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Do you believe that the majority of patients attending clinics and especially women don't know that the cause of their sense of tiredness is the lack of a particular vitamin, and the cure is very simple?

Well, let us ask you a few questions; do you ever feel depressed or tired for no reason, is you hair falling? Or maybe you feel pain in bones and limbs (especially when waking up in the morning in the winter), is your scalp sweating excessively? Or do you have stomach problems (such as: inflammation of the intestine)? Or are you suffering from excess weight?

If your answer to the previous questions is Yes, I can tell you that you may be suffering from a decrease in the Sun vitamin in your body, vitamin D, or what is known as the vitamin of happiness. You can confirm this by doing a blood test, and if you find that your body lacks vitamin D, you have to follow a healthy diet to return to the average range of vitamin D. The recovery process will take around 6 months, so no need to worry.

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Source: www.healthspan.co.uk

Vitamin D deficiency affects approximately 50% of the world population. Recent studies demonstrated that women are more prone to vitamin D deficiency than men, and this deficiency is due to a lack of exposure to sunlight or limited activities outside the home because of environmental factors (such as air pollution and dust). Recently it has been observed that women avoid exposure to sunlight, which affects their ability to fight chronic diseases and depression.

Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin, it exists naturally in very few foods, but it is produced internally when the body is exposed to UV light that convert into vitamin D. It has a huge role in proper bone-building, and without vitamin D bones can become thin and brittle, because it works to prevent rickets in children, along with calcium. Most doctors tend to advise mothers to expose their children to sunlight at sunrise or right before sunset, to get the daily needed dose of vitamin D. As for the elderly, who have dark skin, they tend to be more at risk of vitamin D deficiency, as age effects the production of vitamin D.

Dark skinned people need 10 times the required amount of sun exposure to produce the same amount of vitamin D compared to people with fair skin. Skin hues are a natural sunscreen and sun screen products reduce the exposure of the skin to the Sun and the production of vitamin D, so you should pay attention to the types of sunscreens you apply.

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Source: www.healthnwellnessmantra.com

There are few foods that contain vitamin D; you can get some food supplements containing the vitamin as needed in different units, but there's no better way to get vitamin D than from Mother Nature! It’s found in: Salmon, tuna, orange juice, white beans, and egg yolk which gives us 7% of our daily need.

The correct exposure to direct sunlight (to one third of the body) is for 10 to 30 minutes (for light skin) three times a week, & 30 minutes to 3 hours (for dark skin), with the need to wear sunglasses and a hat to protect the head.

To conclude, it is crucial that we expose ourselves to sunlight in moderate amounts and consume food that is rich in vitamin D such as: fish, egg and beans which are considered the basic resources of vitamin D.

References:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3356951/ 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25791862 

 


Fatima Elzahra Awad

Fatima is a pharmacist by training and interested in family health.