Natural Communities Magazine A magazine devoted to the local natural wellness culture.

After weeks of controversy in the dairy community, Organic Valley’s Board of Directors has reaffirmed the decision to end its controversial milk purchasing arrangement with a 7200-head, industrial-scale dairy in Texas.

The producer-owned co-op, renowned for helping build the booming organic dairy market with its reliance on family farms, has had its business practices placed under the microscope in recent weeks. The issue came to a head when an organic industry watchdog, The Cornucopia Institute, revealed that the cooperative had been quietly buying milk from a massive factory farm, the Natural Prairie Dairy near Dalhart, TX.

Conflicting signals emerged from Organic Valley after the year-long relationship became public. Management at the co-op, referring to the purchases as “temporary,” said that they would continue buying milk from the massive Texas dairy while the co-op worked to grow its farmer base in the Texas market.

“Frankly, after this controversy became public, we were surprised by management’s statements indicating that they were going to continue buying milk from the Texas factory farm,” said Mark Kastel, Senior Farm Policy Analyst for Cornucopia. “But the cooperative is a democracy, and its farmer-owners have made it clear that they are ending the purchases and are taking a different path toward building a Texas market for Organic Valley products.”

“I am so pleased that our Board of Directors and management heard the concerns of rank-and-file co-op members and reversed the decision to purchase this questionable milk,” said Darlene Coehoorn, president of the Midwest Organic Dairy Producers Alliance and long-time Organic Valley member. “Nothing is more important than maintaining the trust we have earned from so many dedicated organic consumers around the country.”

When Cornucopia first learned that Organic Valley was buying milk from the Texas factory farm, they initiated a dialogue with its management seeking to convince them that their popular “family farm” and “farmer-owned” cooperative brand, advertised widely to consumers, was at risk due to their association with milk from Natural Prairie, the largest industrial-scale “organic” dairy in the nation, covering 9000 acres and managing upward of 10,000 total head of cattle (milk cows plus young stock).

Farmers, and their member-leadership at the cooperative, had no idea milk was being purchased from so massive an agribusiness, widely considered inconsistent with the spirit of the organic movement. “This incident should serve as a learning opportunity,” added Coehoorn, who serves on Organic Valley’s elected Dairy Executive Committee. “We must work closer with management on policies of this nature in the future.”

Cornucopia has been intensely critical of other dairy processors and marketers who rely on factory farms for producing organic milk. The organic watchdog has filed a series of formal legal complaints with the USDA spotlighting alleged violations of federal organic law at a number of factory farms. The complaints, several of which led to USDA enforcement actions and sanctions, have involved companies such as Dean Foods, the $12 billion dairy giant and owner of the Horizon Organic label, and the Aurora Organic Dairy, whose factory farms produce private-label store-brand milk for Wal-Mart, Target, Safeway, Costco, and other chains.

“We have held Organic Valley in high regard,” noted Kastel. “But once we discovered that Organic Valley was cutting some of the same corners as Dean Foods, we had the ethical responsibility to treat both organizations the same way,” Kastel added. After negotiations with Organic Valley’s management broke down, the organization brought the situation to the attention of key farmer-owners with management oversight.

“The difference between Dean Foods and Organic Valley is that Organic Valley is actually controlled by the farmers themselves, rather than by wealthy investors,” explained Kastel. “The farmers were able to turn this thing around. We are once again very pleased to be able to endorse the practices of Organic Valley.”

Tony Azevedo, of Stevinson California, another long-time Organic Valley member, and president of the Western Organic Dairy Producers Alliance, said: “This incident should be very reassuring to our many loyal Organic Valley customers. Unlike most business we are not strictly governed by the bottom line.”

Cornucopia has produced a report and scorecard that rate the nation’s organic dairy products based on the ethics and integrity of organic production practices. The scorecard can be viewed at www.cornucopia.org.

