The dangers of sun exposure have been greatly exaggerated, and the benefits highly underestimated. Sun exposure is not the major reason people develop skin cancer. I know many of you might be surprised by this, but this is simply not the truth, and buying into this lie will most assuredly deprive you of the vital benefits the sun can provide.
And one of the major benefits is lowering your risk of getting cancer — the number one cause of death. As this groundbreaking study found, 600,000 cases of cancer could be prevented every year just by increasing your levels of vitamin D, and without question, the best way to obtain your vitamin D is by UVB sunlight falling on unexposed skin in doses that do not cause sunburn.
Even beyond cancer, the researchers pointed out that increasing levels of vitamin D3 could prevent diseases that claim nearly 1 million lives throughout the world each year!
That is absolutely extraordinary, and NO ONE is making a penny from this recommendation, which is one of the primary reasons why this is not being more widely promoted.
The Endless Benefits of The Sunshine Vitamin
Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, is different from other vitamins in that it influences your entire body — receptors that respond to the vitamin have been found in almost every type of human cell, from your brain to your bones.
Optimizing your vitamin D levels could help you to prevent as many as 16 different types of cancer including pancreatic, lung, breast, ovarian, prostate, and colon cancers.
Further, optimal vitamin D levels are also known to positively influence the following conditions:
How to Get Enough Vitamin D (and What Level is Optimal)
Optimal vitamin D levels lie in a very small range. To be certain your levels are where they should be, have your doctor test your blood and supplement (or, preferably, get moderate sun exposure) as needed in order to maintain that level.
The correct test your doctor needs to order is 25(OH)D, also called 25-hydroxyvitamin D.
The OPTIMAL value that you’re looking for is 45-52 ng/ml (115-128 nmol/l).
Bear in mind that even though 25-hydroxyvitamin D lab values of 20-56 ng/ml (50-140 nmol/l) are considered “normal,” your vitamin D level should NEVER be below 32 ng/ml, and any levels below 20 ng/ml are considered serious deficiency states and will increase your risk of breast and prostate cancers and autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.
Now, how should you get your vitamin D levels into that optimum range? Ideally, from sun exposure. This is always the preferable method.
However, I realize that sometimes it just isn’t possible to get out into the sun as much as you’d like especially in the northern USA and Canada. If you decide to supplement your diet with vitamin D, there are two crucial things to know:
- It IS possible to overdose on oral vitamin D supplements (there’s very little risk of overdosing on vitamin D from the sun, however), so you need to have your blood levels of vitamin D measured regularly.
- Only vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol), the type of vitamin D found naturally in foods like eggs, organ meats, animal fat, cod liver oil, and fish, is appropriate for supplementation. Do NOT use the highly inferior vitamin D2.
from www.mercola.com