Manufactured by the body through the sun's energy, vitamin D works with calcium to build strong, healthy bones (and possibly muscles), to protect against cancer and regulate a host of physiological functions. Research indicates you need about 4,000 units of vitamin D a day. You can't get enough vitamin D from milk (unless you drink 40 glasses a day) or from a multivitamin (unless you take about 10 tablets a day), neither of which is recommended. Most of us make about 20,000 units of vitamin D after about 20 minutes of summer sun. This is about 100 times more vitamin D than the government says you need every day. If you don't get vitamin D the way Mother Nature intended, from sunshine, you need to take vitamin D supplements (an extra 2000 units a day).

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin (meaning it can be stored for long periods in the body's fatty tissue and the liver). The major biologic function of vitamin D is to maintain normal blood levels of calcium and phosphorus. Vitamin D aids in the absorption of calcium, helping to form and maintain strong bones. But, vitamin D differs dramatically from its vitamin cohorts for two significant reasons: (1) Our bodies can manufacture it on exposure to sunlight and (2) In its active form it is considered to be a hormone with vital effects on mineral absorption, bone mineralization and some secretions.

Research focuses on vitamin D's impressive potential to battle cancer; regulate blood pressure; biological rhythm, mood and behavior; treat certain immunological disorders such as multiple sclerosis and psoriasis; and enhance muscle strength.

Writing in The Doctors' Vitamin and Mineral Book, Sheldon Saul Hendler, M.D.,PhD, identifies several promising and impressive new roles for versatile vitamin D: "Proliferation and differentiation, which could have an enormous impact on the prevention and treatment of cancer; immunomodulation, which could be important in protection against and treatment of infectious diseases; and maintenance of cell membrane fluidity, which could have significance for all biological processes, including aging." Vitamin D accumulates by sun exposure and is believed to guard against cancer. The best source of vitamin D is from UV-B from sunlight. Dr. Hendler cites US population studies that link higher cancer rates to lower levels of natural sunlight.

(info from Energy Times 12/99 and The Vitamin D Council)

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