Essential Nutrients Your Body Still Needs for Optimal Health: Not Vitamin D
In discussions about health, vitamin D frequently receives the most attention. But there are many more factors that contribute to good health than just one nutrient. Your body still needs a variety of vitamins and minerals to function correctly, even if your levels of vitamin D are sufficient.
This article will discuss important nutrients that are vital to energy, immunity, muscle function, brain health, and general well-being, aside from vitamin D.
Why Just One Nutrient Is Insufficient -Vitamin D
Energy and Brain Health with Vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 is necessary because:
- Production of energy
- Red blood cell formation
- Health of the brain and nerves
- production of DNA
Low B12 levels can cause fatigue, memory problems, and weakness.
Best food sources:
- Eggs
- Dairy goods
- Fish
- Meat from chickens
- Cereals with added nutrients
B12 deficiency is more common in vegetarians and older adults, who may require supplements.
Stamina and Iron-Oxygen Transport
Iron aids in the body’s transportation of oxygen. Without enough iron, people may feel tired and weak.
Low iron symptoms include:
- Fatigue
- Pale complexion
- Lightheadedness
- Shortness of breath
Good sources of iron:
- Spinach
- Lentils
- Beans
- Red meat
- Seeds from pumpkins
- Jaggery
To enhance absorption, combine foods high in iron with sources of vitamin C.
Magnesium: Support for Muscles and Nerves
More than 300 metabolic processes in the body are supported by magnesium, including:
- Relaxation of muscles
- Nerve activity
- control of blood sugar
- Quality of sleep
Stress, restless nights, and cramping muscles can all be symptoms of low magnesium.
sources of food:
- Seeds and nuts
- Whole grains
- The banana
- Vegetables with leaves
- Dark chocolate
People get depressed during the winter? It’s actually Not Vitamin D. Vitamin D is involved a little bit, but not as much as you might think. And I’ve done a lot of articles vitamin D, especially for depression. And some people take vitamin D during the winter, and don’t see any change. Well, this article is for that person. Vitamin D does play a role, but it’s not as much as you might think. When we talk about sadness during the winter time, we’re talking about the biggest difference between summer and winter, and that is, of course, we have realize that sun doesn’t just give us vitamin D. It’s involved in over 2,000 different genes.
Genes that trigger serotonin, which actually makes you happy. Genes involved with melatonin, which is another hormone. Genetics that involve the thyroid, even affecting your microbiome. and many other additional effects. When you look at depression, let’s just define depression. People automatically think it’s a mental problem. But in reality, in the wintertime, a lot of times it’s not sadness. It’s the inability to feel pleasure or a higher state of emotion, the inability to feel happiness from a reward. And so that gives us a very interesting dynamic because there’s so many things that could be done to actually elevate the person’s emotional state that doesn’t involve taking a medication like an SSRI.
So at the very root of this issue, we have a problem with our internal clock. You have a main clock in your brain that activates this circadian rhythm and that clock is controlled bye a lot of things, but mainly it’s light. And so in the winter time, obviously it gets darker, right? I mean, in the summertime where I live, it’s light until 9:00 at night. In the winter right now, it gets dark like at 4:30 or 5:00. And so, just the fact that it’s darker pushes us inside.