A Healthy Dose of Vitamin D
Do you remember growing up as an “outdoor kid”? Many of you, like me, grew up in the 60s, 70s, and 80s. Do you remember playing outside most of the day? I remember that in our family, we had a dinner bell that my mother would have to ring to bring us home. If it were not for that bell, we may have never eaten dinner! In the summertime, after dinner, we would go back outside again until it was dark. I recognize that times have changed—parents are more cautious now—as they should be. We live in a safety conscience world—with seat belts, bike helmets, and sanitizer gels (long before COVID-19) emerged. One study reported that children today spend twice as long looking at screens as playing outside. Specifically, the study reported that by the time they reach the age of seven, children will have looked at screens the equivalent of 456 days—an average of four hours per day. However, these same children will have only spent 182 days, or an hour and a half a day playing outdoors. A National Trust research study showed that, on average, children between the ages of 10-16 spend 12.6 minutes a day on vigorous outdoor activities compared to 10.4 waking hours, being relatively motionless.
Another study was even more alarming. The average person now spends 93 percent of their life indoors.[1] “That means if you live to be 100, you will have spent 93 of those years in a little compartment and only 7 outside in the dazzling, living world. If we live to the more usual 75, we will spend 69 and three-fourths of our years indoors, and only 5 and one-fourth outside. This includes our childhood; how does a child be a child when they only venture outside a few months of their entire childhood”[2] Author John Eldredge, from whom I have just cited, further attested:
This is a catastrophe, the final nail in the coffin for the human soul. You live nearly all your life in a fake world: artificial lighting instead of the warmth of sunlight or the cool of moonlight or the darkness of night itself. Artificial climate rather than the wild beauty of real weather; your world is always 68 degrees. All of the surfaces you touch are things like plastic, nylon, and faux leather instead of meadow, wood, and stream. Fake fireplaces; wax fruit. The atmosphere you inhibit is now asphyxiating with artificial smells—mostly chemicals and “air fresheners”—instead of cut grass, wood smoke, and salt air (anyone weeping yet?). In place of the cry of the hawk, the thunder of a waterfall, the comfort of crickets, your world spews out artificial sounds—all the clicks and beeps and whir of technology, the hum of the HVAC. Dear God, even the plants in your little bubble are fake. They give no oxygen; instead the plastic off-gases toxins, and if that isn’t a signal fire I don’t know what is…But this is not the life God ordained for the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve, whose habitat is this sumptuous earth. It’s like putting wild horses in a Styrofoam box for the rest of their lives.[3]
Eldredge went on to explain that living our lives in an artificial world is like being wrapped in plastic. We feel tired, numb, and depressed, and then wonder why? “The simple answer is you have vitamin D deficiency, there’s no sunlight in your life, literally and figuratively.”[4]
Now, back to our COVID-19 world for a few minutes. Although there has been a wealth of research on the novel coronavirus, new data is emerging that is worth our consideration. A research team from Northwestern University recently published a study where they analyzed patient data from ten countries. They found that Vitamin D deficiency plays a key role on COVID-19 mortality rates. In fact, patients with severe vitamin D deficiency were twice as likely to experience major complications from the virus.[5] I’m not advocating that we should go take Vitamin D supplements—if you would like to try that, then make yourself at home. However, what I am suggesting is that during this quarantine season, that we spend as much time outdoors as possible. The sunlight is a great source of Vitamin D. It is estimated that 40 percent of Americans have a vitamin D deficiency.[6]
With the warmth of the May weather, it is a wonderful time to be outside—even if we stay in our own backyards. Many American’s are engaging in home improvement projects during COVID-19. After all, if we cannot go anywhere, we may as well paint the house, stain the deck, or plant a garden. In fact, purchases at Home Depot are up 75 percent from this time last year.[7] But besides yardwork, it is a great time to enjoy our families and the natural beauties that our Heavenly Father has provided us. Keeping social distancing measures in place, I say:
Go on a long walk while you listen to your favorite podcast or music
Ride bikes as a family
Hike the mountains, streams, and trails in your community
Have a barbeque in your backyard
Do some yardwork together as a family
John Eldredge concluded, “We are looking for more of God. You’re far more likely to find him in a walk through an orchard or a sit by a pond than you are in a subway terminal. Of course, God is with us and for us wherever we are, but in terms of refreshment, renewal, restoration…you’d do better to look for him in the cry of a gull then the scream of the siren. God inhabits the world he made; his vibrancy permeates all creation.”[8]
Now, a verse from the Old Testament takes on a new meaning: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake” (Psalms 23:1-3). Green pastures, still waters—I’m in. I recommend that all of us find that place for ourselves where we can reconnect to our Heavenly Father and this beautiful world he has created. Healing can come to our minds and souls as we engage in a health dose of Vitamin D.
[1] Neil E. Klepeis at al., “The National Human Activity Pattern Survey (NHAPS): A Resource for Assessing Exposure to Environmental Pollutants,” Journal of Exposure Analysis and Environmental Epidemiology 11, no. 3 (May-June 2001): 231-252.
[2] John Eldredge, Get Your Life Back: Everyday Practices in a World Gone Mad, [Nelson Books: Nashville, Tennessee, 2020], 76.
[3] Eldredge, 77.
[4] Eldredge, 78.
[5] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200507121353.htm
[6] https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/vitamin-d-from-sun
[7] https://tickertape.tdameritrade.com/investing/how-covid-19-is-sparking-diy-home-renovation-18037
[8] Eldredge, 79.
