CityView Magazine

CityViewNC.com | 57 Your Health Your Health O ld age ain't for sissies. Or at least that's what one of my 80-year-old patients tells me every time I see her. Like many of my elderly patients, she has high blood pressure, arthritis, depression and various aches and pains. Could she also have a vitamin D deficiency? And if she does, would treating it cure her arthritis, fix her hypertension and make her pain free? The Institute of Medicine is revamping its 1997 guidelines for vitamin D intake. And when they are published next year, the institute will likely recommend that most of us need to make a change. Whether we realize it or not, our country is in the midst of an epidemic, according to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Historically, Americans were only aware of vitamin D deficiency when vitamin levels were low enough to cause rickets, a childhood disease affecting bone development. D DEFICIENT BY DR. LENNY SALzBERG We know now that vitamin D is a hormone that plays a role in multiple organ systems and diseases. In addition to vitamin D receptors in bone cells, there are receptors in our muscles, neurons, immune cells and the heart, pancreas and very lining of our blood vessels. Who's at risk? Everyone is, from breast- fed infants to older adults. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that all infants receive 400 units of vitamin D from the day they're born. During the winter months, vitamin D production in our skin from sun exposure is too low in latitudes north of Atlanta (including Fayetteville). It has been shown that 42 percent of young adults tested at the end of winter are deficient in vitamin D. Wearing sunscreen greatly reduces vitamin D production, so does advanced age. Obese people need two to three times more vitamin D than those with normal weights because vitamin D tends to accumulate in fat tissue. And those with darkly-pigmented skin need five to 10 times the sun exposures to slightly raise levels of vitamin D. How do we get vitamin D? Aside from sun exposure, it can be found in certain

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