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Vitamin D myths, facts and
statistics
Fifteen facts you probably never knew about
vitamin D and sunlight exposure.
(Compiled by Mike Adams, based on an interview with Dr. Michael
Holick, author,
The UV Advantage)
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.
- Vitamin D is produced by your skin in
response to exposure to ultraviolet radiation from
natural sunlight.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- People with dark skin pigmentation may need
20 - 30 times as much exposure to sunlight as fair-skinned
people to generate the same amount of vitamin D. That's why
prostate cancer is epidemic among black men -- it's a
simple, but widespread, sunlight deficiency.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- If it hurts to press firmly on your sternum,
you may be suffering from chronic vitamin D deficiency right
now.
- Vitamin D is "activated" in your body by your
kidneys and liver before it can be used.
- Having kidney disease or liver damage can
greatly impair your body's ability to activate circulating
vitamin D.
- 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.
- Even though vitamin D is one of the most
powerful healing chemicals in your body, your body makes it
absolutely free. No prescription required.
- You need sun exposure on bare skin without
sun block, at or near the middle of the day. Usually 10 or 15
minutes in midday summer sun is enough. This leads to the
production of approximately 10,000 IU of Vitamin D. Wear a hat.
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 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.
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| 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 causes schizophrenia.
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| Seasonal Affective Disorder is caused by a
melatonin imbalance initiated by lack of exposure to sunlight.
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| 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. |
| Skin cancer may actually be prevented by the
very thing that so many are afraid causes it. Sunshine! Vitamin
D is one of the known protections of skin cells against
precancerous changes. Sunlight is the main source of Vitamin D
for most people. UV-B rays from the sun on the skin change
cholesterol into Vitamin D and this is a strong anticancer
preventer. |
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. |
| More than half of postmenopausal women with
osteoporosis are also Vitamin D deficient. |
| Up to 80% of nursing home patients are
vitamin D deficient. |
| Northern Latitude: People living in northern
U.S. states, Canada and northern Europe can't manufacture D
during the winter because the sunlight is too weak. During this
time Vitamin D can only be gotten through food and supplements. |
| Sunlight alone may not be adequate for
overweight people. This sector is not as able to utilize Vitamin
D3 as compared to leaner people. When we remember that
approximately 2/3 of all Americans are overweight this is
significant. |
| Aging involves a reduction in the production
of D by the skin. Absorption of D from foods and the conversion
of Vitamin D diminishes with age |
| In the past people ate more Vitamin
D-containing foods such as butterfat, eggs, liver, organ meats,
and seafood. Time spent outdoors was also more. If your diet is
not rich in these sources of Vitamin D, supplementation is
advised. |
| Air Pollution interferes with Vitamin D being
manufactured because the particulate pollution reduces the
amount of sunlight that can penetrate. Ozone depletion also
causes minimization of exposure to what sunlight there is. |
| Red or blond haired people with blue eyes are
more at risk for skin cancer and need to be more careful about
sun exposure. |
| The protective pigment of your skin will
determine how long to stay in the sun. Darkly complected people
may need to spend up to ten times as much time in the sun to
receive the same amount of Vitamin D as lightly complected
people. This is because heavily pigmented skin will block up to
95% of UV rays. |
What you can do:
Sensible exposure to natural sunlight is the
simplest, easiest and yet one of the most important strategies for
improving your health. I urge you to read the book, "The UV
Advantage" by Dr. Michael Holick to get the full story on natural
sunlight. You can find this book at most local bookstores or through
BN.com, Amazon.com, etc. Note: This is not a paid endorsement or
an affiliate link. I recommend it because of its great importance in
preventing chronic disease and enhancing health without drugs or
surgery. This may be the single most important book on
health you ever read. If more people understood this
information, we could drastically reduce the rates of chronic
disease in this country and around the world. Sunlight exposure is
truly one of the most powerful healing therapies in the world, far
surpassing the best efforts of today's so-called "advanced
medicine." There is no drug, no surgical procedure, and no high-tech
procedure that comes even close to the astonishing healing power of
natural sunlight.
And you can get it free of charge. That's why
nobody's promoting it, of course.
Sources:
Links:
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