Ed, a Chattanooga fitness devotee, did 285 chin-ups trying to break a record in 2005. He quit chin ups because, as he said, they were so difficult.
Later, learning his vitamin D levels were low (12 nanograms/milliliter) he worked to raise his vitamin D levels to 40 ng/ml by January of 2007. Ed started doing chin ups again, only this time he quickly found it was much easier than before. Ed says this week (March 2007) he completed 300 chin ups “and it was almost easy!”
Ed was explaining his personal discovery about vitamin D to Dr. John Cannell, captain of the Vitamin D Council website. Dr. Cannell had just released his “Peak Athletic Performance and Vitamin D” online report. And one wonders if the next performance enhancing “drug” will be vitamin D at the 2008 Olympics.
Dr. Cannell researched medical literature going back a number of decades. He writes that the Germans and Russians who won many Olympic medals in the 1960s and 1970s were convinced vitamin D improves athletic performance. If not deficient, you may not notice any improvement, but most people have sub-optimal levels of vitamin D.
Dr. Cannell cites a 1938 study where vitamin D-producing ultraviolet lamps were used to improve 100-meter dash times from 13.63 to 12.62 seconds. A 1945 study showed that UV radiation for up to 2 minutes, three times a week, improved cardiovascular fitness scores by 19% compared to 2% in non-irradiated students in a physical education class.
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