Vitamin D.

Today was windy and cold, and it down poured. This weather reminded me that summer is so over and that I need to start considering my vitamin D levels again. I met with my ND recently and we discussed vitamin D. I told her that I supplement (with a chewable tablet, supplying 1000 IUs of the vitamin) only during winter months. Everyone living in Canada should be supplementing with vitamin D in winter months and even in summer months if you aren't outdoors (and bearing skin) for hours and hours at a time because Canada is far away from the equator and because Canada is situated such that the angle of the sun doesn't our land in a way that we can easily absorb vitamin D from the sun. It is hypothesized that those deficient in vitamin D (and the majority of Canadians are) are at a higher risk for developing cancer. Although I though I was supplementing vitamin D well in winter months, I was wrong because even 1000 IUs wasn't enough. The sharp contrast in how much vitamin D I got in the summer (lots) compared to how little I got from the sun in the winter (virtually none), meant that I was still deficient overall. I am now taking 2000 IUs a day of vitamin D (on the tongue, in drop form). Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, so you can take your drops all one day (14...enough for the week).

Another interesting bit from today: you are taller in the morning than you are in the evening. The spinal column is made up of vertebrae that are stacked on top of one another but are separated by cartilaginous joints. These joints are sac-like and are filled with jelly-like nucleus pulposes. During the day, due to force of gravity constantly putting pressure on the spinal column, these sacs compress. However, during the sleep, when the spinal column is compression free, the nucleus pulposes have the ability to absorb more fluid and "plump up". Leaving you a couple of millimeters taller in the morning!

A bit on medicine: "Let your patients be teachers and let sickbeds be classrooms". - Paracelsus (1493-1591). He was a doctor who burned all his school's textbooks saying that everything to be learned about medicine would come from treating patients.