D is for "Duh" If you're a long-time Nutrition & Healing subscriber, you've probably read Dr. Wright's articles on vitamin D: There's been so much research on this essential nutrient over the past few years that, for awhile, it became a regular feature in the newsletter. Another regular feature you've probably seen is Dr. Wright's "Department of Duh" column. He uses these to point out things in the medical news that should be obvious to anyone even slightly versed in topics related to health. Well, if you ask me, the newest research on vitamin D falls squarely into the "Department of Duh" category. Researchers from Harvard recently published a study that came out with the following conclusion: "Boosting vitamin D levels amongst people with dark skin, a population at greater risk of lower levels, could be an easy way to reduce a number of cancers." For those people who don't know much about vitamin D, I suppose this might be "news." But for those of us who know that African American have a much higher rate of death from cancer than other races and that darker-skinned people produce less vitamin D from sun exposure than fair-skinned people, it hardly comes as a shock. But the point here isn't how newsworthy the information is -- it's what you do with the information that's important. We all could stand to get more vitamin D, but it appears to be especially critical for African Americans. Unless you live in a tropical latitude and can spend 20 minutes or so outside in the sun each day (without sunscreen), Dr. Wright recommends taking 2,000 to 3,000 IU of vitamin D.
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