Doctors want you to believe that depression is some kind of “brain chemical deficiency” and that if you don’t feel good, something is wrong with your brain. This theory has never been proven.
Here’s something you can believe in: There exists a natural, essential nutrient that is crucial to brain health. Researchers originally thought it only played a role in the mineralization of bones and teeth… but low vitamin D levels cause a host of health problems — including depression.
Vitamin D is a potent neuroregulatory steroidal hormone that influences nearly 3,000 of our 25,000 genes. It reduces the risks and effects of 17 different kinds of cancer, especially in women, and drops the risk for heart disease, hypertension, stroke, osteoporosis, osteomalacia, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, infertility, asthma… and especially reduces the risk for brain issues like schizophrenia, Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, seasonal affective disorder (SAD), and depression.
Vitamin receptors in the brain are directly involved with memory, mood and brain health. Researchers who conducted a 2013 meta-analysis (that’s a study of many other research studies and medical trials) noticed that study participants with depression also had low vitamin D levels. The same analysis found that, statistically, people with low vitamin D were at a much greater risk of depression.
And, this from Swedish Researchers (not under the FDA): “The Karolinska Institute in Stockholm measured vitamin D levels on 117 adult psychiatric outpatients. They found that … patients with depression and schizophrenia improved when treated with an average of about 4,000 IU of vitamin D per day.”
The pharmaceuticals are hot on the development of vitamin D drugs (analogues). They are on to the massive brain benefits of vitamin D and they want to make a drug for what is natural to push more drugs.
If there is one truism, it is that drugs are the opposite of health. A few doctors are waking up, but not many. Don’t count on it.
Real prescription
Vitamin D3 is a miracle, but somehow it’s not sexy enough. People just can’t catch on to this. Research subjects who have adequate vitamin D are happier and healthier. It is so sensational it is almost unbelievable.
Most people are extremely low in D3 and low D3 shows consistently with many disease conditions. This is so true that the first suspicion in pathology should be to check vitamin D3 levels. This has been hidden for 100 years at unbelievable health cost, disease, and death.
A warning now: Those who rely on sun exposure for their vitamin D3 should know that maximum effect is achieved when the sun is high enough in the sky so that your shadow is shorter than you are, and the more skin exposed the better. This is massive exposure and vitamin D3 levels go up fast. But guess what, few people do this. Seniors are in serious deficit of vitamin D because they get almost no sunshine and their assimilation capacity is diminished.
Dr. John Cannell of The Vitamin D Council, says that vitamin D has many co-factors and Americans are most likely to be deficient in magnesium, zinc, boron, and vitamin K. Also, there are plenty of natural plant compounds from all over the world that can enhance the function of vitamins and synergistically bring even more relief for depressive symptoms.
Please pay no attention to the so-called recommended daily allowance (RDA). If you do, you will pay a very high price.
The Vitamin D Council estimates that 2,000 international units (IUs) a day will probably get 75 percent to 80 percent of white Americans vitamin D sufficient if taken every day, while black people need more due to their increased melanin pigment decreasing skin production of the hormone. But it actually recommends 5,000 IU a day for adults. For infants, 1,000 IU/ day is recommended. Children should get 1,000 IU/day per 25 pounds of body weight.
The U.S. Institute of Medicine recommends 4,000 units a day for everyone over 9 years old. If you take a supplement or give one to your child, make sure it is natural vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) and not synthetic vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol). Most vitamin D prescriptions are for ergocalciferol. Ergocalciferol has been linked to a host of health problems.
Bob Livingston
