Notes About Health

This interesting article addresses some of the key issues regarding Vitamin D. A careful reading of this material could make a big difference in how you think about the exciting research that is currently being published about Vitamin D.

The most recent information can give you a real health advantage. Please take this information onboard in order to open up all the health benefits to yourself and your family.

Vitamin D is a major vitamin in being required by the body and is utilised daily in supporting its health. It is a member of the fat-soluble group of vitamins. This means that it can be dissolved and stored by our body’s fat deposits. It is unique in the fact that the body can produce it with adequate exposure to sunlight. Vitamin D may also be obtained from food. The form of this vitamin that comes from plants is called ergocalciferol (also referred to as Vitamin D2). From animals, it is called cholecalciferol or Vitamin D3. Vitamin D has many benefits for the body. They include:

Calcium absorption – Vitamin D is a very important vitamin for building strong, healthy bones. In the intestine, Vitamin D helps the body take in the dietary calcium, the ingredient that enables hardness to our bones. With Vitamin D, whatever calcium we take into our body is used properly. Vitamin D also benefits the teeth and gums.

Disease prevention – Since the Vitamin helps in the absorption of calcium necessary to proper bone growth, it also helps prevent the bone-deficiency disease called rickets in children. Vitamin D also helps to prevent osteoporosis, a bad bone disease characterized by the decrease in bone density.

Vitamin D has also shown to be very beneficial to the health of the muscles. In a 2003 study that appeared in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, patients who suffered from chronic musculoskeletal pain had a Vitamin D deficiency.

There is also some potential showing Vitamin D’s capability to help prevent diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and Type 1 diabetes. The results in studies published in 2004 are suggestive at best, but researchers believe it might hold some promise. Vitamin D helps boost the immune system and may help prevent inflammation, which probably explains its role against arthritis.

Vitamin D’s benefits against cancer – Current research shows that Vitamin D could be beneficial against certain cancers, such as prostate, colon and also breast cancer. When researchers conducted bllod tests over a period of time, this showed that the lower the Vitamin D levels are, the higher the risk of cancer.

The vitamin’s active form is capable of initiating important responses in the body. One of these is the regulation of how cells grow and proliferate. When uncontrolled, both these processes result in cancer. Again, the evidence is still suggestive and more studies have to be conducted.

If you want to supplement more, you will find extra Vitamin D in foods like salmon, sardines and mackerel. It’s also found in cod liver oil and fortified foods like milk and cereals.

Soon you will come to realise that something you have read here will have a beneficial impact on your health. Then you’ll be glad you took the time to learn more about Vitamin D. Hopefully you will get enough Vitamin D through your diet, but I consider it so important in my own diet, that I supplement more with Solgar Vitamin D. Solgar is the brand I take personally.