Nurses Corner: Vitamin D & You by Nurse Heidi McGlown, RN
Are you getting enough D this winter? Vitamin D is necessary for building and maintaining healthy bones. That’s because calcium, the primary component of bone, can only be absorbed by your body when vitamin D is present. Your body makes vitamin D when direct sunlight converts a chemical in your skin into an active form of the vita- min (calciferol). Vitamin D is vital for bone health as it is responsible for calcium absorption, so remember if your levels are low, you are most likely going to be low in calcium too, so one of the symptoms of vitamin D deficiency includes aching bones. Other symptoms include; low mood/mild depression, tiredness and fatigue, muscle and joint pain. Vitamin D isn’t found in many foods, but you can get it from fortified milk, fortified cereal, and fatty fish such as salmon, mackerel and sardines. The main source for vitamin D is the Sun!! The amount of vitamin D your skin makes depends on many factors, including the time of day, season, latitude, and skin pigmentation. Depending on where you live and your lifestyle, vitamin D production might decrease or be completely absent during the winter months. Sunscreen, while important, also can decrease vitamin D production. Many of us in the living in the Northern U.S. don’t get regular exposure to sunlight in the winter and have trouble absorbing vitamin D, so taking a multivitamin with vitamin D will likely help improve bone health. The recom- mended daily amount of vitamin D is 600 IU for ages 1 to 70. Research on vitamin D use shows that it has been helpful in preventing some conditions such as certain types of cancer, cognitive function decline and dementia, many inherited disorders, Multiple sclerosis, osteomalacia and os- teoporosis, psoriasis, and rickets. Without vitamin D your bones can become soft, thin and brittle. If you don’t get enough vitamin D through sunl- ight or dietary sources, you might need vitamin D supplements. As always, it is best to discuss it with your physician before taking any supplements.
This past September, Crest Foods was nominated for 2 awards through the Redzone Community program! Every year Redzone holds an awards dinner where they recog- nize companies and people in the community who have went above and beyond. We were nominated in the Team of the Year category for our successful Go Live weeks and Sue Osborne was nominated for Champion of the Year! There are over 200 companies in the Redzone Community so it is exciting to be nominated and every one at Crest Foods has played a part. At the awards din- ner, it was announced that Sue Osborne, our Production Manager, won the award for Champion of the Year! She’s played such a big role in getting this program up and running at Crest, and we are very proud of her and this accomplishment!
Redzone Update
January, February & March 2018 Crest Ink 21
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