New evidence shows that getting enough D may be the most important thing you can do for your health.
By Paula Dranov From Reader's Digest
You know the usual prescription for good health: a balanced diet with lots of fruits and vegetables, regular exercise, no smoking. Now add this: Spend a little more time in the sun.
Huh? That may sound like medical heresy. After all, we've been warned for decades about the dangers of the sun: wrinkles, age spots and the increasing threat of skin cancer. But new and impressive medical evidence suggests that sunlight is beneficial. The vitamin D it prompts our bodies to make may prevent cancer, protect against heart disease and ward off a long list of disorders such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and gum disease. It is even showing promise as a treatment for heart disease and some cancers.
Long recognized as vitally important for bone building (it's needed for calcium absorption), vitamin D has now achieved superstar status among nutrients. While all doctors may not agree, many experts are confident enough of its wide-ranging powers to urge that we get much more of it, from the sun and from supplements, as even the best diet in the world may not give us enough.
D Deficiency and Certain Cancers
Some of the stunning findings: Getting 1000 IU (international units) of vitamin D from supplements or the sun may cut the risk of colon cancer in half, a change that would save many thousands of lives every year. Increasing vitamin D intake to 2000 IU would reduce the risk by two-thirds, says epidemiologist Cedric Garland of the University of California, San Diego. In 1980 Dr. Garland and his brother Frank, also an epidemiologist, published a groundbreaking study showing that rates of colon cancer were about twice as high in the sun-starved northeastern United States as they are in the sunny South.
Since then, evidence of the connection between vitamin D deficiency and cancer has strengthened, prompting researchers to make some startling claims. Considering all types of cancer, insufficient vitamin D trumps the other risk factors, says Dr. Garland. Of course, for certain cancers some of those "other risks" are overwhelmingly powerful. For example, vitamin D won't stop some smokers from getting lung cancer or heavy drinkers from being at risk for oral or esophageal cancers.
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