We're back with our nine health
expert Doctor Pyle Coley this morning.
So you were talking about a very interesting
new study that's linking vitamin D
and a lower risk for Melanoma. Yes,
yes. So what it found is that people who
regularly took vitamin D supplementation
had a lower associated risk of Melanoma.
And it's not clear whether it's
an association or a causation.
So that's what I really
want to emphasize here,
because does vitamin D cause you to
have less Melanoma or is it the?
Fact that the vitamin D,
some marker for some other behavior
like perhaps you're spending less
time in the sun or taking better
care of yourself or watching your
nutrition a little bit more.
And that's one of the reasons for lower risk
and being clear here.
You're saying like taking vitamin D
not like soaking up the sun like that's
exaction here because you obviously
get vitamin D from the sun as well.
And especially here in Colorado,
you know we have one of the
highest per capita rates of skin
cancer because we're a Mile High,
we're closer to the sun,
so we get that UV exposure and
vitamin D is a very complex.
You know, chemical in our body,
that's very important,
but it's actually activated from sun
exposure to your point in America.
So you actually have to spend some
time in the sun for your body to
activate the vitamin D and and your
kidneys and livers and all the other
organs sort of participate in that.
But what we're talking about in this
particular study is actually taking pills,
taking vitamin D supplementation.
Now of course we can get vitamin
D from fortified foods as well,
you know, milks and cereals and such.
But whether vitamin D pills can
protect you against skin cancer
and other types of cancers,
it's really become a hot area of research.
How much vitamin D are we talking about?
How much should we be taking in supplements?
You know this different based on your age,
but we're really not getting enough.
That's the bottom line because most of
us spend most of our time indoors and
then we wear that sunscreen as we should,
which can also affect vitamin D absorption.
And and what's really interesting
is it's not just, you know how much
time you're spending in the sun,
but the color of your skin,
the temperature of your skin.
So in in summer time,
we actually absorb vitamin D better
or we activate vitamin D better
than we do in the winter.
Yeah, it's your age.
So how old you are can affect how you
sort of metabolize vitamin D and then of
course the sunscreens and things like that.
So we should, you know,
really be targeting at our age
about 600 IU international units.
It is a lot and it's not something we
generally always get from our food.
So what I tell my patients is
check your vitamin D levels and
then really titrate your vitamin
D supplementation to try to keep
your level around 40 or higher,
your blood level.
And that's because that's been
associated with the lower risk of.
Cardiovascular disease and ladies,
I get patients every day in my office,
young healthy patients who think
they're doing fine and and they
check their vitamin D and it's
like single digits like 9 or
wow, it's super common here for some reason.
Well, it is because we spend a lot
of our time indoors. We wear a lot
of that sunscreen like we should.
And then I think as a population in general,
we've sort of evolved away from natural
foods and sources of vitamin D so of all
the things that we put inside our body,
that is one of those things we
have to be extremely mindful of.
So have you checked your vitamin D? No,
never. I think I need to get all the
things checked. Honest with you,
the doctor would agree.
I think I've been low,
but I do supplement with vitamin
D we do try to get outside.
Can you have too much vitamin D?
Yes, you can. OK,
so you know, you can get kidney stones
because it's involved in calcium metabolism.
So some people say more is better.
Not in this case.
It's just a Goldilocks vitamin.
Do you want just the right
amount of vitamin D?
Because it obviously protects with cognitive
health, with cardiovascular disease.
But if you get too much, it can.
It can cause all kinds of problems.
Now how much weight we have on us can
also affect our vitamin D levels.
OK, so it's not just a one time thing.
You check it once and you say, I'm good.
If you've added a lot of
weight or lost a lot of weight,
that can also affect the way that your
vitamin D is expressed in the body
because fat is actually a depot for
vitamin D so if the vitamin D is fat soluble,
kind of sits in your fat,
so it can change the absorption.
If you have osteoporosis or thin bones,
especially if you work out a lot,
you want to be really mindful of
your vitamin D because it can
cause those bones to be brittle,
break and have more injuries.
Clearly everyone needs to
get their vitamin D checked,
probably annually. Really. Thank you.