Vitamin D!

My friends and I are all about getting sunlight, mainly because it's awesome, but also because we are walking factories of Vitamin D production. Your body does not need to consume vitamin D, it can produce it in response to sunlight exposure - so get your medicine!

I came across an article about how Vitamin D is insufficient for most Americans. Weird, if people were to go outside instead of live on the computer, they would have no deficiency. Check out some of this language from the summary:

"A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine shows that average blood levels of vitamin D appear to have decreased in the United States between 1994 and 2004. Insufficient vitamin D levels have been associated with cancer, heart disease, infection, and suboptimal health overall.

"This drop was associated with an overall increase in vitamin D insufficiency to nearly three of every four adolescent and adult Americans.

"he researchers concluded that current recommendations for dosage of vitamin D supplements are inadequate to address this growing epidemic of vitamin D insufficiency. They believe that increased intake of vitamin D (1,000 international units per day or more)—particularly during the winter months and at higher latitudes—and judicious sun exposure would improve vitamin D status and likely improve the overall health of the U.S. population. It should be noted that large randomized controlled trials of these higher doses of vitamin D supplementation are needed to evaluate their effect on general health and mortality.

Abstract