The Secret to Maintaining Vitamin D Year-Round
If you’re like most people, you shelter indoors for most of the winter, and your vitamin D levels suffer as a result.
Now that the weather has warmed up, there’s no excuse for not getting outside and soaking up the sun’s rays to raise your vitamin D.
But did you know you can prevent your D levels from dropping during the winter?
And it doesn’t involve taking supplements.
As strange as it sounds, new research suggests exercise is the key to preventing a dangerous drop in vitamin D during the winter.
For this study, overweight and obese volunteers completed a 10-week indoor exercise program during the winter.
This involved two walks on the treadmill, one long stationary bike ride, and one high-intensity interval bike session.
While vitamin D levels fell by 25 percent in a non-exercise control group, they only dropped 15 percent in those who exercised.
And when looking at only the active form of vitamin D alone (the form involved in immune and bone health), non-exercisers experienced a 15 percent drop.
However, the active form of vitamin D was completely preserved in the exercise group.
Isn’t the human body incredible?
Even though it’s difficult to get enough vitamin D from sunlight during winter—especially for anyone living further from the equator—your body has a built-in failsafe to preserve your critical levels.
This study looked at the impact of exercise throughout the winter. But if you’re not already regularly exercising this isn’t an excuse to wait until next winter to start.
Get started now by figuring out what works for you. Be sure to choose something you enjoy… otherwise you’ll never stick with it.
That way, it will be a routine part of your life by the time next winter rolls around.
P.S. Skip this vitamin and dementia risk jumps 50 percent.
View Sources
Perkin, O. J., Davies, S. E., Hewison, M., Jones, K. S., Gonzalez, J. T., Betts, J. A., Jenkinson, C., Lindsay, M. A., Meadows, S. R., Parkington, D. A., Koulman, A., & Thompson, D. Exercise without Weight Loss Prevents Seasonal Decline in Vitamin D Metabolites: The VitaDEx Randomized Controlled Trial. Advanced Science, 2416312.
