The Benefits of Vitamin D

I'm learning some interesting benefits of vitamin D, also known as the "sunshine vitamin." The best source of vitamin D is from the sun. From what I've read, we're supposed to get about 10 minutes of sun exposure a day without sunscreen, depending on our skin type. Fair-skinned people don't need as much exposure as dark-skinned people. I'm fair skinned so I should stay in the sun without sunscreen just until my skin turns a very light pink. That's kind of hard because sometimes I don't realize my skin is pink until the evening, when it is usually not pink but red - ouch!

Vitamin D is supposed to help prevent colds and flu, possibly the reason why more people get colds and flu in the wintertime, when they don't have as much sun exposure. That makes sense to me. I take a high quality vitamin D3 supplement which my doctor recommends and I get from her clinic. When I ran out of it a while back and was off of it for a while, I noticed that I was feeling kind of weak in the legs and off balance. After I started taking it again, I started feeling stronger. Psychological? I don't think so because it took me a while to connect the two.

One of the benefits of vitamin D is the prevention of cancer, including pancreatic, lung, breast, ovarian, prostate, and colon cancers.

Optimal vitamin D levels are known to positively influence the following health conditions:

• Cold and flu
• Heart disease
• Diabetes
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Multiple sclerosis and osteoporosis
• Autism

Stay tuned for more on the benefits of vitamin D later.