Healthy Homes Asia

We all know that vitamin D deficiency causes rickets, but current research shows the unequivocal benefits of vitamin D both in the prevention and treatment of cancer as well as other diseases. What is our main source of vitamin D? The sun!

Could the lack of, and fear of sunshine, combined with processed, cooked diets be causing more illnesses than preventing them?

Current research has implicated vitamin D deficiency as a major factor in the pathology of at least 17 varieties of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, muscle wasting, birth defects, periodontal disease, and more.

Recommended daily allowance

While the recommended daily allowance for vitamin D is set at 200-400 international units a day (IU) -- thought to be the level above which overt cases of the classic vitamin D deficiency disease rickets will not be observed -- you actually need around 4,000 IU/day just to maintain the vitamin D levels you already have.

Sun-dosing

If you lay naked in the park in June in Britain for half an hour between 11am and 2pm, scientists say you could generate around 20,000 IU of vitamin D. Of course, the mitigating factors are skin pigmentation, where you are on the planet, cloud cover, pollution, speed at which the police came to arrest you, etc.

But, it takes around 48 hours for vitamin D to penetrate the skin. By which time you have probably washed it off.

Being oil-soluble, vitamin D is broken down by soap and washed away in your shower. To avoid this happening after adequate sun exposure (enough for fair-skinned types to turn pinkish), wash off the skin with water only, using soap only under arms, feet and any other particularly smelly areas.

Note that trying to get sun exposure behind glass won't work since the vitamin-D-making UVB wavelength is disrupted. UVA gets through, however, and that's not what you need.

Read all the details and more in The Essential Guide to Vitamin Dby Phillip Day. If you can't get enough sun because of long winters or pollution, you can take supplments Vitamin D-3/K-2 (1,000IU/45µg 120 vcaps).

If you have a serious, chronic or just annoying health condition, we recommend grabbing one of these books to get you started on the road to exuberant health.

booklet by Phillip Day - An invaluable round-up of what the experts are currently saying about vitamin D. 

by Phillip Day - A compendium of all major diseases and conditions and natural approaches to preventing them.