Importance of VITAMIN D

......YOU NEED LOTS OF IT AND IT IS EASY, BUT DO NOT OVERDO IT!

Fifteen facts you probably never knew about vitamin D and sunlight exposure.

Vitamin D prevents osteoporosis, depression, prostate cancer, breast cancer,
and even effects diabetes and obesity.

Vitamin D is perhaps the single most underrated nutrient in the world of
nutrition.

That's probably because it's free: your body makes it when sunlight touches
your skin.

Drug companies can't sell you sunlight, so there's no promotion of its
health benefits.

Truth is, most people don't know the real story on vitamin D and health. So
here's an overview taken from an interview between Mike Adams and Dr.
Michael Holick.

1. Vitamin D is produced by your skin in response to exposure to ultraviolet
radiation from natural sunlight.


2. The healing rays of natural sunlight (that generate vitamin D in your
skin) cannot penetrate glass. So you don't generate vitamin D when sitting
in your car or home.


3. It is nearly impossible to get adequate amounts of vitamin D from your
diet. Sunlight exposure is the only reliable way to generate vitamin D in
your own body.


4. A person would have to drink ten tall glasses of vitamin D fortified milk
each day just to get minimum levels of vitamin D into their diet.


5. The further you live from the equator, the longer exposure you need to
the sun in order to generate vitamin D. Canada, the UK and most U.S. states
are far from the equator.


6. People with dark skin pigmentation may need 20 - 30 times as much
exposure to sunlight as fair-skinned people to generate the sam e amount of
vitamin D. That's why prostate cancer is epidemic among black men -- it's a
simple, but widespread, sunlight deficiency.


7. Sufficient levels of vitamin D are crucial for calcium absorption in your
intestines. Without sufficient vitamin D, your body cannot absorb calcium,
rendering calcium supplements useless.


8. Chronic vitamin D deficiency cannot be reversed overnight: it takes
months of vitamin D supplementation and sunlight exposure to rebuild the
body's bones and nervous system.


9. Even weak sunscreens (SPF=8) block your body's ability to generate
vitamin D by 95%. This is how sunscreen products actually cause disease --
by creating a critical vitamin deficiency in the body.


10. It is impossible to generate too much vitamin D in your body from
sunlight exposure: your body will self-regulate and only generate what it
needs.


11. If it hurts to press firmly on your sternum, you may be suffering from
chronic vitamin D deficiency right now.


12. Vitamin D is "activated" in your body by your kidneys and liver before
it can be used.


13. Having kidney disease or liver damage can greatly impair your body's
ability to activate circulating vitamin D.


14. The sunscreen industry doesn't want you to know that your body actually
needs sunlight exposure because that realization would mean lower sales of
sunscreen products.


15. Even though vitamin D is one of the most powerful healing chemicals in
your body, your body makes it absolutely free. No prescription required.

On the issue of sunlight exposure, by the way, it turns out that super
antioxidants greatly boost your body's ability to handle sunlight without
burning. Astaxanthin <http://www.naturalnews.com/002156.html>  is one of the most powerful "internal sunscreens" and can allow you to stay under the sun twice as long
without burning.

Other powerful antioxidants with this ability include the superfruits like
Acai, Pomegranates (POM Wonderful juice), blueberries, etc. 

Diseases and conditions cause by vitamin D deficiency:
* Osteoporosis is commonly caused by a lack of vitamin D, which greatly
impairs calcium absorption. 

* Sufficient vitamin D prevents prostate cancer, breast cancer, ovarian
cancer, depression, colon cancer and schizophrenia. 

* "Rickets" is the name of a bone-wasting disease caused by vitamin D
deficiency. 

* Vitamin D deficiency may exacerbate type 2 diabetes and impair insulin
production in the pancreas. 

* Obesity impairs vitamin D utilization in the body, meaning obese people
need twice as much vitamin D. 

* Vitamin D is used around the world to treat Psoriasis. 

* Vitamin D deficiency can cause schizophrenia. 

* Seasonal Affective Disorder is caused by a melatonin imbalance initiated
by lack of exposure to sunlight. 

* Chronic vitamin D deficiency is often misdiagnosed as fibromyalgia because
its symptoms are so similar: muscle weakness, aches and pains. 

* Your risk of developing serious diseases like diabetes and cancer is
reduced 50% - 80% through simple, sensible exposure to natural sunlight 2-3
times each week. 

* Infants who receive vitamin D supplementation (2000 units daily) have an
80% reduced risk of developing type 1 diabetes over the next twenty years.

  Shocking Vitamin D deficiency statistics:
* 32% of doctors and med school students are vitamin D deficient. 

* 40% of the U.S. population is vitamin D deficient. 

* 42% of African American women of childbearing age are deficient in vitamin D

* 48% of young girls (9-11 years old) are vitamin D deficient. 

* Up to 60% of all hospital patients are vitamin D deficient. 

* 76% of pregnant mothers are severely vitamin D deficient, causing
widespread vitamin D deficiencies in their unborn children, which
predisposes them to type 1 diabetes, arthritis, multiple sclerosis and
schizophrenia later in life. 81% of the children born to these mothers were
deficient. 

* Up to 80% of nursing home patients are vitamin D deficient.