{"id":1021,"date":"2010-04-16T15:00:11","date_gmt":"2010-04-16T15:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/8-reasons-to-test-for-vitamin-d.html"},"modified":"2010-04-16T15:00:11","modified_gmt":"2010-04-16T15:00:11","slug":"8-reasons-to-test-for-vitamin-d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/8-reasons-to-test-for-vitamin-d.html","title":{"rendered":"8 Reasons to Test for Vitamin D"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Friday is D-day at my house, vitamin D-day, that is.&nbsp; I&#8217;m still working my way back from an alarmingly low blood level a few months back, so I take a cheerfully green, 50,000 IU gelcap with my lunch each Friday (remember, your body absorbs vitamin D better when you take it with a fat-containing meal, so oh, darn &#8211; chocolate might have happened today!).<\/p>\n<p>If you haven&#8217;t had your vitamin D level checked lately and are looking for some info on why you should, look no further than <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/nalini-chilkov\/10-reasons-you-should-be_b_525914.html\" target=\"_blank\">this Huffington Post piece<\/a> by integrative physician Dr. Nalini Chilkov.<\/p>\n<p>Are you on top of your vitamin D?&nbsp; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/nalini-chilkov\/10-reasons-you-should-be_b_525914.html\" target=\"_blank\">Check out Dr. Chilkov&#8217;s article<\/a> for more D-licious facts.<\/p>\n<p><u><b>8 Reasons You Should Be Tested for Vitamin D<\/b><\/u><\/p>\n<p>1. <strong>Vitamin D can reduce your risk of the flu and complications<br \/>\nof flu<\/strong>.  Vitamin D contributes to lowering the incidence of<br \/>\ninfections and inflammation during the fall-winter flu season.  The<br \/>\nCanadian government has recommended increased Vitamin D intake as part<br \/>\nof their flu prevention strategy, including prevention of H1N1 Swine<br \/>\nFlu.<\/p>\n<p>2. <strong>Vitamin D can reduce your risk of depression<\/strong>. Low<br \/>\nlevels of Vitamin D are associated with depression.  Sun exposure is<br \/>\nknown to be a factor in relieving depression, especially winter<br \/>\ndepression also known as seasonal affective disorder.<\/p>\n<p>3. <strong>Vitamin D can reduce chronic muscle aching and pain.<\/strong><br \/>\nVitamin D helps to normalize blood calcium which is required for tight<br \/>\nshortened muscles to soften, lengthen and relax out of spasm.  When<br \/>\ncalcium is available to the muscles, menstrual cramps lessen.<\/p>\n<p>4. <strong>Vitamin D can reduce your risk of cancer.<\/strong>  Low<br \/>\nlevels of Vitamin D are associated with increased incidence of many<br \/>\ncancers.  Vitamin D normalizes cell to cell communication, impacts<br \/>\nuncontrolled cell growth and allows cells to differentiate into normal<br \/>\ncells with a normal life cycle.<\/p>\n<p>5. <strong>Vitamin D can reduce your risk of cardiovascular disease,<br \/>\nstroke, heart attack and <\/strong><strong>atherosclerosis.<\/strong><br \/>\nVitamin D has been shown to protect the lining of your blood vessels.<\/p>\n<p>6. <strong>Vitamin D can reduce your risk of developing Type 1 Diabetes<br \/>\nby 80%<\/strong>.  Low levels of Vitamin D are found in diabetics.<\/p>\n<p>7. <strong>Vitamin D can reduce your risk of getting autoimmune diseases<br \/>\nlike Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Hashimoto&#8217;s Thyroiditis,<br \/>\nInflammatory Bowel Disease and Lupus.<\/strong>  Low levels of Vitamin D<br \/>\nare associated with increased auto- immune attack, breakdown of your<br \/>\nown tissues and loss of normal functions.  Vitamin D supplementation has<br \/>\nbeen shown to reduce the risk of multiple sclerosis by 40%.<\/p>\n<p>8. <strong>Vitamin D can reduce your risk of bone fractures, bone loss<br \/>\nand osteoporosis<\/strong>.  Low levels of Vitamin D prevent your body<br \/>\nfrom normal calcium metabolism and normal bone formation.  Both men and<br \/>\nwomen are at increased risk for bone loss and fractures as they age.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Like what you see? <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/feedburner.google.com\/fb\/a\/mailverify?uri=FreshLiving&amp;amp;loc=en_US\"><font color=\"#023d89\"><strong>Click here to subscribe<\/strong><\/font><\/a><strong> and get Fresh Living in your in-box every day!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Friday is D-day at my house, vitamin D-day, that is.&nbsp; I&#8217;m still working my way back from an alarmingly low blood level a few months back, so I take a cheerfully green, 50,000 IU gelcap with my lunch each Friday (remember, your body absorbs vitamin D better when you take it with a fat-containing meal,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,72,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-holly-lebowitz-rossi","category-food","category-health"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>8 Reasons to Test for Vitamin D - Fresh Living<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/8-reasons-to-test-for-vitamin-d.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"8 Reasons to Test for Vitamin D - Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Friday is D-day at my house, vitamin D-day, that is.&nbsp; I&#8217;m still working my way back from an alarmingly low blood level a few months back, so I take a cheerfully green, 50,000 IU gelcap with my lunch each Friday (remember, your body absorbs vitamin D better when you take it with a fat-containing meal,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/8-reasons-to-test-for-vitamin-d.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-04-16T15:00:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"hrossi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"8 Reasons to Test for Vitamin D - Fresh Living","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/8-reasons-to-test-for-vitamin-d.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"8 Reasons to Test for Vitamin D - Fresh Living","og_description":"Friday is D-day at my house, vitamin D-day, that is.&nbsp; I&#8217;m still working my way back from an alarmingly low blood level a few months back, so I take a cheerfully green, 50,000 IU gelcap with my lunch each Friday (remember, your body absorbs vitamin D better when you take it with a fat-containing meal,&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/8-reasons-to-test-for-vitamin-d.html","og_site_name":"Fresh Living","article_published_time":"2010-04-16T15:00:11+00:00","author":"hrossi","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/8-reasons-to-test-for-vitamin-d.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/8-reasons-to-test-for-vitamin-d.html","name":"8 Reasons to Test for Vitamin D - Fresh Living","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-04-16T15:00:11+00:00","dateModified":"2010-04-16T15:00:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/168fb6fdfd4f4d1a2e41e628b308b687"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/8-reasons-to-test-for-vitamin-d.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/8-reasons-to-test-for-vitamin-d.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/8-reasons-to-test-for-vitamin-d.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"8 Reasons to Test for Vitamin D"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/","name":"Fresh Living","description":"Holistic, Health and Wellness","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/168fb6fdfd4f4d1a2e41e628b308b687","name":"hrossi","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b92\/b928efbbb02076837659d614a160f471x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/b92\/b928efbbb02076837659d614a160f471x96.jpg","caption":"hrossi"},"description":"Holly Lebowitz Rossi is Beliefnet's Health and Relationships Editor. A graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Divinity School, she has more than a decade of experience writing about religion and spirituality for Newsweek, The Washington Post, Spa Finder, Sojourners, Search, and many other publications. Her commentaries have also been heard on NPR\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153All Things Considered.\" When not at her desk, you can find her baking, in her garden, or rockin' out in water aerobics class. She lives in Arlington, Mass. Visit http:\/\/www.hollyrossi.com for more.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/author\/hrossi"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}