A Key Player in Disease Prevention and Overall Health Support

A Key Player in Disease Prevention and Overall Health Support


In recent years vitamin D has emerged as a star of the "vitamin" world. For example, there are currently over 800 studies showing vitamin D's effectiveness against cancer. Optimizing your vitamin D levels can literally cut your risk of several cancers by 50 percent!



Further, middle aged and elderly people with high levels of vitamin D could reduce their chances of developing heart disease or diabetes by 43 percent.



Scientists have actually identified a total of nearly 3,000 genes that are upregulated by vitamin D. Because vitamin D is actually a "prohormone," which your body produces from cholesterol, it influences your entire body -- receptors that respond to the vitamin have been found in almost every type of human cell, from your brain to your bones.



So what modern science has now realized is that vitamin D does more than just aid in the absorption of calcium and bone formation, it is also involved in multiple repair and maintenance functions, touches thousands of different genes, regulates your immune system, and much, much more.



Just one example of an important gene that vitamin D up-regulates is your ability to fight infections, as well as chronic inflammation. It produces over 200 antimicrobial peptides, the most important of which is cathelicidin, a naturally occurring broad-spectrum antibiotic.



This is one of the explanations for why it's so effective against colds and influenza.



In addition, since vitamin D also modulates (balances) your immune response, it can prevent an overreaction in the form of inflammation, which can lead to a variety of autoimmune disorders, such as Crohn's disease for example. Research has even uncovered that vitamin D may be an effective therapeutic agent to treat or prevent allergy to a common mold.



Among the many other benefits that research is revealing, low levels of vitamin D also double your risk of stroke, which is the third leading cause of death in the United States.



This adds to research that also found vitamin D deficiency is associated with arterial stiffness, a risk factor for heart disease and stroke. A separate study from Finland also found that those with the lowest vitamin D levels had a 25 percent higher risk of dying from heart disease or stroke, and when only stroke was looked at, those with the lowest levels had twice the risk as those with the highest.



So you can see that optimizing your vitamin D levels is easily one of the best ways to help prevent a myriad of diseases and conditions, ranging from heart disease, diabetes and cancer to autoimmune disorders, stroke, colds and flu.



What is the Best Form of Vitamin D?

Ideally, the best place to get vitamin D is from your skin being exposed to the UV-B that is in normal sunlight. Vitamin D from sunlight acts as a pro-hormone, rapidly converting into 25-hydroxyvitamin D, or vitamin D3. A common myth is that occasional exposure of your face and hands to sunlight is "sufficient" for vitamin D nutrition. For most of us, this is an absolutely inadequate exposure to move vitamin D levels to the healthy range.



To optimize your levels, you need to expose large portions of your skin to the sun, and you need to do it for more than a few minutes. And, contrary to popular belief, the best time to be in the sun for vitamin D production is actually as near to solar noon as possible.



If you want to get out in the sun to maximize your vitamin D production, and minimize your risk of malignant melanoma, the middle of the day (roughly between 10:00am and 2:00pm) is the best and safest time to go.During this time you need the shortest exposure time to produce vitamin D because UVB rays are most intense at this time. Plus, when the sun goes down toward the horizon, the UVB is filtered out much more than the dangerous UVA.



You just need to be cautious about the length of your exposure. You only need enough exposure to have your skin turn the lightest shade of pink. This may only be a few minutes for some if you have a very pale skin.



Once you reach this point your body will not make any additional vitamin D and any additional exposure will only cause harm and damage to your skin.



Most people with fair skin will max out their vitamin D production in just 10-20 minutes, or, again, when your skin starts turning the lightest shade of pink. Some will need less, others more. The darker your skin, the longer exposure you will need to optimize your vitamin D production.



Unfortunately, the amount of sun reaching most of the U.S. is only sufficient to generate a healthy vitamin D response for far less than half the year -- and that's only if you take the time to go out in it.



So, for those times of the year when access to the proper amount of sun is not possible, you will want to consider an oral form of vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol). Make sure, if you supplement, that you are using vitamin D3 and not the far inferior vitamin D2. As the latest research shows, D3 is approximately 87% more potent in raising and maintaining vitamin D concentrations and produces 2- to 3-fold greater storage of vitamin D than does D2. Another option is to use a safe tanning bed, paying careful attention to not getting burned