More Health Benefits of Vitamin D

59 percent of the population is vitamin D deficient. In additon, nearly 25 percent of the population has extremely low levels of vitamin D.
There is a clear relationship between vitamin D deficiency and THE AMOUNT OF STORED BODY FAT.
Recent research carried out at the University of Copenhagen has revealed that vitamin D activates the immune system by "arming" T cells to fight off infections.
This new research, led by Professor Carsten Geisler from the Department of Internatioanl Health, Immunology and Microbiology at the University of Copenhagen, found that without vitamin D, the immune system's T cells remain dormant, offering little or no protection against invading microorganisms and viruses. But with vitamin D in the bloodstream, T cells become "armed" and begin seeking out invaders that are then destroyed and carried out of the body.
Vitamin D, in other words, acts a bit like the ignition key to your car: The car won't run unless you turn the key and ignite the engine. Likewise, you immune system won't function unless it is biochemically activated with vitamin D. If you're facing the winter flu season in a state of vitamin D deficiency, your immune system is essentially defenseless against seasonal flu. That's why all the people who get sick are the ones who live indoors, work indoors and exist in a chronic state of vitamin D deficiency.
That's also why virtually all the people who died of H1N1 were chronically deficient in vitamin D. They had virtually no immune system protection at all and were thus easy targets for the swine flu.
The only significant "side effect" of a proper level of vitamin D is that it PREVENTS 77 percent of all cancers.
What's becoming increasingly clear from all the new research is that vitamin D deficiency may be the common denominator behind our most devastating modern degenerative diseases. Kidney failure patients are almost universally deficient in vitamin D and diabetes patients are usually in the same category. People suffering from cancer ALMOST ALWAYS demonstrate severe vitamin D deficiency, as do people with osteoporosis and multiple sclerosis.
NINE BENEFITS OF VITAMIN D
1. The vast majority of the western population is deficient in vitamin D.
2. Vitamin D deficiencies promote cancer, diabetes, osteoporosis, kidney disease, depression, obesity and heart disease.
3. Vitamin D deficiencies can be corrected with vitamin D supplementation or through sensible sunligh exposure.
4. Sunscreen products block the production of vitamin D in the skin, causing further vitamin D deficiencies.
5. Correcting widespread vitamin D deficiencies would greatly reduce degenerative disease across the population.
6. Vitamin supplements are extremely affordable. Preventing diseas through vitamin D supplementation is a low cost investment in heath.
7. Vitamin D is extremely safe. There is vitually no negative side effects from deficient peiple taking vitamin D supplements, even at the seemingly high doses such as 4000-8000 international units (IU) per day.
8. Vitamin D deficiency is caused, in a large part, by modern society's indoor lifstyle. People live, work, and play indoors under artificial light. This causes severe deficiencies in exposure to natural light (sunlight) through which vitamin D is usually generated.
9. Vitamin D dramatically reduces susceptibility to infectious desease such as seasonal flu and H1N1. It "activates" the immune system and allows it to function more aggressively in defending against viral invasions.