Do You Need Vitamin D?

Good health, according to Chinese Medicine, is a function of

  • healthy overall diet 
  • healthy mental attitude 
  • appropriate amounts of exercise
  • strong Jing/Essence (kind of like DNA)
  • luck
It should be noted, when it comes to healthy diet, that a diet is the sum total of what you eat, not any individual foods. Some folk seek to "buy" health, by eating so called "super foods." 

There are super foods, and cabbage and crimini mushrooms are just as super as Goji Berry and Coconut water. In fact, its totally wrong to drink coconut water in cold or rainy weather, because coconut water is so very cooling. Its a summer drink. 

But if anyone things eating Goji berry is a remedy for gorging on pizza, hamburgers, and beer, or that drinking a green drink as a so called "detox" remedies a sedentary life behind a computer, they are suffering a painful delusion.

Its the sum total of your diet that is either healthy or unhealthy. And its also so important what you do with your mind. Eat all the Goji berry you want, but if you don't know how to relax, don't cultivate loving relationships,  gobble down your food while working, those Goji are not doing you nearly as much good as if you had a healthy lifestyle and mental attitude. 

And a healthy mind and lifestyle includes mental culture: how you cultivate your mind and process emotions like anger, fear, grief, sadness, excitement, worry. 


All too many of us try to gain health from a bottle. The problem is people often end up taking too many vitamins and/or herbs at once, and in unhealthy doses. A great example of that is Vitamin C, which, in large doses, can cause diarrhea, rectal itch, and heartburn.

Another example is Vitamin D. In the last ten years, suddenly everyone seemed to be Vitamind D deficient. Yet, according to this article in the NY Times

Labs performing tests are reporting perfectly normal levels of vitamin D — 20 to 30 nanograms per milliliter of blood — as “insufficient.” As a consequence, millions of healthy people think they have a deficiency, and some are taking supplemental doses so high they can be dangerous, causing poor appetite, nausea and vomiting.
Vitamin D overdoses also can lead to weakness, frequent urination and kidney problems.

Here is another article on the limits and value, or lack of it, of supplementing with Vitamin D.

A salient quote: 


The observational studies generally found an association of lower vitamin D levels with increases in cardiovascular disease, lipid concentrations, glucose levels, weight gain, infectious disease and mood disorders. But random trials showed little or no effect of vitamin D supplements on any of these problems. The authors conclude that low vitamin D levels are almost surely an effect of these diseases, and not a cause.

A whole nother issue is whether to supplement with food grade or synthetic vitamins.



http://www.bodymindwellnesscenter.com

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