Thursday, November 10, 2011

Importance Of Vitamin D For Spinal Surgery

Before a big spinal surgery you have plenty of things to think about, but you might also need to pay attention to your vitamin D level.

It's because going into surgery, many patients are low in vitamin D and this vitamin is important to get the bone to heal.

We've talked before about how many people are low in vitamin D, especially here in Colorado. And we also have found that vitamin D plays a role in keeping our risk of getting cancer, diabetes and even multiple sclerosis low. But for spinal surgery patients, vitamin D's role in keeping our bones strong and healthy becomes even more important after surgery, when the bone is in its healing phase.

The problem is, according to this newest study, that many spinal surgery patients researchers examined were low in vitamin D before the surgery. These researchers found over half of them had low levels and one quarter were severely deficient. So, for your overall health, and particularly your bone health after surgery, make sure you get enough vitamin D in your diet. That means eating fortified foods, like milk and cereal, or vitamin D rich foods like eggs and saltwater fish, or taking a supplement. For most of us, we want to get 600 to 800 international units every day.

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