You do need cholesterol. This soft, waxy substance is found not only in your bloodstream but also in every cell in your body, where it helps to produce cell membranes, hormones, vitamin D, and bile acids that help you digest fat. Cholesterol also helps in the formation of your memories and is vital for neurological function.
Increasing levels of vitamin D3 among the general population could potentially prevent chronic diseases that claim nearly one million lives throughout the world each year. Incidence of several types of cancer could also be slashed in half. Vitamin D fights infections, including colds and the flu, as it regulates the expression of genes that influence your immune system to attack and destroy bacteria and viruses. Feeling tired and achy is a frequent complaint. While many are misdiagnosed as having fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue, these are classic signs of vitamin D deficiency osteomalacia. The remedy is a combination of vitamin D and calcium. Researchers estimate that 50 percent of the general population is at risk of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency. Among school aged children, that percentage may be as high as 70 percent.
The risk of children suffering from flu can be reduced by 50% if they take vitamin D, doctors in Japan have found. The finding has implications for flu epidemics since vitamin D, which is naturally produced by the human body when exposed to direct sunlight, has no significant side effects, costs little and can be several times more effective than anti-viral drugs or vaccines according to research in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Exposure to sunlight increases nitric oxide production in your body, which lowers blood pressure and benefits your cardiovascular system. According to researchers, this benefit alone may outweigh the potential skin cancer risk. Vitamin D from sensible sun exposure appears essential in preventing 16 different types of cancer, including melanoma, and a host of other health problems like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, fractures, and infections.
By Dr. Mercola
The cold and flu season got off to an early start this year in the US, and everywhere you turn, you’ve undoubtedly seen ads and media reports urging you to get the flu vaccine.
Meanwhile, scientific reviews by the independent Cochrane Database published last fall again refuted pervasive “expert” health and media claims that […]
by Alliance for Natural Health
Behind a dangerous new test approved by the FDA is a new drug by the same company. Meanwhile, new research offers better natural solutions.
The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new test from Eli Lilly & Co that detects the presence of proteins in the brain that have […]
By Dr. Stephanie Seneff
Mercola.com
Just about everyone in America is convinced of two well-established tenets for how to live a long and healthy life:
Eat a low-fat diet
Avoid the damaging rays of the sun
My goal in this essay is to convince you that these two tenets, […]
What if a cure for cancer has been right here all along? What if the very agency charged with protecting your health is the one keeping you from that cure? Ten years ago a former New York State assemblyman, Daniel Haley, wrote a scathing exposé on how the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) systematically shuts the door on effective and non-toxic products, many for cancer.
by Alliance for Natural Health
After thirty-three years of deliberation, the FDA tells consumers it’s OK to put toxic substances on their skin, and advises them to avoid natural sunlight!
The US Food and Drug Administration last week issued a final rule on the labeling of sunscreen products. The regulation says that sunscreen products which pass the […]
by Dr. Mercola
Research has recently found that vitamin D has a protective effect against arterial stiffness and impaired blood vessel relaxation.
Study participants with reduced levels of vitamin D had increased arterial stiffness and vascular function impairment. However, among those whose vitamin D levels were normalized over a six month period, vascular health improved and […]
by John Cannell MD
(NaturalNews) Dr. Anne Looker and colleagues at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) recently made vitamin D legend, Professor Hector DeLuca of University of Wisconsin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector…), and certain folks at big pharma very happy with her widely-reported analysis of the vitamin D status of Americans. Using definitions of deficiency straight from […]
By Dr. Neetu Dhiman – Richmond Review
Quotes:
Vitamin D levels: Vitamin D is a simple inexpensive way to decrease risk for hypertension. Vitamin D blocks the uptake of cholesterol by certain cells of the body. Vitamin D functions to reduce inflammation, optimize insulin levels, and reduce calcification and hardening of the […]
by Dr. Mercola
Researchers have found that daily intakes of vitamin D by adults in the range of 4000-8000 IU are needed to maintain blood levels of vitamin D metabolites in the range needed to reduce by about half the risk of breast cancer, colon cancer, multiple sclerosis, and type 1 diabetes.
While an Institute of […]
by Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
(NaturalNews) Current government recommendations of 400 or 600 international units (IU) of vitamin D a day are insufficient to prevent serious diseases like breast cancer, a new study published in the journalAnticancer Researchhas found. Researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine and Creighton University (CU) […]
By Leigh Krietsch Boerner
(Reuters Health)
Drinking yogurt with extra vitamin D may help people with diabetes regulate their blood sugar, a study from Iran finds. In the trial, 90 adults with diabetes were divided into three groups, all given daily yogurt drinks: one group received plain yogurt, one got yogurt with extra vitamin D, […]
by Kim Newman
eurekalert.org
February 24, 2011 ─ (BRONX, NY) ─ A study of more than 3,000 children shows that low vitamin D levels are associated with increased likelihood that children will develop allergies, according to a paper published in the February 17 online edition of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Researchers from Albert Einstein College of […]
by Dr. Mercola
Researchers have reported that a much higher intake of vitamin D is needed to reach blood levels that can prevent breast cancer and other major diseases than had been originally thought.
They found that daily intakes of vitamin D by adults in the range of 4000-8000 IU are needed to maintain blood levels […]
by Dr. Randall Neustaedter
NaturalNews
(NaturalNews) A new study reveals an association between low vitamin D levels and respiratory problems in infants.
A groundbreaking study has now revealed how important vitamin D is for the immune system of the fetus and newborn. In a study published in the January 2011 issue of Pediatrics, the umbilical cord-blood […]
by Dr. Mercola
The Alliance for Natural Health USA is filing a Qualified Health Claim Petition with the FDA for vitamin D. For years, the FDA held that health claims could only be made if there was Significant Scientific Agreement (SSA) about the claim — a standard almost impossible to reach in science. Following court […]
by S. L. Baker
(NaturalNews) Besides protecting from cancer, obesity, autoimmune diseases and cardiovascular problems, vitamin D helps build strong bones. And scientists have found this health building vitamin has a remarkable impact on the immune system, too. Vitamin D, it turns out, is necessary for the production of anti-microbial peptides, substances that fight off […]
