Brian (1s):
Hello and welcome to the Get Lean Eat Clean podcast. My name is Brian Gryn. I'm a certified health coach, trainer and author,
Brian (8s):
And this
Brian (9s):
Podcast is for middle aged men and women looking to optimize their health and get their bodies back to what it once was 10 to 15 years ago. I will give you simple, actionable items to get long term sustainable results. Thanks for listening and enjoy the show.
Brian (25s):
All right, Welcome to the Get Lean, Eat Clean podcast. My name is Brian Gryn. I hope you had a great weekend and hope you had a chance to listen to my interview with Bob Martin. We discussed all things meditation, how to get into the flow state, the importance of getting your ego out of the way, and much, much more. Really interesting interview with Bob. He's been researching and studying Taoist wisdom, brain science, psychology for a long time, has a ton of life experience and if you're into anything meditation and those things about mindfulness and if you're looking to break free of, you know, limiting beliefs, find clarity, resilience, things like that, Bob Martin was a great interview.
Brian (1m 5s):
So if you haven't checked out already, definitely check out my interview with Bob Martin now on today's micro podcast. You know, I was thinking about what to talk about today and was fortunate enough, my wife and I did a trip to Florida for a week to visit my parents down there. They just got a puppy, So we were helping them out. When I got back, I realized the amount of energy, just how much better I felt overall, even my skin. I mean up in here in Chicago, I typically dry skin on my feet and some of my hands, a little bit of cracking sometimes skin healed up, felt great and I was like, what am I doing living up north? I do like you like the seasons, but it's nice to break it up. And I said, well, you know, why don't we talk about vitamin D, you know, also known as like the sunshine vitamin.
Brian (1m 50s):
I also wrote on this in my newsletter, if you're not getting my newsletter, I'll put a link below to sign up for the weekly health newsletter that I put out there. And, you know, it made me think, how can I get this feeling, but bring it back to Chicago. I mean, we do get some sun out here, but it's not the same. Obviously I'm, I'm in Florida, I'm, I'm walking, I'm, I'm walking on the grass. So I'm doing some grounding, I'm getting some sunlight on my face and on my body And you know, I get blood tests taken probably twice a year. And you know, I was looking back on my last blood test, I mean, not crazy low, but vitamin D levels on the lower side. You know, it depends the ranges that you're looking for. But what I would first and foremost tell you is get your levels checked just to make sure that you're not deficient, especially living in the Midwest and I would say optimal like 40 or 50 to 70 or 80 in that range, I think grams per milliliter, you'll see it different among many different sources.
Brian (2m 49s):
So if you can get your blood levels between 50 and 70 nanograms per milliliter, I think that's a great place to start. You know, not too expensive to get your vitamin D levels checked. Maybe just get 'em checked in the winter and then once, maybe one more in the summer twice a year I think would be good. We've talked in this podcast a lot about the importance of using light as a benefit and doing things like red light therapy can be beneficial, especially over the winter. You're not gonna get vitamin D from that. I recently talked to Kathleen Stewart who's gonna be on the podcast. It's not out there yet, but she talked a little bit about potentially even getting UVB rays. This is what you get from the sun and get that in a, in a light form you can buy it. It's, you know, it's like buying a little like tanning booth sun.
Brian (3m 30s):
So when your skin's exposed to ultra B, ultraviolet B raised from the sun, it synthesizes vitamin D naturally. So Kathleen mentioned getting a vi UVB light and you gotta just be careful because you can burn and it's not for everybody, but that could be a, could be a potential option, especially in the winter. You know, also too, making sure that you're on occasionally eating foods that are rich in vitamin D, I think that could be of benefit. Although the best and natural source that you could get is the sun, which makes it tough, especially if you're up north and we're seeing a lot of cloudy days. But like things like egg yolks, beef liver, from time to time, you know, on don't wanna overdue beef liver, but cod liver oil, certain fatty fish, mackerel, tuna, grass fed salmon from time to time.
Brian (4m 22s):
I know there's foods that are fortified in vitamin D, there's cereals, there's milk, there's orange juice that's fortified with vitamin D. But I don't know if that's, I can't say that's something that I would want to rely on. I don't, I don't think you want a diet full of just cereals because they're fortified with vitamin D. I doubt you're getting a lot from that. So I would stick to, you know, the egg yolks when it comes to diet on some fatty fish and occasional beef liver. If you can tolerate, I don't mind it at all, but getting that sunlight getting outside, you know, even if it's cold out, just you know, getting some sunlight on the body and a question that comes up a lot is, when is the best time to do that?
