This is a fact that should become a public health problem: at least 30 to 40% of French people have serum vitamin D concentrations that are too low, because it is mainly produced by our body when we expose our skin to natural light rays, and that we are not sufficiently exposed to the sun in our temperate regions… However, this vitamin is essential for the quality of our muscle and bone tissue (because it allows the action of calcium and phosphorus), as well as for the functioning of our system of immune defence. And that’s not all: pharmacologist Jill Lavigne and epidemiologist Jason Gibbons, of the Department of Veterans Affairs in New York, have just shown that it significantly reduces the risk of suicide attempts and self-harm among veterans. Americans.
It was already known that people over the age of 50 lacking vitamin D were more likely to suffer from depression and commit suicide than those who are not deficient, and that vitamin D slowed cognitive decline. Hence a probably important role in the brain. This time, the researchers followed a cohort of more than two million veterans, aged 60 on average, some of whom were supplemented with vitamin D2 or D3 between 2010 and 2018. Final result: the consumption of vitamin D reduces the risk of suicide and self-mutilation by 45 and 48%, and even by 64% in subjects with very low blood levels of vitamin D at the start, below 19 ng/mL.
How does the sunshine vitamin work in the brain? We don’t know yet, but we know that it binds to a receptor in the nucleus of any cell, which allows it to control calcium levels, an ion essential not only for bone calcification, but also for nerve communication, as well as the differentiation and activity of immune cells. It is possible that the hormone also has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant roles, which are known to be protective factors once morest depression. Even if we find a little of this vitamin in our food, with oils, oily fish, dairy products, as well as eggs, it is preferable to take some vitamin D supplements (but without abusing it, because hypercalcemia is toxic ) when we cannot expose ourselves to the sun for regarding ten minutes a day… Our mental well-being would depend on it.
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