There’s a nutrient that could eliminate 50% of all deaths from cancer and prevent other diseases that claim nearly 1 million lives every year.
That nutrient is… vitamin D, the “sunshine vitamin”, which is now recognized by traditional and natural doctors alike as one of the most powerful, inexpensive ways to prevent disease.
Vitamin D is found in small amounts in some foods, such as milk, eggs, fish, and fortified orange juice — but the most important, natural source of vitamin D comes from exposure to sunlight. 
Vitamin D benefits and influences over 2,000 of the 30,000 genes in the body, which explains why it has been found to inhibit the onset and spread of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, autism, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoporosis, to name a few.
This common vitamin has the potential to help millions avoid some of the worst diseases on the planet — but people simply don’t realize how critical vitamin D is to normal cellular function throughout the body.
In the United States, vitamin D deficiency is a public health crisis of epidemic proportion. Even those who are aware of the deficiency usually do not fully understand the serious health implications that occur when the body’s level of vitamin D drops.
Next to smoking, not getting enough vitamin D is the No. 2 risk factor of cancer!
Every year, 30% — or two million people worldwide (200,000 in the U.S. alone) — could be spared of dying from cancer if they would just take the proper amounts of vitamin D.
According to Dr. Joseph Mercola, an Osteopathic physician and New York Times bestselling author, “Groundbreaking studies proved that 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.”
Beyond cancer, increasing levels of vitamin D could prevent diseases that claim nearly 1 million lives throughout the world each year.”
When the body absorbs vitamin D, it converts it into a hormone called calcitriol. The body’s organs use this hormone to regulate cell growth and repair cellular damage, including malignant cancer cells.
Dr. Michael Holick, one of the world’s most respected authorities on vitamin D and author of The UV Advantage explains that “vitamin D is made in the skin, gets into the bloodstream, and then goes into the liver and kidneys where it is activated into a hormone called 125-dihydroxy (calcitriol).
It is this activated vitamin D that has biological, disease-prevention effects, such as preventing prostate cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, and colon cancer.”
Thousands of dollars are often spent on health problems caused by a simple vitamin D deficiency.
It can take months, sometimes years, of intense vitamin D treatment (i.e. 50,000+ IU’s a day) to reverse the effects of disease.
Vitamin D Benefits: The Proper Amount of Vitamin D In The Body Helps To…
- Stop mutated cells from forming and spreading;
- Cause diseased cells to commit “cell suicide” — i.e., cause them to literally self-destruct;
- Causes the differentiation of cells (Cancer cells are often undifferentiated, and this causes them to reproduce faster);
- Reduce the probability that dormant tumors will regenerate into cancerous cells by inhibiting the growth of blood vessels in those areas.
Absorption is the key.
Dr. William Grant, Ph.D., Director of the Sunlight, Nutrition and Health Research Center, and an expert on the effects of the environment and diet on chronic disease, recommends that adults get 2,000 to 4,000 IU’s of vitamin D every day from the sun or from vitamin D supplements to prevent cancerous or dysfunctional cellular activity. However, most people get less than 300 IU’s a day.
While it’s possible for you to get 10,000+ IU’s just from being out in the sun, even if you had sufficient sun exposure, there are several variables that inhibit the absorption of vitamin D, including:
- Skin color — darker skin needs 20 – 30 times more exposure than lighter skin to get the same amount of vitamin D;
- Sunscreen — blocks the skin’s ability to produce vitamin D by 95% (even when the sunscreen has a low SPF 8);
- Being overweight — overweight people absorb about half the vitamin D of normal-weight people;
- Clothing — it is a myth that a little sun on the hands and face will produce enough vitamin D;
- Cloud cover — clouds can filter ultraviolet B (UVB) rays, which is the type that converts into vitamin D (UVA are the rays that can cause cancer);
- Location and time — Seasons, geography (latitude) and time of day determine the amount of sun in any given place (for example, there is less sun in Alaska than Arizona, and less sun in winter than summer);
- Fear — that sun will cause skin cancer.
While it’s true that excessive amounts of unprotected UVA rays can increase your risk of melanoma skin cancer, there is an overwhelming body of evidence that shows that moderate sun exposure combats cancer and other disease without risk.
It is virtually impossible to overdose on vitamin D. In fact, there’s never been a reported case of vitamin D toxicity — so go outside and enjoy your daily dose of sunshine and get your vitamin D!
If you’re unable to get sufficient sun exposure, taking a high-quality vitamin D supplement is recommended by many health practitioners. Natural vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol), or human vitamin D, is the type most often prescribed for therapeutic reasons because it is far superior to vitamin D2, which is synthetic.