Mark Kastel, The Cornucopia Institute

Consumer demand for smaller cars is putting car-rental companies in a bit of a bind. Until recently, American automakers were glad to unload overstock to Hertz, Avis, and Thrifty at a discount, then guarantee a price to buy the cars back used. But with demand for hulking American cars dropping, Detroit has cut back production and is finding the arrangement with Big Rental less to its liking. Car-rental companies are now paying as much as 40 percent more for cars, and finding it more difficult to unload the used ones. And rental lots full o’ SUVs aren’t meeting customers’ needs: In April and May, bookings of compact and economy rental cars were up 10.2 and 14.3 percent over those months in 2007, while mid-size, luxury, and minivan rentals were down 1.5 percent, 24 percent, and 15.3 percent, respectively. “Just six months ago, anybody would have taken a Chevy Trailblazer SUV in lieu of a four-cylinder Cobalt. Not now,” says one rental-company consultant. “That’s a big deal. That’s 25 years of history changing.”

Source: www.grist.org

Almost every dermatologist will tell you that diet has nothing to do with acne. With fervor, many of them argue this and you know they really believe it. In a world of ‘evidence based medicine’ you would think dermatologists would have strong scientific evidence backing it up.

It turns out that the notion ‘diet has nothing to do with acne’ is just about as scientific as the notion ‘the world is flat’. In other words, it’s pure dogma with no credible scientific backing.

Let’s take a look at how and why this started.

The two flawed studies that started it all

In the fifties and sixties, dermatologists advised their patients about diet and its role in acne. Two studies conducted in the late sixties and early seventies changed that.

Later those two studies came under heavy fire. They were so flawed that they would earn a high school science student an F.

For example, one study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine looked into the link between chocolate and acne. First, the study was funded by the Chocolate Manufacturers Association. Second, the study compared two candy bars; both equally high in sugar, calories and trans fats, but the other had some chocolate in it. This is comparing sugar to sugar. The sugar and trans fats have much more of an effect on acne than the small quantity of chocolate in the other bar. No wonder the study concluded chocolate does not cause acne.

The other one was an equally flawed study about sugar and acne. The sample size was small, and it didn’t consider the glycemic effect of processed carbohydrates. Again this study proved nothing.

Despite the flaws and scientific invalidity, the results of these two studies stuck. Since then medical students have been taught there’s no scientific link between diet and acne.

In Western society, we hold doctors in high-esteem. We trust them to know and give us advice that is based on scientific evidence. After all, Western medicine goes all hoopla about science and how it’s evidence based.

Doctors and patients are equally ignorant about nutrition

But when it comes to diet and nutrition this is almost never the case. Here’s a quote from a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

“Patients may rely on physicians to provide them with nutrition information. And physicians should be more knowledgeable about nutrition than their patients, but these results suggest that this is not necessarily true.”

K Lazarus, RL Weinsier, and JR Boker

Nutrition knowledge and practices of physicians in a family-practice residency program: the effect of an education program provided by a physician nutrition specialist

The study found you are not much better off getting nutritional guidance from a doctor than you are from the average McDonald’s patron.

Until 2002 those two were the only published studies on diet and acne.

The acne diet dogma - just one among many

As you can see, the notion diet has nothing to do with acne is not based on science. It’s a dogma.
Unfortunately the medical community is almost as dogmatic as the Catholic Church was in the middle ages.

“Dover tells the story of an early 1970s paper stating ultraviolet light doesn’t improve acne, a belief that held for decades.” “It turns out that the paper was wrong,” he says. “This is an example of dogma getting in the way of progress in science and medicine. It happens all the time. Someone really important proves something and says this is the way it is, and everybody else stops thinking. It takes about 30 years, usually a generation, until someone says, ‘Wait, this can’t be true.’”

A Clear Connection? Most dermatologists tell their patients diet plays no role in acne. New research suggests that’s wrong.

New studies link diet and acne

Luckily for acne victims the tide is turning. In recent years, a few well controlled studies have pointed towards a link between diet and acne.

