Science has recently made discoveries about vitamin D that hold great promise. Studies show it is much more important than previously thought.

This vitamin may have an effect on everything from muscular aches to Alzheimer's. Some reports suggest that a lack of vitamin D costs employers over $150 billion a year. A pediatrician and internist from Abbott Northwestern, Dr. Greg Platnikoff, has been fervently preaching the benefits of Vitamin D for the last decade. He believes companies can save up to hundreds of dollars per employee by encouraging them to take vitamin D.

Researchers say vitamin D could help prevent such things as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes. They think it could also protect against multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases.

“Vitamin D may represent the single most cost-effective medical intervention we have today,” Dr. Platnikoff has stated.

The pharmaceutical world hasn’t done a lot to promote vitamin D, some say, because of its low cost. Reports about the new findings of vitamin D started about fourteen years ago. More doctors are now beginning to prescribe it for their patients .

Most people know that vitamin D is the sunshine vitamin and that the body needs it in order to manufacture the vitamin D. A person only needs about ten minutes a day in the sun. The best times to absorb the sun is between 10am and 2pm.

There are different forms of Vitamin D. Vitamin D3 is the supplement most recommended. It is significantly more active than Vitamin D2. Several diseases have been linked to deficiencies in Vitamin D3, such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, colon cancer and Alzheimer's.

A team of researchers has found that plaques in the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease called amyloid beta could possibly be cleared out of the brain by Vitamin D3.

Vitamin D in the Diet

It would be very hard to get the right amount of vitamin D from diet alone. A person would have to drink about ten glasses of milk a day. Even then they would only have minimum levels in their body.

Foods high in vitamin D would be egg yolks, milk, beef liver, cod liver oil, sardines and mackerel.

Sunscreens and Vitamin D

Sunscreens can block out 95 percent of the sun and cause a vitamin D deficiency. The sunscreen industry does not address this fact because it would lower their sales.

Everyone should have their vitamin D levels checked to make sure they are getting enough. With all the findings that are coming out about this super vitamin, it makes it worthwhile.