The right supplements are important to maintain a healthy lifestyle, and vitamin D is one of the most important supplements out there, if not just for the simple reason that so many of us are deficient in it. The reason for this becomes obvious once you consider that vitamin D usually comes from the way our bodies react to sunlight. After all, human beings have evolved over millions of years to live in a sunlight-rich environment.
Because of this genetic quirk, it makes logical sense that we would not be able to change this in the few years that we have spent living increasingly indoor lives. Fewer and fewer people work outdoors these days, and many of us go straight from our office to the gym to our homes — with precious few rays of sunlight ever reaching our skin. The result is vitamin D deficiency, and the effects it can have on you are significant.
Bone Damage
The first thing that comes to mind for most people when they think of Vitamin D is the fact that it is vital for the development of strong and healthy bones. Extremely low Vitamin D can lead to rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults. Even when not severely deficient, however, people can suffer from skeletal weakening simply because they are less able to absorb dietary calcium.
We all know that calcium is the most important ingredient in our bones, and we can usually absorb between 60 and 80 percent of the calcium we ingest. If you do not have enough vitamin D, these levels can fall as low as just 15 percent. Without calcium, your bones will weaken, and if you plan on traveling the world and experiencing all it has to offer, you will need strong bones – believe me!
Inflammation
Inflammation is not just what happens to your hand when a bee sings it. In fact, the levels of your body’s overall inflammatory responses are largely responsible for a lot of health issues that can arise. Some of these, like inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), are obvious. Whereas others, such as psychological conditions like depression and anxiety, are less intuitive.
To fully understand the extent to which vitamin D deficiency might be responsible for increased levels of inflammation, you will need a blood test for inflammation. This screening can determine the current levels of vitamin D in your blood. This way, you and your doctor can establish the extent of both issues and figure out how they might be linked together. If you know that you do not get enough sunlight and also experience symptoms such as fatigue, depression, anxiety, or muscle pain, this is a good place to start your exploration into the causes of your symptoms.
Cancer
The evidence for why, and the extent to which, vitamin D deficiencies are linked to cancer is far less thorough than it is for the aforementioned maladies. However, what evidence we do have seems to strongly suggest that a link between vitamin D levels and cancer prevalence unquestionably exists.
This is especially true in the case of colorectal cancer, which is not unexpected, especially considering the relationship between vitamin D and inflammation and the relationship between inflammation and IBS. As scientists are able to conduct more detailed and broad longitudinal studies, we should develop a better understanding of this relationship. It’s always a good idea to keep your eye out for new findings in this area as more developments unfold.
Infectious Diseases
If you want to stay healthy during your travels, you must keep your immune system in tip-top shape. Most of us have a reasonable ability to defend against infectious diseases in our home countries, but when you adventure into new continents, this is no longer the case. Nothing can cut a trip short faster than catching a nasty infectious disease, and many of the diseases that you are not used to can have serious consequences.
In addition to the anti-inflammatory benefits of vitamin D, it can also strengthen the overall effectiveness of your immune system. (Remember that inflammation is often part of a larger immune response.) Lower vitamin D levels are also strongly correlated with an increased risk of viral infections and increased severity of infection once the virus has been contracted. This is such a prominent attribute of vitamin D deficiency that vitamin D itself has historically been used as part of a treatment for tuberculosis.
The moral of the story is this: To travel healthily, you must keep your baseline health as high as possible. And ultimately, one of the most common things that can undermine people’s baseline health is a vitamin D deficiency. Be sure to know your vitamin D levels, get just enough sunlight, and take vitamin D supplements if needed. After all, they can be just the ticket to help you stay strong, stay healthy, and enjoy all of life’s journeys.
