How Vitamin D Protects Your Heart
A new study has linked a lack of sunshine, the body's most
natural source of vitamin D, to the prevalence of cardiovascular
disease.
Factors that affect sunlight, and therefore vitamin D
production, are tied to a patient's cardiovascular risks. In
other words, the more sunlight you get, the better your
cardiovascular health will be. These factors can include time of
year, altitude, and geographical location.
There are a number of physiological mechanisms triggered by
vitamin D production through sunlight exposure that act to fight
heart disease, according to the study:- An increase in the
body's natural anti-inflammatory cytokines.
- The
suppression of vascular calcification.
- The inhibition
of vascular smooth muscle growth.
British Journal of Nutrition October 2005; 94(4): 483-492
Dr. Mercola's Comment:As you know, getting the right amount of
vitamin D treats and prevents a variety of ailments and
diseases, including:- Protection against multiple
sclerosis (MS)
- Prevention of diabetes
- Signals colon,
breast and prostate cells to stop growing and eventually succumb
to programmed cell death
Sunshine is your best source of Vitamin D. Unfortunately,most
ofyou simplydon't receive the daily amounts of vitamin Dyou need
to stay healthy.Hopefully as areader of this site it is not due
to ignorance and youstill don'tbelieve the broken rhetoric that
so-called experts continue to burn into their brains: avoid all
sun exposure.
Fortunately we are in the midst of a radical revision of vitamin
D understanding. The leading vitamin D scientists in the world
have changed their position within the last few years and have
started the warning sirens that most of traditional medicine was
dead wrong when it comes to sun avoidance.
If you want to learn more about the healthy, healing benefits of
the sun throughout history and what it can do for you today,
consider Dr. Richard Hobday's book, The Healing Sun. Hobday's
book is an important tool that will help you bring the benefits
of sunlight into your lives safely.
As a matter of fact, statistics show that avoiding the sun has
likely caused an extra 50,000cancers per year, and that is just
cancer deaths. It does not include heart disease or autoimmune
diseases like MS or rheumatoid arthritis.
At this time of the year the primary reason for most readers of
this newsletter is related to the fact that they don't have
adequate sun exposure. As I write this in Chicago it is sunny
but five degreesbelow zero (Farenheit). Very difficult to go
outside and get sun exposure on your bare skin as it would
quickly be frost bitten.
However even if it were a balmy50 degreesthere still would not
be enough photons this time of year to generate significant
vitamin D production in your skin. Just not enough sunlight
penetrates the atmosphere in the northern US this time of year.
That's why I recommend maintaining your optimal vitamin D levels
by taking a high quality cod liver oil regularly from now until
early spring.