Brian (5m 2s):
Well, anytime. Anytime that works, morning sunlight is ideal, especially, you know, climate's like Florida because you're not, it protects you against excessive UV exposure, but also helps regulate your circadian rhythm to help for better sleep. So that's why I've always promote those morning walks. But honestly, anytime you can get out, I think it's beneficial. I actually did do a little bit of grounding this weekend. It wasn't that cold up in Chicago, it's degrees, so I walked barefoot on the grass for a bit that that could be helpful as well if you're feeling a little bit down from the winter. But you know, these are things that you want to be doing consistently over time and definitely get the levels checked. As far as supplementation, that could be an option.
Brian (5m 43s):
I'll put a link in the show notes for a vitamin D that I find that's high quality and there's no binders or fillers. Also comes with K two, which will help with absorption. But obviously ideally we'd love to get some sunlight. You might be thinking, well why, why do we need vitamin D? There's a lot of roles that vitamin D can play. I'll just go through some of them right now. One of 'em is promoting bone health. One of the things that vitamin D can do is it helps with the absorption of calcium and phosphorus. These are two minerals that are essential for maintaining strong bones. Number two, supporting immune function. So you know, you notice people tech tend to get sicker over the winter. This could be possibly from being deficient in vitamin D because one thing vitamin D does, it helps activate immune cells and can even reduce inflammation in the body, improving muscle function.
Brian (6m 29s):
So vitamin D can help with muscle muscular contraction and strength and making it essential for helping in physical performance as well. And lastly, one of the big ones is regulating mood. Vitamin D receptors are found in errors of the brain and are responsible for mood regulation. So obviously as you can see, vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin that acts as a hormone in your body. So that has tons of important functions as I've mentioned. And ideally getting it from the sun would be great, but if you don't have the luxury of going to Florida, we always try to break up the winters. So if you can do that, go for it. Don't be scared to get some sun on you. I think people get into the sun in their, they lather on all this sunscreen, half of its toxic chemicals and cover themselves up when they go for to Florida for a few, for a few days or for a week.
Brian (7m 20s):
It's like, gosh, you're in the winter all year, like get some sun on your back on your chest. These are areas that absorb the sun very well as opposed to just your face. Obviously you don't wanna burn and get it in doses, start slow, but 10 to 30 minutes is ideal as far as synthesizing vitamin D and, and you know, if you could do that a few times a week, that'd be great, but don't be so scared of the sun. You just gotta make sure that you get just healthy levels of it and you don't owe, you know, burn and make sure that, you know, obviously there's a lot of factors that play into how much sun exposure you could get, you know, depending on your skin tone, geographic location, the season it is. So anyways, that's the main thing I wanted to touch on today.
Brian (8m 2s):
Also, keep in mind, I was reading this, Dr. Macola talks about this a bit in his book, but if you have a diet that's really high in vegetable oils, you have to be sort of cautious of your UV exposure because if you're eating a lot of seed oils and what's called linoleic acid, it's an omega six, that's, it's an omega six fat that's prone to oxidation when exposed to UV radiation. So if you do have a trip coming up, make sure you cut those seed oils out and just focus on eating whole fat foods with things like olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, or even grass fed butter or tallow. This will help protect your skin and maximize the benefits of the sun. So it's something that you might not think about, but just to keep in mind that, you know, if you're having a high diet high in vegetable oils and you're having a trip, it's a lot easier to burn and cause inflammation and skin risks when you have a diet high in that as opposed to more stable fats, saturated fats such as coconut oil, grass fed butter, and things like that.
Brian (9m 0s):
That's all I really wanted to touch on today was just trying to think of why I felt so great going to Florida and the sunshine vitamin. Vitamin D is, is definitely one of the main reasons why get your at your levels tested and just make sure that getting out and doing morning walks is obviously ideal. And if you can take a trip, go for it. Even if it's for a few days, it's worth it. So have a great rest of the day and if you're not signed up for my newsletter, I'll definitely put a link in the show notes for that. So have a great rest of the week and I will talk to you towards the end of the week weekend Friday with another great interview. Thanks so much for listening.
Brian (9m 33s):
Thanks for listening to the Get Lean Eat Clean podcast. I understand there are millions of other podcasts out there and you've chosen to listen to mine and I appreciate that. Check out the show notes at Brian Gryn dot com for everything that was mentioned in this episode. Feel free to subscribe to the podcast and share it with a friend or family member that's looking to get their body back to what it once was. Thanks again and have a great day.
