Let the Sunshine In

~ December 15, 2008

By CARY CASTAGNA
The Edmonton Sun
www.EdmontonSun.com

If you're like countless health-conscious Canadians, your fitness regimen is undoubtedly under siege by the gloomy darkness of another impending winter.

As daylight hours become unbearably scarce and with the shortest day of the year fast approaching - the winter solstice strikes Dec. 21 this year - your energy reserves may seem as though they've been prorogued until spring.

Heck, during these cold and dark months, just dragging your butt to the gym can be a workout.

But don't despair in the shadows of these seasonal Dark Ages.

Dr. Marc Sorenson says there's a beacon of hope and it's called vitamin D.

The U.S.-based health and fitness expert - also known as the Vitamin D Doctor - blames a lack of the so-called sunshine vitamin for the wintertime funk experienced by many residents of northern latitudes.

"In Edmonton, you've got at least six months where you don't get any vitamin D out of the sun at all because it's too low in the sky in the winter," the fit 65-year-old tells Sun Media in a phone interview from sunny St. George, Utah.

Sorenson, author of best seller Vitamin D3 and Solar Power for Optimal Health, explains that UVB light - which stimulates skin to produce vitamin D - is filtered out through the atmosphere in the winter due to the low angle of the sun's rays.

"You just don't have any (UVB) at this time of year at all at the latitude where you are - Edmonton being so far north," he adds.

Plus vitamin D isn't found in many foods. Sources are fatty fish - including salmon, oil-packed tuna, mackerel, herring and sardines - and eggs, along with milk, cereal and juices that have been fortified with it.

Sorenson, who has been extolling the benefits of vitamin D for more than three years, recommends hopping into a good tanning bed - not a high-pressure bed - three times a week for 20 minutes on each side (front and back). And make sure you don't burn, he warns.

Or, if that's not an option, he suggests supplementing your diet with 5,000 IU (international units) of vitamin D3 a day for men and 3,000 to 4,000 IU for women.

While noting that vitamin D2 supplementation isn't nearly as effective, Sorenson says the typical vitamin D3 pill has only 400 IU - an amount akin to offering a peanut to a starving person.

"That is nothing. Typically out in the summer sun at midday, you can make 15-20,000 IU in about 20 minutes on each side," he says, noting vitamin D supplementation will set you back a measly $12 a year.

Vitamin D, referred to as the "new star of the nutritional world," has been the subject of worldwide media attention in recent months and has been touted as a near-panacea for a variety of chronic maladies, including heart disease, diabetes and several types of cancer.

While more research is being done, Sorenson says he has experienced the effects first-hand in his weightlifting regimen.

"I just noticed I had more push, more explosion into the weights I was using once I took 5,000 units and then did a tanning session to go with it," he says. "It was the best workout I've had in years."

Sorenson, who weighs a trim 170 pounds at five-foot-10Ohm, pumps iron four times a week for about 30 minutes each session.

"Vitamin D is as potent a steroid hormone as is testosterone. It's not a vitamin at all," he says. "If a person is deficient, which 95% of Canadians are in the wintertime, it will literally increase the number and the size of fast-twitch muscle fibres. It will decrease reaction times up to 20-25% with untrained people and to a lesser amount with highly trained people. It will increase endurance by up to 56%, when we compare people who get ultraviolet radiation to produce vitamin D versus those who stay indoors."

The energetic grandfather - an avid hiker, jogger, cyclist and tennis player - also points out that he used to be hampered during the winter with nagging colds. Since seeing the light and discovering vitamin D, Sorenson now stays cold-free, he says.

The Vitamin D doc, owner of a doctor of education degree, is currently co-authoring a book that delves into sports performance, featuring vitamin D research translated from German that's never been seen in North America.

He's also in the process of shopping his expertise to professional sports teams.

"I could take any professional athletic team, particularly in the northern United States and Canada (including the Edmonton Oilers and Edmonton Eskimos) and I could improve their performance," he says.

For now, Sorenson is keeping secret the exact blood levels of vitamin D for optimal sports performance.

"If you reach too high a level of vitamin D, your athletic performance backs off," he explains. "You don't back off in health, but you do back off a little bit in athletic performance."

In the meantime, the vegetarian and self-described "jock of all trades my entire life" says he has no plans to slow down - especially after officially becoming a senior citizen this year.

Sorenson is counting on vitamin D to help illuminate his golden years

"I keep fit. There's no reason to slow down if you feel good."

Visit drsorenson.blogspot.com and vitaminddoc.com for more information.