Vitamin D is still very much a hot topic in health news. In fact, nearly 5000 papers with vitamin D in the title have been published since 2009.
The most well-known actions of vitamin D are to help regulate calcium in the body and support bone and muscle health, but more and more benefits of this essential nutrient are being discovered all the time.
In a recent study published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers investigated the possibility that vitamin D may have a positive benefit on life expectancy.
The researchers looked at how higher vitamin D levels may reduce the risk of chronic illness in six regions around the world – Africa, the Americas, Eastern Mediterranean, Europe, Southeast Asia and the Western Pacific – and their results suggested that there would be an estimated increase in life expectancy, for all six regions studied, if average vitamin D levels were doubled.
In Australia, vitamin D levels in the population remain a concern, despite the fact that we are blessed with sunny skies – sunshine being our main source of vitamin D throughout most of the year. While it’s important to be aware of sun safety and to “slip, slop, slap”, we can get our daily dose of D from the sun with just 10-15 minutes of unprotected sun exposure everyday outside of the peak UV times (11am-4pm).
Do you feel you get enough vitamin D?