If a major pharmaceutical company had discovered and marketed a miracle drug with all the attributes and benefits of Vitamin D it would have a blockbuster new product worth billions of dollars. One reason why you have not heard more about Vitamin D is that it is a relatively cheap generic product that should also be considered a spectacular health supplement.
There has been a huge amount of medical research that supports its daily use. Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to an increased susceptibility to the flu incidence and severity as well as several chronic diseases, such as heart problems, high blood pressure, tuberculosis, cancer, periodontal disease, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, seasonal affective disorder, peripheral artery disease, cognitive impairment which includes memory loss and foggy brain, and several autoimmune diseases including type 1 diabetes.
Most importantly, forget about any government recommended levels of Vitamin D in your diet or what your body produces from exposure to sunlight. It has become crystal clear that nearly everyone would benefit by taking relatively high but totally safe levels of Vitamin D supplements, in the range o 1,000 to 5,000 IU per day.
With all the fear about skin cancer many people are avoiding a lot of direct sunlight exposure. Yet there has been considerable research showing correlations between exposure to sunlight and lower levels of disease. For example, one study found that men who received more sunlight were less likely to die from prostate cancer. So now it has become alternative medicine wisdom that Vitamin D can be effective in preventing and managing prostate cancer. Indeed, researchers at Stanford University stated, "Based on these findings, we postulate that vitamin D may have protective actions on the development and/or progression of prostate cancer...We further hypothesize that vitamin D supplementation may have beneficial effects on retarding the development and/or progression of prostate cancer."
Moreover, epidemiological studies show an inverse association between sun exposure and vitamin D levels versus the risk of developing and/or surviving cancer. A 2005 study that examined 63 published reports found that the intake of an additional 1,000 IU of vitamin D daily reduced an individual's colon cancer risk by 50 percent, and breast and ovarian cancer risks by 30 percent. A review by the National Cancer Institute found that vitamin D was beneficial in preventing colorectal cancer, with high levels associated with a 72 percent risk reduction.
As if all this was not enough, research has shown that vitamin D may play a role in preventing or reversing coronary disease. Researchers monitored the vitamin D levels, blood pressure and other cardiovascular risk factors of 1739 people with an average age of 59 years for 5 years. They found that those people with low levels of vitamin D had a 62 percent higher risk of a cardiovascular event than those with normal vitamin D levels. Low levels of vitamin D have also been implicated in hypertension, elevated triglycerides, and impaired insulin metabolism. Finally, low levels of vitamin D have been correlated with an increase in all-cause mortality in the general population.
In other words, be smart and start taking generous amounts of Vitamin D daily to stay healthy.
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