result. You also want to allow the probiotic supplement to provide the healthy bacterial species that you are trying to grow to take ârootâ before you begin adding the prebiotic fibers. (These limitations are built into the 10-Day Menu Plan to make it easy for you.) The benefits of this powerful strategy, such as lower blood pressure and deeper sleep, develop slowly over 2 to 3 months and longer as healthy species proliferate and exert their metabolic benefits. The key is long-term consistency while varying your choice of these fibers from day to day to encourage diversity of species. These are habits you want to continue for the rest of your life.
RUN NAKED IN A TROPICAL SUN . . . OR SUPPLEMENT VITAMIN D
Restoration of vitamin D, in my view, is second only to wheat and grain elimination as the most powerful tool for health available. Even after 10 years of having my patients supplement vitamin D to achieve healthy blood levels, I still marvel at the wonderful effects that develop. Although vitamin D absorption from the small quantities in food is impaired only in people with celiac disease, Crohnâs disease, and some other intestinal conditions, it is so important to your overall health that I place it front and center in your Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox program. It plays so many crucial roles in health that doctors should be experts in vitamin D, but that is sadly not generally the case. Doctors and other health care professionals are experts at dispensing drugs and procedures, not health. So vitamin D, as critical as it is for health, is generally left to you to manage properly. But you can do an expert job for you and your family.
Humans were meant to obtain vitamin D from sun exposure over large surface areas of skin, supplemented by the modest quantities provided by seafood, shellfish, organs of land animals (especially liver), egg yolks, and mushrooms. But in modern life, many of us live in colder climates, wear clothes much of the year, stay indoors year-round, and (wrongly) avoid foods like egg yolks and liver while only occasionally eating seafood. We also lose much of the ability to activate vitamin D in our skin as we get older; by age 40, most people have lost a major part of this ability and fail to achieve optimal levels even with a dark Caribbean tan.
Restore vitamin D to healthy levels and wonderful things happen: improved mood, clearer thinking, better bone health and protection from osteoporosis, reduced blood sugar and blood pressure, and improved physical performance and protection from dementia and cancerâcompounding many of the wonderful effects begun by wheat and grain elimination. Many people actually feel the beneficial effects of vitamin D restoration, especially improved mood and mental clarity, as well as relief from seasonal âblues.â Inflammation and autoimmune conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis, are especially responsive: The initial trigger for these conditionsâwheat and grainsâhas been removed, but restoring vitamin D further reverses the abnormal inflammatory and immune responses that allowed these diseases to manifest.
Young people who possess the ability to activate vitamin D in the skin and enjoy plentiful sun exposure naturally develop 25-hydroxy vitamin D blood levels (the lab test that reflects vitamin D status) of 70 to 84 ng/mL or higher without adverse effect, suggesting that we can safely do likewise. I therefore advise people to take 4,000 to 8,000 international units (IUs) per day of oil-based vitamin D 3 , or cholecalciferol, in gelcaps or drops, for assured absorption. This dose is sufficient to achieve a 25-hydroxy vitamin D blood level of 60 to 70 ng/mL after 2 to 3 months of supplementation in the majority of people, just like a young lifeguard with a tan. Not restricting foods such as egg yolks and liver also makes a modest contribution. Avoid vitamin D in tablet form, as it is erratically or poorly absorbed.
RUN NAKED IN A TROPICAL SUN . . . OR SUPPLEMENT VITAMIN D
Restoration of vitamin D, in my view, is second only to wheat and grain elimination as the most powerful tool for health available. Even after 10 years of having my patients supplement vitamin D to achieve healthy blood levels, I still marvel at the wonderful effects that develop. Although vitamin D absorption from the small quantities in food is impaired only in people with celiac disease, Crohnâs disease, and some other intestinal conditions, it is so important to your overall health that I place it front and center in your Wheat Belly 10-Day Grain Detox program. It plays so many crucial roles in health that doctors should be experts in vitamin D, but that is sadly not generally the case. Doctors and other health care professionals are experts at dispensing drugs and procedures, not health. So vitamin D, as critical as it is for health, is generally left to you to manage properly. But you can do an expert job for you and your family.
Humans were meant to obtain vitamin D from sun exposure over large surface areas of skin, supplemented by the modest quantities provided by seafood, shellfish, organs of land animals (especially liver), egg yolks, and mushrooms. But in modern life, many of us live in colder climates, wear clothes much of the year, stay indoors year-round, and (wrongly) avoid foods like egg yolks and liver while only occasionally eating seafood. We also lose much of the ability to activate vitamin D in our skin as we get older; by age 40, most people have lost a major part of this ability and fail to achieve optimal levels even with a dark Caribbean tan.
Restore vitamin D to healthy levels and wonderful things happen: improved mood, clearer thinking, better bone health and protection from osteoporosis, reduced blood sugar and blood pressure, and improved physical performance and protection from dementia and cancerâcompounding many of the wonderful effects begun by wheat and grain elimination. Many people actually feel the beneficial effects of vitamin D restoration, especially improved mood and mental clarity, as well as relief from seasonal âblues.â Inflammation and autoimmune conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis, are especially responsive: The initial trigger for these conditionsâwheat and grainsâhas been removed, but restoring vitamin D further reverses the abnormal inflammatory and immune responses that allowed these diseases to manifest.
Young people who possess the ability to activate vitamin D in the skin and enjoy plentiful sun exposure naturally develop 25-hydroxy vitamin D blood levels (the lab test that reflects vitamin D status) of 70 to 84 ng/mL or higher without adverse effect, suggesting that we can safely do likewise. I therefore advise people to take 4,000 to 8,000 international units (IUs) per day of oil-based vitamin D 3 , or cholecalciferol, in gelcaps or drops, for assured absorption. This dose is sufficient to achieve a 25-hydroxy vitamin D blood level of 60 to 70 ng/mL after 2 to 3 months of supplementation in the majority of people, just like a young lifeguard with a tan. Not restricting foods such as egg yolks and liver also makes a modest contribution. Avoid vitamin D in tablet form, as it is erratically or poorly absorbed.
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