One study found a correlation between dairy and acne. Another one looked into and found that foods high on the glycemic index increase acne. Finally one population-based study found acne is mainly a disease of the Western civilization. The study concluded the most likely explanation is a Western diet high in sugar, fat and processed foods.

Still, don’t expect your dermatologist to start giving you dietary advice anytime soon. The official party line remains — there is no link between diet and acne.

Dermatologists play it safe when they say food doesn’t cause acne

“Dr. Jack Krushell, chief of dermatology at Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, says the food hypothesis is intriguing but “I still kind of follow the party line, which is that food doesn’t seem to be a cause of acne.”

For most dermatologists, who are swamped with patients and can’t keep up with the latest journals, following the party line is a safe and easy solution. For better or worse the medical community is conservative and slow to change. Going against the grain can kill your career.

Health is a holistic system

To make things worse the medical community likes simple and linear solutions. Such as, bacteria cause acne; kill the bacteria and you can cure acne.

Unfortunately things work differently in nature.

Health, and by extension clear skin, is a holistic system. Meaning one part (such as diet or sleep) affects and is affected by every other part. In such a system, you cannot pull out one part and say “this is it. This is the cause”.

In a weird way dermatologists are right in some regards. Diet is a big part of the equation that leads to acne (or clear skin), but it’s not the only part. And to say diet causes acne is wrong.

Your skin is a part of your body. Anything that affects the health of your body also affects the health of your skin. Therefore to find the cause (or cure) for acne, you have to take a holistic perspective and look at your entire lifestyle.

So the next time a dermatologist tells you that you can eat whatever you want, or that acne cannot be cured, don’t take it to the bank. Those two notions are not based on science. They are dogmas that the dermatologists have been taught at medical school.

Get a second opinion. Preferably from someone outside the traditional medical community.

Curing acne is simple

Acne can be cured with diet and lifestyle changes. Millions of people have done it. You can do it too.

There’s nothing strange or mysterious about curing acne. It is as simple and straightforward as losing weight.

One of the first things you probably ‘learned’ about acne is that it cannot be cured. You bought into that belief and it has kept you from finding solutions that can really help.

Get rid of that belief and open your eyes. You’ll see the road to clear skin is both simple and painfully obvious.

About the author
Seppo Puusa is a health advocate, author and educator. He has shown thousands of acne victims how to support their bodies own healing mechanisms to cure acne and get permanently clear skin. His main website is Natural Acne Solution.Com

Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/023604.html

A new report from the International Monetary Fund estimates that biofuels are responsible for as much as 30% of the global food shortage. Despite this fact, at the United Nation’s emergency food summit in Rome, USDA Secretary of Agriculture, Edward Schafer, defended the U.S. government’s decision to spend billions of dollars subsidizing corn and soybean-based ethanol and biofuel, falsely claiming that biofuels contributed only 2% to 3% of the overall increase in global food prices over the past year. According to USDA spokesman, Jim Brownlee, Mr. Schafer was unaware that his statistics were off by nearly 90%.

Take Action: Sign OCA’s Biofuel Moratorium Petition:
 http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_9980.cfm

The FDA lacks sufficient funds to properly monitor emerging technologies and threats, and as such is unable to properly regulate new technologies, drugs and foods, according to a report by the agency’s Subcommittee on Science and Technology.

The FDA’s resources are going mostly into responding to crises, the report said, leaving the FDA unable to be proactive about emerging threats.

“Crisis management in the FDA’s two food safety centers … has drawn attention and resources away from FDA’s ability to develop the science base and infrastructure needed to efficiently support innovation in the food industry, provide effective routine surveillance, and conduct emergency outbreak investigation activities to protect food,” the report said.

The report cites nanotechnology as an example of an area where the FDA has failed to monitor rapidly emerging science. Although nanotechnology is fundamentally different from prior technologies, the FDA has failed to regulate it any differently.

