Humans require sunlight like plants do!

Nature’s original plan was that plants and people would get sunshine. In our modern industrialized world, most humans get very little. Typically we live and work indoors, drive to work and, when outside, have been conditioned to cover up, stay in the shade and apply sunscreen. (READ HERE about the toxic substances in sunscreens which can be absorbed into circulation and ironically cause cancer.) Sunshine delivers healthful energy waves plus it stimulates our skin to turn cholesterol into vitamin D. A good quality far infrared sauna can replace some of the energetic waves, but without significant sun exposure or supplementation, it is hard to get sufficient vitamin D because food is a poor source.

Why should we care? Never mind occasional media nonsense based on poorly structured studies, vitamin D is useful for more than just building bones. It protects against issues such as: arthritis, asthma, depression and obesity, dementia, brain shrinkage, brain health, many cancers, colds and flu, autoimmune diseases, deaths from infectious disease (think covid-19), hardening of the arteries and allergies. It also helps heart health, teeth, fertility, and benign breast lumps. Anyone with multiple sclerosis (MS) or other autoimmune disease should study the remarkable recoveries using the Dr. Coimbra protocol. Vitamin D is important for immune response. The following stat from a study should get our attention: there was 80% less breast cancer among women whose blood levels of vitamin D were above 60 ng/ml compared to the wimpy 20 ng/ml level some docs still say is okay. (I wish the cancer charities would use some of the millions they raise to spread more prevention information like this.) There is also a 5 times increased risk of diabetes if vitamin D is low. And making matters worse, diabetics are at 4.5-times greater risk for an early death when their blood levels of vitamin D are low. Who would have thought that vitamin D would be an important factor with Parkinson’s Disease? These researchers found out it is. Not enough motivation? How about this article? Overwhelming Proof that Vitamin D3 deficiency causes most human diseases.

And, timely in 2020, one study showed that persons with insufficient vitamin D blood levels were almost twice (1.77x) as likely to test positive for covid-19. Also, researchers in Spain have discovered that 82% of hospitalized patients with Covid-19 were vitamin D deficient. (In the Spanish study they used a very low cutoff level as “deficient”-20 ng/ml. If they looked at what nutritionists consider normal or optimum, 70-100 ng/ml, I’m betting that 100% of those hospitalized would have shown up as low in vitamin D.)

Maybe vitamin D is an even bigger deal. Read Jeff Bowles’ The Miraculous Cure For and Prevention of All Diseases—What Doctors Never Learned. Adequate vitamin D has also been shown to reduce death from “all causes.” 

All ages. Of course, children need vitamin D to build their bones, but experts also say that it seems likely that in children, deficiency of Vitamin D may well be “THE [that emphasis was in the original article] leading cause of cancer, type 1 diabetes, asthma, allergies, eczema, and possibly epidemic autism.” At the other end of the age spectrum, seniors are 3 times more likely to be dependent (versus independent) if low in vitamin D. A Stanford study said that elderly folks are more fragile because they aren’t getting enough.

How D can affect so much. Few nutrients have as much impact on our health as vitamin D. It is actually a hormone.  Nearly every cell in the body has a receptor for vitamin D and it may control how 1,000 or more of our genes behave…meaning that vitamin D can turn on the good ones and turn off those that are harmful. It also helps our DNA repair and reduces inflammation. As you likely know, it is also important to get calcium absorbed. (Not everyone knows that Vitamin K₂ is needed to assure that the absorbed calcium gets into the bones, rather than causing mischief in the arteries.)

• Click here for information on Vitamin D Deficiency and Sources
• For details on vitamin D dosage, safety and testing of blood levels, visit this vitamin D Supplement page in the Healthy by Nature Library.

Final thought. The public has been trained to think of nutrients in the same way they think of drugs. So, they often worry about overdosing. Of course, that is possible at the extreme, but with vitamin D, the risk is much greater for under-dosing.