How Vitamin D Protects Your Heart

A new study has linked a lack of sunshine, the body's most natural source of vitami D, to the prevalence of cardiovascular disease. Factors that affect sunlight, and therefore vitami 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 vitami 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 Jou al of Nutrition October 2005; 94(4): 483-492 Dr. Mercola's Comment:As you know, getting the right amount of vitami 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 vitami 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 vitami D understanding. The leading vitami 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 vitami 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 vitami D levels by taking a high quality cod liver oil regularly from now until early spring. nn