Winning with Vitamin D

My fitness friend, Danny, shared a "blog worthy" article by Liz Applegate explaining why vitamin D is crucial for a runner's health and performance.  Love it!

Here's what you need to know:

What is vitamin D good for?  Vitamin D increases the absorption of calcium and maintaining bone health.  It also may protect the body from osteoporoses, cancer and high blood pressure.  All good things right?!  So why are so many people vitamin D deficient?  The sun is our primary source of vitamin D.  Modern day lifestyles prevent us from getting enough of the sunshine vitamin and we've been taught for so many years to protect our skin from the sun.  Also, even during summer months, it's only between 10am and 3pm when the sun is strong enough for vitamin D production.  Who wants to run outside during the summer heat in Texas? Thankfully, God gave us food with vitamin D such as eggs, mushrooms, milk, fortified juice, fish and cheese. The recommended daily allowance is 600 international units per day but many scientist, physicians and nutritionists don't think that's enough.  1000 IU - 3000 IU are recommended to reap the benefits.  So eat up, sunshine!

If you're a runner, like me, then you'll appreciate these benefits from vitamin D:

-reduces the chance of stress fractures
-reduces the chance of overuse injuries
-reduces soreness in muscles after a race or hard workout
-reduces missed workouts due to a cold or the flu

Thanks for sharing, Danny!  See you tomorrow for some InCinR8-tion!