Vitamin D June 19, 2008

Vitamin D by exposing our skin to the sun for at least 15 minutes a day.   But, I ALWAYS wear sunscreen (every day for over 20 years).  And the ultraviolet B rays, the ones that cause the deepest and worst damage to the skin is the type of sunshine needed!  2,000 IU just seems like a lot.

Vitamin D has a definitive role in the body. It’s main purpose is to regulate the normal blood levels of phosphorus and calcium.   Besides sun exposure, fish are the major food source.  One egg according to Wikipedia provides 20 IU.  The most surprising information I read was that mushrooms provide over 2700 IU per serving (approx. 3 oz or 1/2 cup) of vitamin D₂, if exposed to just 5 minutes of UV light after being harvested.  Wow!  That is one of the most interesting thing I have learned in a while.

Interestingly after five days of taking 2,000 IU my mood actually has noticeably improved.

So, Vitamin D, a steroid hormone helps regulate levels of calcium and phosphorus in the blood while lithium, the classic bipolar disorder medication, alters calcium homeostasis (see link in the right column titled Calcium Physiology).  I wonder what the connection is?

 

 

“Old Factory” Fatigue December 10, 2007

In tenth grade biology I imagined the smell of an old, musty factory in order to help myself remember the name of the organ that enables us to smell.  The olfactory bulb:  The smell organ in the nose.  It is also a direct extension of the brain, in fact it grows directly from the limbic system.   Olfactory fatigue is the reason why bowls of coffee beans sit on the glass cases in the perfume section in a department store like candy.  Our bodies become desensitised to stimuli in order to prevent the over loading of our nervous system.  Interestingly it is the part of the brain that helps us deal with emotion.  (Is that why an old fragrance can bring back memories of the past?)

Recently scientists have found that bipolar patients are less sensitive to smell.  “Calcium is integral to properly-functioning nerves, and previous studies have implicated dysfunctions of cellular calcium metabolism as a contributing factor to bipolar disorder. Changes in how much calcium is inside ORNs and other nerve cells tell researchers how the nerves respond to stimulation.”  It is interesting to note that lithium, the classic medication for bipolar disorder, blocks calcium from binding at cell membranes.  

Since high school biology I have noticed that I don’t seem to smell things well, or at least as well as I did when I was a child.  I thought that this was because our sense of smell lessens as we age.  But sometimes I don’t smell things that others do.  Is this a result of a faulty calcium metabolism?