Vitamin D delivers for seniors

If you find you have a harder time getting around as you get older, you're not alone.

Luckily, there's one simple thing you can do right now to lower your risk for mobility problems--and the best part of all, it's something you can enjoy.

Just get outside a little more.

A new study finds that seniors with high levels of vitamin D are more likely to be more mobile and steadier on their feet. And when you consider how quickly mobility problems can ruin the lives and threaten the independence of seniors, this is something worth paying close attention to.

Researchers gathered 2,641 men and women with an average age of 75 and divided them into three groups based on their vitamin D levels.

All of the seniors in the study were given some basic mobility tests: walking a quarter of a mile as quickly as possible, rising from a chair without using their arms and other tests to assess balance and strength.

These tests were repeated two years and four years later.

During those four years, everyone showed some decline. Hey, it happens to the best of us. But the seniors who had the highest D levels at the start of the study did better than those who had the lowest, according to the research presented at a recent Experimental Biology meeting.

The differences weren't always dramatic--an average of 5 percent--but that's over four years. If you plan to stick around longer than that, odds are that gap will grow even more.

Next up: The researchers plan to study whether vitamin D supplements can decrease the risk of mobility problems and other disabilities in seniors.

Hint: Don't wait for that one. Get your D today, because there are plenty of other ways this incredible and completely natural hormone can help you beat Father Time, or at least slow him down a bit.

The best way to get your share is by spending a little time outside. But since so many people can't, don't or won't, you have some other options. You can get vitamin D from fatty fish--if you like those fish enough to eat them nearly every day.

For most people, the best option is a vitamin D supplement. Just be sure to choose natural (and inexpensive) D3 over synthetic D2.

Then, no matter how old you are, start making long-term plans. Odds are, you'll be around for a while.
On a mission for your health,
Ed Martin
Editor, House Calls