The Deadly Trend that's Endangering our Children

Vitamin D has also been shown to play a critical role in nerve health and heart health, too—it’s responsible for regulating the blood pressure hormone rennin, and for combating elevated levels of C-reactive protein in your body. It even stabilizes your blood sugar and increases your insulin sensitivity… all while boosting your natural immune function, too.

It’s fairly easy to see how deficient—or even insufficient—levels of this crucial nutrient could pave the way to some disastrous consequences. That’s why, like me, you will probably be horrified to learn that seven out of ten American children—yes, that’s 70 percent of our young population—are dangerously short on vitamin D.

As detailed by this new study, blood tests confirmed nine percent of the large sample of children as deficient in this vitamin—with an additional 61 percent confirmed as vitamin D insufficient. If these results are a reliable indication, this means the chances are good that your child, grandchild, niece, or nephew is likely to be vitamin D deficient too, and to have the high blood pressure, low calcium levels, and low levels of health-sustaining HDL cholesterol to prove it.   

So what can we do to protect our children… and to help to stop this deadly trend?

Well luckily, the solution could be as simple as sending our kids outside to play. You see, vitamin D isn’t even really a true vitamin. Actually, its structure more closely resembles a hormone, with its highest amounts being manufactured in your body naturally. Unlike other essential nutrients, your diet can’t really supply all the vitamin D you need—because while milk and fish are rich in D, the most bioavailable source of this vitamin is sunlight.

That’s right—your body generates the majority of its vitamin D as a reaction to direct sun exposure. So it’s no surprise that children who are older, obese, and spend more than four hours a day watching TV, using computers, or playing video games—presumably indoors—are more likely to be deficient than those who spend regular amounts of time enjoying themselves in the great outdoors.

My advice here is simple: Take as much advantage of the long days (and what remains of your child’s summer break) as you can. Go on a hike, take a bike ride, or have a picnic together… because while you never need an excuse to enjoy all of the beauty that nature has to offer, now you most certainly have one.

And a very good one, at that.

Yours in good health, 

Isaac Gabriel Eliaz, M.D., L.Ac., M.S