Vitamin D: Health Benefits and Risks

Vitamin D does double duty as both a vitamin and a hormone. It is a critical part of 2000 bodily processes which cannot be performed when the body's supply is too low. It’s no wonder there are so many diseases associated with vitamin D deficiency.

Vitamin D and Cancer

Doctors that have investigated vitamin D and cancer report that nearly every cancer patient in the US has deficiency, often severe deficiency. Seventeen types of cancer have direct links to D deficiency, and researchers are finding more every day. Breast cancer has a major link. Some natural medicine doctors (especially Orthomolecular practitioners) believe high dose vitamin D is an underutilized and effective cancer treatment because it acts as a natural chemotherapy agent without serious side effects.

Vitamin D and Disease

The most important benefit of vitamin D is helpful effect it has on our immune system. The immune system's killer cells, known as T cells, are activated by vitamin D when a threat is present in the body. If blood vitamin D levels are too low the killer cells remain dormant and disease spreads.

There are a multitude of medical conditions that result from vitamin D deficiency. It turns out that the rickets epidemic in Europe and the US were really a vitamin D deficiency! Religions that require women to be mostly covered have much higher rates multiple sclerosis. MS occurs more often in cloudy and northern areas where the people don’t get as much direct sunlight. Vitamin D has been shown to reduce the likelihood of MS by 40%. More promising, there is an 80% reduction in the likelihood of developing diabetes. Other severe medical conditions with vitamin D links include:

We take for granted that winter is a time that people get sick more often, but we never really knew why. Some thought that it was because people huddled together indoors more often, but it now appears that vitamin D levels drop significantly in winter and people can’t fight off viruses because their immune system is compromised. Less severe illnesses include:

Vitamin D enhances calcium absorption and increases the body’s ability to maintain bone density. Without vitamin D calcium supplements are almost worthless. Vitamin D has also been shown to improve athletic performance.

back

top

next