It's astounding that Wilt Chamberlain scored 50 points in each of 118 games; Kareem Abdul-Jabbar racked up 38,387 points in 20 seasons; and Michael Jordan scored an average of 40.1 points per game.
With so much talent and stamina, it's hard to imagine that those powerhouses were deficient in vitamin D, which is essential for everything from bone strength to immune system health. But that's what researchers from the Mayo Clinic and George Mason University suggest. They looked at the vitamin D levels in the university's NCAA basketball team. It seems those athletes are especially likely to have D-ficiencies, say the researchers, because like pro players, they spend as many as 40-60 hours a week indoors to practice, review films and for individual training and games - not to mention time spent in airports, buses and hotel rooms.
In the study, published in Nutrition, 65% of 20 university players were vitamin D deficient, especially those who were African Americans. And the researchers found that taking 10,000 IU of D3 a day over five months eased the deficiency, but did not (except for one player) get D up to healthy levels.
So if you are a competitive basketball player, indoor swimmer, or squash or ping pong player, or, hey, if you do hours of mall walking, ask your doctor for a blood test to check your D levels. You want 20 ng dL or higher, but not above 50. Aim to take in 600 IUs daily of vitamin D through food (mushrooms, D-enriched cereals and low-fat dairy, and fatty fish like salmon and ocean trout) and discuss supplement levels with your doctor.
Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
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