Recently there was a report that Vitamin D supplementation is useless, and hinted that it could be dangerous. I would agree that it would be useless if all of us were outdoors in a sunny climate most of the day. In just a few minutes the body can make a lot of Vitamin D. But many people are finding they are deficient because they are rarely outside, and when they are there skin is not uncovered. Supplementation gives you a lot less Vitamin D than your body could make naturally, given the right conditions, so how could it be dangerous? For me, I am going to continue taking my
WellGenix D3 Genix as long as I am living in the Northwest, where the sun rarely shines .
Vitamin D is especially active in areas of the human genome related to autoimmune diseases, providing yet more evidence that the vitamin plays a critical role in regulating the immune system and protecting against certain diseases.
In a study published in the journal
Genome Research, researchers from Oxford University mapped the human genome looking for clusters of vitamin D receptors -- sites where the vitamin can bind to DNA, changing the expression of a gene. They found that these receptors were especially common in regions that have previously been linked to common autoimmune diseases, including Type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease. Vitamin D receptors were also common in regions linked to colorectal cancer and leukemia.
The study shows how serious the effects of vitamin D deficiency can be, the researchers noted.
Scientists have long known that vitamin D plays an essential role in maintaining healthy teeth and bones, but only recently has the vitamin's role in immune regulation started to become clear.
"The benefits of vitamin D include a reduction in the risk of colon polyps and prostate cancer, less coronary artery disease, and a decreased chance of developing type 1 diabetes, plus increased muscle strength and coordination, along with higher bone strength," writes Phyllis A. Balch in her book
Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 4th Edition.
The best source of vitamin D is exposure to sunlight. In only a fraction of the time it takes to burn, the body can produce up to 10,000 IU of the vitamin -- as little as 15 minutes per day for light-skinned people and as much as three times that for people with much darker skin.
Sunscreen blocks the ultraviolet radiation that the body needs to synthesize vitamin D.
Sources for this story include:
http://health.usnews.com/health-new....