The subcommittee recommended the formation of a department dedicated to liaising with groups involved in new technologies.

The FDA has also fallen short in its responsibility to inspect the U.S. food supply, the report says. Funding for food inspection has dropped over the past 35 years, leading to a 78 percent reduction in the frequency of inspections. Currently, food manufacturers are inspected only once every 10 years, and retail establishments and farms are never inspected. At the same time, the report notes, the food industry has rapidly expanded, and so have food imports.

Even in the area of crisis management, the report says, the FDA has still fallen short, particularly with new and emerging threats.

For example, when bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or “mad cow disease,” first appeared in Europe and the FDA imposed new regulations on animal feed, the government denied the agency funding to implement those new rules. According to the report, this allowed BSE to infect U.S. cattle.

Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/023613.html

Organic Consumers Association and allies sent a letter to Kellogg’s on June 12, requesting that Kellogg’s not use sugar from genetically engineered sugar beets in its products or face a consumer boycott.

Read OCA’s Letter to Kellogg’s here.

Kellogg’s has responded, claiming that US consumers do not care if their food contains Genetically Engineered (GE) food or not.

Read Kellogg’s Response to OCA’s letter

However, poll after poll have demonstrated that Americans want GE foods labeled and restricted.

source: http://organicconsumers.org/kelloggs.cfm

The Corn Refiners Association is launching a major advertising and public relations campaign designed to rehabilitate the reputation of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS). HFCS has been linked by many scientists to the nation’s obesity epidemic.

The group is spending $20 million to $30 million on the campaign, including running full-page ads in more than a dozen major newspapers, claiming that the product is no worse for you than sugar. The ad, which features a stalk of corn, carries the headline: ‘And Now a Little Food for Thought.’

The Corn Refiners Association “has been trying to counter the bad publicity around HFCS since 2004,” but concluded it “could no longer afford to rely on simple grass-roots marketing tactics such as talking with nutritionists and doctors.”

Meanwhile, in June a nearly $5 billion merger of Corn Products International and Bunge Ltd. signaled that corn manufacturers mean business. Revenues were expected to increase 29 percent in 2008 to reach $4 billion.

Source
* PRWatch June 23, 2008
* Organic Consumers Association June 27, 2008

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

If you come across one of these ads in your local paper, now you’ll know better. HFCS is finally getting the reputation it deserves, and although most processed foods and sodas still contain it, even companies like Kraft are now touting foods that are HFCS-free.

Not surprisingly, the Corn Refiners Association is running these ads in response to the increasing public perception of the dangers of HFCS.

In a sense, it’s a good thing because it means the word is out about just how bad HFCS really is. On the other hand, most people are not as in-tune to the real motives of these associations as you are. Hopefully we can get the word out about what these ads are really about: money.

Since the 1970s, the consumption of HFCS in the United States has skyrocketed. Consumption of beverages containing fructose alone rose 135 percent between 1977 and 2001. That is until about 2003. According to the Corn Refiners Association statistics, the per capita consumption in the United States actually went down from 2 ounces daily in 2000 to 1.8 ounces a day in 2005. Please don’t misconstrue; this is still far too much corn syrup to be consuming in a day. But the trend is declining for the first time in over three decades. That’s a really good sign for the health of the community, but a bad one for the financial health of the companies that sell HFCS.

“And Now a Little Food for Thought”

If you see this headline from the Corn Growers Association, it will be intended to make you think HFCS is good for you. Well, I’d like to give you a little food for thought of my own.

Part of what makes HFCS such an unhealthy product is that it is metabolized to fat in your body far more rapidly than any other sugar, and, because most fructose is consumed in liquid form (soda), its negative metabolic effects are significantly magnified.

