It’s the unsuspecting, mood altering, life changing vitamin that we take for granted. Vitamin D. That warm glow on your skin, the gold reflecting off the water and lighting up the sky, that bubble of joy rising in your chest, that sparkle in your eye and that big goofy grin. These are all sensations that we commonly feel, see, and experience, after exposure to the sun.

I have weeks, every so often, where life falls flat. There’s no rhyme or reason. I’m not unhappy, nobody has offended me, upset me, hurt me, and no I’m not PMS. Yet I roll through the week, a big moody storm cloud, cracking thunder and threatening lightning, grumpier each day that I don’t know why I’m grumpy. Then one day, I’ll roll my grumpy arse out into the sun. The thunder stops, the rain subsides, and the warm rays of sunshine dissipate any trace of storm cloud. Leaving only warm, fuzzy happiness.

I’ve come to call this the “Devil’s Deficiency”, more commonly referred to as vitamin D deficiency. How many of us rise before sunrise, travel to work in sheltered vehicles, work inside an office all day, to return home in our sheltered vehicle, to a house now enveloped in dark. We completely miss the sun!

Vitamin D deficiency or “Devil’s Deficiency,” has been linked to depression. “Serotonin, the brain hormone associated with mood elevation, rises with exposure to bright light and falls with decreased sun exposure.” Not only do the correct levels of vitamin D help to prevent and treat depression, it is vitally important for many other health issues too. Some of these include;
-Prevention of osteoporosis
-Lowering blood pressure
-Lowering incidence and severity of cardiovascular disorders
-Decreasing inflammation

While Vitamin D can be supplemented and found in some foods, the best way you can pump your body full of this happy drug, is to get yourself out into the warmth of the beautiful, fireball we call ‘sun’, and soak up those glorious golden rays! Sit in it, lay in it, dance, handstand, swim, run, whatever. But spend at least 15 minutes, each and every day, basking in the sun, recharging, filling your onboard happy tank.