We have often heard of Vitamin D now a days.. and also know that it is definitely good for bones ..but there are lot many benefits of vitamin D ,apart from it being helpful for the bones. Here are a few of them :

Benefits of Vitamin D

Some facts you probably never knew about vitamin D and sunlight exposure.

1. Vitamin D prevents osteoporosis, depression, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and even effects diabetes and obesity.

2. Vitamin D is perhaps the single most underrated nutrient in the world of nutrition. That’s probably because it’s free: your body makes it when sunlight touches your skin.

3. It is nearly impossible to get adequate amounts of vitamin D from your diet. Sunlight exposure is the only reliable way to generate vitamin D in your own body.

4. People with dark skin pigmentation may need 20 – 30 times as much exposure to sunlight as fair-skinned people to generate the sam e amount of vitamin D. That’s why prostate cancer is epidemic among black men — it’s a simple, but widespread, sunlight deficiency.

5. Sufficient levels of vitamin D are crucial for calcium absorption in your intestines. Without sufficient vitamin D, your body cannot absorb calcium, rendering calcium supplements useless.

6. Having kidney disease or liver damage can greatly impair your body’s ability to activate circulating vitamin D.

Diseases and conditions cause by vitamin D deficiency:

* Osteoporosis is commonly caused by a lack of vitamin D, which greatly impairs calcium absorption.
* Sufficient vitamin D prevents prostate cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, depression, colon cancer and schizophrenia.
* “Rickets” is the name of a bone-wasting disease caused by vitamin D deficiency.
* Vitamin D deficiency may excaberate type 2 diabetes and impair insulin production in the pancreas.
* Obesity impairs vitamin D utilization in the body, meaning obese people need twice as much vitamin D.
* Vitamin D is used around the world to treat Psoriasis.
* Vitamin D deficiency can cause schizophrenia.
* Seasonal Affective Disorder is caused by a melatonin imbalance initiated by lack of exposure to sunlight.
* Chronic vitamin D deficiency is often misdiagnosed as fibromyalgia because its symptoms are so similar: muscle weakness, aches and pains.
* Your risk of developing serious diseases like diabetes and cancer is reduced 50% – 80% through simple, sensible exposure to natural sunlight 2-3 times each week.
* Infants who receive vitamin D supplementation (2000 units daily) have an 80% reduced risk of developing type 1 diabetes over the next twenty years.

So, get the vitamin D levels checked and take supplements or injections if there is a deficiency!