Vitamin D Benefits 4 Mental Health | Robert D. McMullen, MD Psychiatrist

September 2019

In this youtube video, Dr. Robert McMullen will discuss how Vitamin D plays a role in mental health, general health and the benefits it can have on one’s mental wellbeing and overall health to prevent diseases such as cancer.

To learn more:  https://tmsbraincare.com/vitamin-d-be...​

Dr. Robert McMullen is a psychiatrist based in New York City.  He’s been practicing psychopharmacology for thirty years.  He discusses a spectrum of methods to deal with different types of mental issues.  His clinic provides his patients with TMS  therapy treatments combatting depression.  Dr. McMullen has practiced TMS for the past ten years.  He was educated in Georgetown University medical school and did his residency at Columbia Presbyterian in NYC.  

What is Vitamin D?
Vitamin D is a steroid hormone that is often overlooked mainly because it has the word “Vitamin” attached to it.  I believe that it was misnamed and should have never been named as vitamin because it is really a hormone steroid.   Vitamin D is intimately involved in regulating the immune system (this is the reason why in the winter, when there’s a lack of Vitamin D, humans are more prone to the flu and other compromising diseases during the winter).  It is also beneficial for autoimmune diseases.  Vitamin D is also very helpful to take when being treated with TMS.

In this video, I discuss why people from different regions in the world that have different skin colors and how their skin color,  the sun, and Vitamin D affects them as human beings.  Vitamin D has the ability to bring calcium for the gut into the bloodstream.  Watch the video to find out how the technicalities work, affect mankind and how it has evolved throughout history. 

Western Europe
What did human beings (hunter gathers) wear to protect their bodies from the sun? Not much and that is why they were receiving their dose of Vitamin D-- their whole body was exposed to sun!  The further north you are based; the more cancer and autoimmune diseases are prevalent in that region of the world.  This also translates into higher cancer rates in countries where the sun is lacking.  For example, colon and breast cancers are higher in the northern regions of the world. Vitamin D is involved in screening the body and it can play a role in stopping certain small cancers that are in the beginning stages.

Australia despite having all the sun; they have been drilled to use sunscreen all their lives. And since they live in mostly air-conditioned places and because they are very careful about not getting sun they are lacking in Vitamin D. And that is the reason they have high rates of cancer.  For example, in Africa there are different diseases that are more apparent in their society but they are plagued by lower cancer rates.  Lower rates of cancer are found in India, Africa and Central America because they work outside the home and still get more sun.