It’s the little vitamin that could.
Could protect you from disease and even death that is.
Research has shown that if your levels of this vital nutrient are too low you might develop breast cancer or dementia.
A deficiency of it has been linked with heart disease. And it may raise your risk of suffering from a stroke. And research has found you can dramatically slash your risk of colon cancer by raising your levels.
So what is this wonder vitamin?
I’m talking about vitamin D. And, to be honest, I’m really just scratching the surface here. The scientific journals are practically bursting at the seams with studies showing its critical importance to our good health.
Dropping “D” is tied to diabetes
Now it probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise to you that low levels of vitamin D have been linked with type–2 diabetes.
In fact, I’ve talked about it before when I told you about the Tufts University Medical Centers study. Researchers found that pre-diabetics who supplemented with vitamin D3 once a day for a month have significant improvements in their beta-cell function.
Without getting too technical what that means is that vitamin D may be able to improve, or even correct, the main defect in type-2 diabetes. And that is simply, as one endocrinologist put it, “worn out beta cells.”
You see, beta cells line your pancreas and make and release insulin, the hormone that regulates your blood sugar levels. And with “worn out” ones you’ve got a problem with blood sugar control.
Well, now yet another group of scientists is raising the flag for vitamin D.
This group of researchers, hailing from the Helmholt Zentrum MÃnchen in Germany, has confirmed that those people with a good supply of vitamin D do, in fact, have a lower risk of developing type-2 diabetes.
And, of course, the flipside of this finding was that those with lower concentrations of D in their blood have a higher risk of developing the disease.
The majority of us may be “D” deficient
This is a major problem because our modern lifestyle tends to deprive us of the number one best source of this vitamin… sunlight. And, as I told you about recently, common painkillers can rob you of the vitamin as well.
In fact, a major CDC study found that nearly 80 percent of Americans don’t get enough vitamin D. And just last year another major study, conducting out of the University of Tennessee, backed up those findings.
Well, except for the fact that the U of T researchers found that a stunning 87 percent of people may be mildly to severely deficient.
Scientists are still working on the “why” part of the vitamin D and type-2 diabetes equation.
The German research team theorizes that at least part of the answer may lie in the vitamin D’s anti-inflammatory effects. But one things for sure, regardless of the exact mechanism we’ve seen a lack of the vitamin tied to the disease too often now to just simply ignore it.
Fight the dip and safely raise your “D”
Your best bet is to commit to getting your blood-serum levels of D tested annually. If you find that like most Americans you’re deficient you can safely get back on track by taking up to 5,000 IU of D3 daily until you reach optimal levels again.
Remember, as I told you just last month, you should be shooting for 110 nanomoles of 25-hydroxyvitamin D NOT the woefully low 54 nanomoles per liter most mainstream docs would recommend.
You can also spend 20 to 30 minutes outside each day without sunscreen (try the morning when the light is less intense) to get a healthy blast of about 10,000 IU of vitamin D.
And don’t forget eating more eggs, salmon, tuna, and sardines can help boost your D levels as well.
Dr. Allan Spreen
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