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As we’ve previously explained, research in recent years is showing that vitamin D deficiency appears to be a widespread health problem affecting much or most of the population of nations such as the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. It’s likely a global phenomenon, ironically affecting developed nations more severely as their residents spend far less time outside in the sun and tend to use sunscreens to prevent skin cancer.

The vitamin D deficiency crisis may be causing elevated rates of depression, autism, cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and a variety of other chronic health problems in developed nations. Vitamin D3 supplements are now recommended for most people as few get enough vitamin D from diet and sun exposure. Suggestions that adults be taking 2000 IU to 5000 IU per day are now commonplace. Recent recommendations are running up to 10,000 IU per day as a daily adult upper intake limit in some studies. Recommended intake for children is increasing, also, but depends upon the age and size of the child. With vitamin D3 recommended doses growing for both adults and children, it is good to see improved vitamin D3 products such as softgels, gummy vitamins, and liquid vitamin drinks for conveniently getting necessary vitamin D at costs as low as a penny or two per day.
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With the increasing worldwide news coverage of widespread vitamin D deficiency and the high rates of associated diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression, and autism, you may wonder just how much vitamin D is too much? Many doctors are clueless about vitamin D toxicity and believe that 2000 IU per day of vitamin D3 on a daily basis could be deadly, and 100,000 IU in one dose would surely kill you. Surprising to some, these common beliefs of doctors are grossly mistaken. New research argues for 10,000 IU per day of vitamin D3 on a daily basis for long periods being the upper recommended limit for adult dietary intake and that single doses of 100,000 IU are helpful for rapidly building up levels of vitamin D in the body.
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Vince Guiliano is a prolific writer nearing 80 years old who has assembled a fascinating collection of information on human aging and how to slow it by using dietary supplements. Among his efforts to date are the Anti-Aging Firewalls blog and extensive overviews of the anti-aging properties of many dietary supplements.
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Autism is a set of child developmental delays and disabilities. It includes impaired social interaction and communications, delayed and impaired verbal and language skills, and focus on repetitive activities. Autism is just one of several related disorders in the Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) classification. Asperger’s Syndrome is the second most common ASD illness after autism and generally differs from autism because language development is not affected as severely.

The incidence of autism has been rapidly increasing in many places. Although there appears to be no single cause for this, nutritional modifications both for pregnant women and children have been found to exert significant improvements on outcomes both in terms of lowering rates of autism and helping children overcome some of the developmental and behavioral problems it causes.
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(This article was updated on May 22, 2009, to add more on the growing mainstream consensus to reduce widespread vitamin D deficiency [around 40% to 60% of US population!] via dietary supplements and on the Marshall Protocol and related research which disputes this position.)

The last year has seen the release of numerous studies and articles about the wonders of vitamin D. The reports are quite convincing and consistent that most people don’t get enough vitamin D and that low levels of it increase the risk of health problems of a wide range of diseases ranging from common cardiovascular disease, cancer, and depression to less common multiple sclerosis and autism.
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(Updated August 3, 2009, with additional information on the use of vitamin D3 to boost immune system response to prevent or reduce influenza infection and symptoms.)

With growing worldwide concern over a possible pandemic of swine flu (also known as H1N1 flu), you might be wondering what you can do to keep your family and you healthy. Obvious measures already mentioned in much news coverage include washing hands frequently, avoiding contact with people with flu and cold like symptoms, and staying home when you are sick. Although there is no vaccine for this new swine flu strain, there are immune system boosting measures that you can take at low cost which are likely to help you avoid getting flu and to speed recovery if you do get it. We’ll discuss several options you have to help stay healthy despite a flu outbreak. By the way, these suggested measures all apply to other types of flu, too.
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Mathematical biologist Mark Tanaka of the University of New South Wales (Australia) wanted to know why ineffective health therapies, often called “quack therapies”, spread and develop reputations for working. He and other researchers interested in that paradox worked on creating a model of why people often try therapies and medicines which have no evidence of working and how they become more popular despite their ineffectiveness.
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Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) conducted a 16-week study to see if slightly modifying the diets of Latino teenagers would affect type 2 diabetes risk factors. The findings were reported in the April 2009 issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Latino Teens Have High Obesity and Diabetes Risks

The research participants were Latino teenagers because previous research showed almost 40 percent of Mexican American children ages 12 to 19 were found to be overweight or at risk of developing diabetes.

“Latino children are more insulin resistant and thus more likely to develop obesity-related chronic diseases than their white counterparts,” the authors write. “To date, only a few studies have examined the effects of a high-fiber, low-sugar diet on metabolic health in overweight youth, and to our knowledge, none have tested the effects of this type of intervention in a mixed-sex group of Latino youth.”

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In recent years, multiple studies have shown there is a link between vitamin D deficiency and contracting multiple sclerosis (MS). MS is an autoimmune disorder that results in the body attacking the myelin sheath that protects nerve cells. Worldwide, more than 2.5 million people have MS.

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