Vitamin Dee-licious

Okay, so I blogged last winter about SAD (Everybody Needs a Husky) but this year I’ve discovered something that those darned Eskimoes already knew.

Vitamin D.

As my younger friend, Kate, would say, ‘It’s the bomb!’

When I was feeling so low last winter, I went to the doctor and considered anitdepressants…anything to take away the dull, grey sludgey feeling of Februrary hanging over my mood. He actually suggested that I get my Vitamin D3 levels checked. I did — I was at 13! (Normal is 30-80).

Now for those citizens of the Arctic circle (or Rochester and Seattle) where the sun doesn’t shine as much as we’d like, I’ve heard in the past that they know to keep a steady diet of salmon. Guess what? It’s a natural source of Vitamin D3. Also cod liver oil, fortified milk, yogurt, etc. etc. etc. Guess what else? When I got the list of all the Vitamin D3 rich foods, I discovered I don’t eat ANY of them. (With the exception of cheese on my pizza…but that was WAY low on the Vita D-rich list). I also realized I was wearing 50 sunblock starting in May and June…so I wasn’t getting my Vitamin D3 that way, either. No wonder my low mood carried on through the spring the last couple of years. Who knew?

The doctor put me on a prescription Vitamin D supplement (50,000 IUs per week!) for 8 weeks. Finally, by August, my levels got up in normal range (32). Guess what else else? I started feeling like ME again. Not the drudge who inhabits my body during  winter. ME.

Flash forward to this winter. I’m taking a daily dose of over-the-counter Vitamin D3 (I’m taking 2000 IUs a day (twice the daily recommended amount), but my bloodword says I’m still only at 27, so I’m not in danger of hypervitaminosis D!) And guess what else else else? I haven’t been feeling SAD this winter.

Hallelujah!

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This entry was posted on 27 February 2011 at 17:44 and is filed under SAD, food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

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