We are wild

We are children of the sun. No matter how much we believe that we are self-directed, the radically profound connection we have to the rhythms of the earth shapes we humans in subtle and not so subtle ways.

Today began in the rain, in a darkness that emulated almost night. I struggled to begin even the simplest tasks, preferring a directionless wander through the early morning.

It was close to 10:3O when the sun returned and with it, my energy both physical and mental.   It was the light, the sun that changed my attitude.

The concept of Seasonal Affective Disorder, the light blue funk of winter months is well known both in scientific circles and in my house. I crave the sun in the winter, finding the dreariness of the shorter days and cloudy skies a burden, a soporific.

How many subtleties of our humanness and its intimate connection to the world around us steer us without our knowledge?

Are the biorhythms of the ‘70s real?

Recent research says yes to both questions.

Follow along…

I had the opportunity to meet with a young orthopedic doc in Rochester a few weeks ago to discuss my slow recovery from a fractured femur and revision hip surgery.

He was great.

Seems like my femur is still broken in parts, one of which is called the “greater trochanter.”  And that is why I can’t walk without a cane and why I am so uncomfortable…which translated into ordinary street language means I have a lot of pain.

Now that I knew what was going on,  that  my slow recovery wasn’t my fault…which I of course assumed, I asked what could I do to help with the healing?

His response was Vitamin D.

I assured him that I am outside at least 10 minutes a day soaking up sunlight that my body will make into Vitamin D.

I smugly thought that I had the Vitamin D thing covered.

Wrong!

Being outside for 10 minutes is good, but in order to get the sunlight you need to create enough vitamin D, you need to have a lot more skin than I am willing to expose or the neighbors will excuse and it seems that I need more Vitamin D than a younger woman because at some point my body become less efficient in making D out of sunlight.  The more skin surface, the more sunlight, the more time in the sun, the more vitamin D.

Of course, there are complications: First, I am very fair skinned which is both a benefit and a curse.

I burn in the sun. Go up like a Roman Candle. Well, more like a roast duck. But my fair skin allows me to soak up more sunlight in areas where the sun is less bright.

Sunlight and vitamin D can be read in the history of our ancestral homelands. The closer to the equator, the more sunlight and the more melanin in the skin of the inhabitants.

There is such a thing, a serious thing, as too much vitamin D. Melanin protects against a vitamin D overdose.

The further from the equator, sunlight is in less supply and the people in these latitudes have less melanin so that they can absorb more sunlight to make vitamin D.

Then there is the amount of skin exposed.

There isn’t a pair of shorts or a sleeveless garment in my closet. Hasn’t been for 20 years.

So, how do I get that vitamin D that I need?

Food is another source of vitamin D…

So, when the sun is less strong, and the days shorter and age a challenge, vitamin D can be found in a lot of foods.

Number one is cod liver oil, followed by herring, wild caught salmon, fortified dairy, egg yolks, tofu and more. Beef and calf’s liver and chicken are also good sources.

I am an big-time consumer of yogurt, I eat several eggs a week and adore salmon as well as liver with onions, something that I wouldn’t consider even close to food as a child.

If you could store the effects of cod liver oil I would be fixed for life since my mother made us all take a heaping and I mean a heaping tablespoon of the stuff every morning.

Ew!

I hated orange juice for years because we would first swallow the cod liver oil and then have a glass of orange juice as a chaser.

I’ll pass on the cod liver oil and herring.

Beyond my fractured femur are there other good things that vitamin D does?

I’ve copied this from one source about the importance of D.

“Vitamin D is essential to the absorption of calcium and phosphorous. It facilitates an operating immune system. It’s important for bone growth and healing and for good teeth. Your brain and nervous system are dependent on it and evidence continues to mount that vitamin D also helps to regulate the immune system, lower blood pressure, protect against depression, and reduce risk of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and several kinds of cancer. A 2014 study from the University of California-San Diego School of Medicine also found that people with low vitamin D levels were twice as likely to die prematurely.”

Vitamin D is not a panacea.

Like most of what we consume, whether by standing outside in states close to our birthday suits or by eating specific foods, it is only part of a larger package of connection to the world that allows us to function as we should.

Think about it, we are still wild.

Sure we can eat things like Twinkies or Spam or sugar laden desserts, things not found in nature, but to be healthy, to be what we can and should be, we must acknowledge that we are children of the jungle and the savannah.

We are not made separately from the rest of creation, but rather a singular example of how our home on this earth manifests itself in all who we are.

We are wild. We are children of the forest and field.

The thin overlay of civilization denies our wildness.

I am going outside before the sun disappears again, roll up my sleeves and pant legs and be wild…of course I will have to use my cane to get there, but that is a part of my continuing story… Then I’ll make a luscious crème Brule with lots of egg yolks.

That trochanter will be fixed in no time.