Encouraging Health

Be it sweater or swimsuit season, a daily dose of the “sunshine vitamin” may significantly shrink your risk of disease and death.

And although the stuff naturally occurs in your skin when exposed to the sun, you should faithfully pop a vitamin D supplement as well, because you need more D than Mother Nature — or your diet — can probably provide.

A Vital Vitamin
Vitamin D may be particularly helpful in thwarting cancer and arterial diseases.

Why? It’s not entirely clear yet. But these conditions rely on cell proliferation to do their damage, and vitamin D may help slow down that process.

Making D Work for You
So how can you tap into the sunshine vitamin’s benefits? A bit of safe sun and some D-rich foods will boost your blood levels — but only so much. To gain the life-extending effects researchers recently identified, you’ll need a daily supplement, too. Either form you find at your drugstore, vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) or vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol), will do the trick.

The following foods are both heart-healthy and have strong anti-inflammatory effects.

Fruits and Vegetables
No surprise here, but do you know why? Many fruits and vegetables
– especially red grapes, cranberries, tomatoes, and onions — contain powerful antioxidants called flavonoids and carotenoids. These vitamin-like substances decrease inflammation by handcuffing free radicals and escorting these troublemakers out of your system.

Garlic
It’s still being debated, but a clove a day may help thin your blood and lower your blood pressure. If you don’t like the taste or the fact that coworkers shrink away when they pass you in the hall, take garlic in pill form (called allicin) at 400 milligrams a day (though the odor may still emerge through your sweat glands).

Olive Oil
The extra-virgin kind contains lots of healthy phytonutrients as well as monounsaturated fats, which boost good HDL cholesterol. Aim for 25% of your diet to come from healthy fats such as those found in olive oil, avocados, and nuts. Doing so can make your RealAge up to 6 years younger.

Fish
Omega-3 fatty acids — abundant in fatty fish — reduce triglycerides in your blood (high triglycerides cause plaque buildup) and help reduce the risk of arrhythmia after a heart attack. In addition, they decrease blood pressure and make platelets less sticky, which reduces clotting.

Aim for three portions of fish per week. The best choices: mahimahi, catfish, flounder, tilapia, whitefish, and wild, line-caught salmon

Check out this post on Vitamin D!

vitamin d

vitamin d