamin D. However, you still need UVB sunlight to turn this cholesterol into Vitamin D. Back to square one. No sunlight exposure, no Vitamin D.
Why Vitamin D3 Matters
Every cell in your body contains Vitamin D receptors. This indicates it is important to all aspects of life.
Here are ten science-backed functions of Vitamin D in the body:
- Absorbing minerals like calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, copper and selenium from the gut.
- Stimulating bone formation and remodelling
- Speeding up neuronal repair (= dementia prevention)
- Slowing cancer cell growth to a crawl
- Maintaining healthy immune function
- Suppressing excessive immune function (= inflammation and auto-immunity)
- Improving cardiovascular health (lowers blood pressure, improves heart muscle function)
- Improving glucose metabolism by boosting pancreatic beta-cell function (= anti-diabetic)
- Improving mental state (antidepressant and anti-anxiety effects)
- Producing vital hormones such as cortisol, testosterone, estrogen and progesterone
Why isn’t this stuff in our drinking water?
Life Without Vitamin D
If Vitamin D does so many things, what does life without (or with low) Vitamin D look like?
- Weak bones (osteopenia, osteoporosis)
- Weak muscles
- Painful joints
- Poor memory / dementia
- Poor mental health
- Poor gut health
- Poor libido
- Auto-immune diseases
- Asthma
- Regular infections
- Hypertension
- Heart failure
- Diabetes
- Cancer
What Are Your Options?
- Become a beach bum
- Drink half a cup of cod liver oil daily
- Take a Vitamin D supplement
On the off chance you prefer the last option, which supplement should you take?
Choosing A Vitamin D Supplement
Our dear government limits Vitamin D supplements to 1,000 IU / day. They are really concerned about your health (in the way a tiger is concerned about your blood).
In other words, buying a Vitamin D supplement from a retail store isn’t going to help you much.
What is more (or, should we rather say: less?) is that many of these cost-cutting supplements use Vitamin D2 instead of Vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol).
Next, prescription-only high dose Vitamin D supplements available to South Africans are not bioavailable. Put another way: The Vitamin D in them is not absorbed. Various doctors have tested and confirmed this. Considering that the same Big Pharma companies also sell medicines for all the ills and maladies caused by low Vitamin D levels, this is hardly surprising.
At Integrow Health, we solved the Vitamin D problem in two different ways:
Mega D3 (Cholecalciferol)
Our formulation contains an astounding 40 000 IU of Vitamin D3 per capsule. This Vitamin D3 is embedded in a matrix that enhances absorption. It is so powerful, most of us only need to take one capsule a week. A 30 capsule unit should thus last you six months.
FIRE Drops
This is another fabulous option when you want more control or when capsules are not preferred. We’re thinking toddlers and children, for example. Each drop provides 1,000 IU of Vitamin D3 in a matrix of Macadamia Nut Oil for enhanced absorption. With 900 drops per bottle, one bottle will also last you a very long time.
Call it “Sunshine In A Bottle.
Put your SOBA promises into action (again). Start with Vitamin D!
To your (thriving) health!
The Team at Integrow Health