Among them:

* Diabetes
* Obesity
* Metabolic Syndrome
* An increase in triglycerides and LDL (bad) cholesterol levels
* Liver disease

Fructose also contains no enzymes, vitamins or minerals, and it leeches micronutrients from your body. Unbound fructose, found in large quantities in HFCS, can interfere with your heart’s use of minerals such as magnesium, copper and chromium.

To add even more fuel to the fire, HFCS is almost always made from genetically modified corn, which is fraught with its own well documented side effects and health concerns.

GMO corn will radically increase your risk of developing corn food allergies. You can bet dimes to dollars on this one and become very wealthy if someone is crazy enough to disagree with you and take you up on this bet.

The problem with corn allergies are that once you have a corn allergy from GMO corn you will have an allergy to even healthy organic corn products.

On top of that, if you read through the Organic Consumers Association article linked to above, you get a feel for just how bad corn crops are for your waistline and the environment. On average, Americans eat over 14 tablespoons of sugar every day, and a growing portion of that is in the form of corn syrup. Aside from contributing to obesity, the more than 76 million acres of corn grown each year in the United States is hurting the land. Each year:

* Corn crops are sprayed with 162 million pounds of chemical pesticides
* Producing, packaging and transporting these pesticides contributes nearly 3 billion pounds of greenhouse gases to the environment each year
* About 18 billion pounds of synthetic fertilizers are used on corn crops every year, contributing 35 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions

Corn Syrup is NOT Natural

The Corn Growers Association wants you to believe that HFCS has the “same natural sweeteners as table sugar and honey.” But don’t fall for it. HFCS is highly processed and does not exist anywhere in nature.

The good news is that avoiding the largest source of HFCS, soda, is one of the easiest things you can do to improve your health. Right off the bat, you can eliminate all soda and sugary drinks from your life.

This dangerous sweetener is also in many processed foods and fruit juices, so to avoid it completely you need to focus your diet on whole foods. And if you do purchase any processed foods, make sure you read the label … and put it back on the shelf if it lists high fructose corn syrup as an ingredient.

However, like most areas in life, you want to choose your poisons carefully. I spent several years researching artificial sweeteners for my book Sweet Deception. Even though HFCS is clearly something you want to avoid, it is not as bad as artificial sweeteners, which damage your health even more rapidly than HFCS.

So ideally avoid ALL sodas, but if you have a choice between soda sweetened with HFCS or artificial sweeteners, choose HFCS. The best and safest sweetener (although illegal to use according to the FDA) would be the herb Stevia.

source: www.mercola.com

You cannot just rely on others to make the world a better place — everyone has to help. Or, like Gandhi once said:

“You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

Kindness is actually contagious, and you might want to consider carrying out random acts of kindness on a daily basis.

It is truly a win/win/win situation. The person you are being kind to benefits through your help. You feel good for having helped someone. And the world is a better place through your kindness.

You could:

1. Send someone a hand written note of thanks.
2. Make a card at home and send it to a friend for no reason.
3. Buy a lottery ticket for a stranger.
4. Put some coins in someone else’s parking meter.
5. Cut your neighbor’s hedge.
6. Walk your friend’s dog.
7. Give a compliment about your waiter/waitress to his/her manager.
8. Send someone a small gift anonymously.
9. Stop and help someone replace their flat tire.
10. Let someone jump the line at the bank.
11. Pay for the drinks on the next table at a café.
12. Treat a friend to the movies for no reason.
13. Give a huge tip to someone when they least expect it.
14. Hold the train door open for someone rushing to get in.
15. Give up your seat for someone, not just an elderly person.
16. Write notes of appreciation at least once a week.
17. Talk to a homeless person and have a “normal” conversation.
18. Pick up some rubbish in the road which would otherwise be lying around.
19. Compliment a work colleague for their excellence.
20. Recommend a competitor to a potential client.
21. Give another driver your parking spot.
22. Give a piece of fruit to a delivery person.
23. Help an elderly neighbor carry the rubbish out.
24. Tell all your family members how much your appreciate them.
25. Leave a copy of an interesting book on a train/bus.
26. Buy an inspirational book for a friend.
27. Send a thank you note to a person who has helped you in the past.
28. Smile a lot.

