Shocking Vitamin D Deficiency Statistics
32% of doctors and med school students are vitamin D deficient.
40% of the U.S. population is vitamin D deficient.
42% of African American women of childbearing age are deficient in vitamin D.
48% of young girls (9-11 years old) are vitamin D deficient.
Up to 60% of all hospital patients are vitamin D deficient.
76% of pregnant mothers are severely vitamin D deficient, causing widespread vitamin D deficiencies in their unborn children, which predisposes them to Type 1 diabetes, arthritis, multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia later in life. 81% of the children born to these mothers were deficient.
Up to 80% of nursing home patients are vitamin D deficient
People just take vitamin D for granted. Many dermatologists say that you just need to drink another glass of milk, or you get plenty of vitamin D from your diet. Unfortunately it’s incorrect. They really are ignorant, in that very few foods naturally contain vitamin D. Oily fish like salmon and mackerel are abundant in vitamin D, but you would have to eat salmon and mackerel 3-5 times a week in order to get your vitamin D requirement. Cod liver oil is another good source, although milk or orange juice fortified with vitamin D has some, but there are only 100 units in an 8-oz. glass of vitamin D-fortified milk and orange juice. So, you would have to drink 10 glasses of milk or 10 glasses of orange juice a day.
You cannot get your vitamin D easily from your diet. And even if you take a multivitamin, a multivitamin contains 400 international units of vitamin D, only 40% of what you need. So, you would have to make a conscious effort to take a multivitamin, drink two glasses of milk, drink a glass or two of orange juice fortified with vitamin D and eat salmon to get the amount of vitamin D that you require to satisfy your body’s needs. Or you could just walk outside and get natural sunlight on your skin. Since sunlight is free, no one is promoting it!
Only five minutes of sun exposure a day is sufficient for most people. The ultraviolet rays do not penetrate glass, so sitting by a sunny window or in a car won’t work unless you are in a convertible with the top down. The further you live from the equator, the longer exposure you need to the sun in order to generate vitamin D. People with dark skin pigmentation may need 20-30 times as much exposure to sunlight as fair skinned people to generate the same amount of vitamin D. That’s why prostate cancer is epidemic among black men – it’s a simple, but widespread, sunlight deficiency.
Even weak sunscreens (SPF8) block your body’s ability to generate vitamin D by 95%. Vitamin D is “activated” in your body by your kidneys and liver before it can be used. Having kidney disease or liver damage can greatly impair your body’s ability to activate circulating vitamin D. Even though vitamin D is one of the most powerful healing chemicals in your body, your body makes it absolutely free. No prescription required.
If more people understood this information, we could drastically reduce the rates of chronic disease in this country and around the world. Sunlight exposure is truly one of the most powerful healing therapies in the world, far surpassing the best efforts of today’s so-called “advanced medicine.” There is no drug, no surgical procedure, and no high-tech procedure that comes even close to the astonishing healing power of natural sunlight.
