The Sunlight Vitamin

Back to my first post here in this blog – avocado and more specifically, avocado oil as a great source of vitamin D, secondary to natural sunlight exposure. In the excerpt below from Dr. Mercola’s site (www.mercola.com) is an excellent concise explanation of why vitamin D is so amazing, not only for strong bones but also in the fight against cancer:

Major Cancer Advancement in 2008 #1: Vitamin D

If people around the world optimized their vitamin D levels, about 30 percent of cancer deaths — which amounts to 2 million worldwide and 200,000 in the United States — could be prevented each year.

On a personal level, you can decrease your risk of cancer by MORE THAN HALF simply by optimizing your vitamin D levels with sun exposure.

If you are treating cancer it is likely that higher blood levels would be even more beneficial, probably on the order of 80-90 ng/ml.

The notion that sun exposure actually prevents cancer may still be a new one for some of you, so I highly recommend you watch my one-hour vitamin D lecture to clear up any confusion. The risk of skin cancer from the sun comes only from excessive exposure. Meanwhile, countless people around the world have an increased risk of cancer because their vitamin D levels are low or deficient.

In the United States, the late winter average vitamin D is only about 15-18 ng/ml, which is considered a very serious deficiency state. Meanwhile, it’s thought that over 95 percent of U.S. senior citizens may be deficient, along with 85 percent of the American public.

Optimizing your levels, either by safe sun exposure (ideally), a safe tanning bed or oral supplementation, is so important, as vitamin D has a protective effect against cancer in several ways, including:

• Increasing the self-destruction of mutated cells (which, if allowed to replicate, could lead to cancer)
• Reducing the spread and reproduction of cancer cells
• Causing cells to become differentiated (cancer cells often lack differentiation)
• Reducing the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones, which is a step in the transition of dormant tumors turning cancerous

Again, to find out the details on how to use vitamin D therapeutically, and doses to take if you have cancer, please watch my very important one-hour lecture.