Study: Vitamin D intake may reduce early death

NEW YORK Vitamin D continues to be the rock star of the nutrient world as study after study, and researcher after researcher, build upon the body of evidence that vitamin D is one of those crucial nutrients your body needs.

Coupled with this good-for-you evidence is the fact that Americans are just not getting enough of the nutrient on a daily basis. And that means, as a channel that delivers healthcare solutions to its patrons, that vitamin D ought to be an underscored part of any “overall health” conversation, maybe just after reminding consumers that the Journal of the American Medical Association a few years back advised all Americans that they really should be taking a daily multivitamin.

That’s why news like this is important. Successfully converting a consumer to vitamin D means two things — a healthier consumer and a healthier bottom line. For the 52 weeks ended April 19, sales of vitamins A & D (tracked together) totaled $70.9 million across food, drug and mass (minus Walmart), courtesy Information Resources Inc. data. And that was already up 92.2% as compared with the corresponding year-ago period.

Here are some vitamin D fun facts courtesy National Institutes of Health. Very few foods in nature contain vitamin D (though the flesh of fish does), which helps explain why most of the vitamin D in the American diet is sourced from fortified foods (most milk is fortified, for example, which means the lactose intolerant are out of luck).

Most people derive their daily dose of vitamin D from natural sunlight. That is, when they get an opportunity to pull themselves away from the computer screen long enough to walk around outside. Cloudy days reduce exposure by as much as 50%. And for those in the corner office with a window view, that glass reduces exposure by as much as, well 100% actually. The light from the sun penetrates through the glass; the UV radiation that initiates vitamin D synthesis does not.