You are my sunshine…

I know I preach a lot about the importance of vitamin D. But it really is that necessary. And so are my constant lectures about it, considering how few people manage to maintain even acceptable levels of the sunshine vitamin.

Across the board, we just don’t get enough D. And you better believe our health has suffered for it. It’s literally killing us. And according to one recent study, it’s killing our kids, too.

This isn’t the first time research has exposed the dangerous deficiency epidemic spreading among today’s children. But this new study couches it in terms that make the crisis that much harder to ignore.

It looked at 300 children and teens treated at six different hospitals across Canada. All of them were critically ill. And all were admitted to the ICU with severe infections, trauma, or conditions requiring major surgery.

But they also had one other trait in common. Three out of four of these very sick children were also deficient in vitamin D.

Not surprisingly, the kids with the lowest levels of vitamin D were by far the sickest, requiring more serious medical interventions. And by serious, I mean life-saving… like breathing tubes or heart medication.

It’s enough to send a chill down any parent’s spine.

I usually recommend that adults supplement with 2,000 to 5,000 IUs of vitamin D3 daily. My recommendations for children are a little bit different–dosage depends on the size and weight of the child. It generally runs from 400 to 2,000 IUs.

And since I’ve never met a kid who’s stuck in an office all day, my advice to parents is this: Turn off the TV and send your children outside to play.

Their lives may very literally depend on it.

Source:
Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Research Institute (2012, September 12). First pediatric study to look at the role of vitamin D in critical illness. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 25, 2012, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2012/09/120912101804.htm