Once you get started, you may find it a habit hard to break!

www.actsofkindness.org/

Sugar is sold abundantly in every food shop in the world and is often not acknowledged as the aging health criminal that it is. Sugar is responsible for an astonishing amount of physical and mental suffering. So many illnesses are caused by carbohydrates sugar overload, while many others are certainly made worse by it. Health problems that are associated with sugar intolerance include attention deficit disorder, mood swings, headaches, insomnia, emotional outbursts, cystitis, eczema, diabetes… and premature aging.

Sugary foods quickly elevate blood sugar which causes an insulin release that increases stored body fat and the release of pro-inflammatory, cell damaging chemicals that accelerate aging, as well as heart disease, some types of cancer, arthritis, Alzheimer’s, and many more diseases.

Sugar is Highly Aging

If you really want to look and feel young for as long as possible, then cutting out carbohydrates sugar, or at least limiting your intake is advisable.

Sugar causes free radicals that oxidize fats which form plaque deposits in our arteries, leading to disease and aging.

This toxic substance damages molecules and creates advanced glycation end-products, or AGEs. AGEs damage collagen in skin, cartilage, and ligaments and promote a loss of elasticity. In simple terms, sugar causes wrinkles and sagging skin in addition to what it does to the internal organs and all of the other negative side effects.

Sugar Addiction

Sugar is incredibly addictive. Many alcoholics trade their alcohol addiction for a sugar addiction.

Healthy Sugar Substitutes:

* Date syrup or date sugar (not sugar at all) is made from dates, so it contains all the vitamins, minerals and fiber of the fruit. It can be used in equal parts as a direct substitute for sugar, especially in baking. It is metabolized slowly so it does not cause energy highs and lows. Use this in your recipes for a detox diet.

* Agave nectar is a natural juice extracted from agave, the same plant that’s processed into tequila. Agave nectar does not cause dramatic blood sugar fluctuations so energy levels remain more consistent. It is 42 percent sweeter than white sugar, so less is needed in recipes. It goes beautiful with health enhancing super foods.

* Xylitol is a widely approved sweetener; even people with diabetes can put this on their healthy food list since it doesn’t create for people with diabetes a sugar intolerance. It is extracted from natural sources such as fruits and vegetables. Xylitol is a great tasting bulk sweetener with 40% less calories than sugar. The best part is that it is actually known to reduce the incidence of tooth decay and offer protection against cavities.

* Stevia is a South American herb that has been used as a sweetener by the Guarani Indians of Paraguay for hundreds of years. It has a delicious and refreshing taste that can be 30 times sweeter than sugar. Stevia is calorie-free and doesn’t upset blood sugar levels. In fact, it can actually assist in regulating blood-sugar levels.

Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/023533.html

Medical researchers are growing increasingly excited about a wonder drug that may significantly reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and many other diseases — sunshine.

A recent study found that men who are deficient in vitamin D, which your body produces in response to sunlight, have more than double the normal risk of suffering a heart attack.

In fact, men with vitamin D levels below 15 nanograms per milliliter had 2.5 times the risk of having a heart attack or dying — even after controlling for all other possible risk factors such as hypertension, obesity and high lipid levels.

Another study found that low levels of vitamin D increased the risk of diabetes, and yet another linked vitamin D deficiencies to an increased risk of dying from breast cancer.

These findings all join a growing body of evidence indicating that an adequate level of the vitamin, which many people can get from 20 minutes in the sun each day, is crucial to maintaining good health.

Sources:
* Los Angeles Times June 10, 2008
* Archives of Internal Medicine June 9, 2008; 168(11):1174-1180

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

If spending some time in the sun each day this summer is not on your list of priorities, I urge you to reconsider. This simple act can drastically reduce your risk of major diseases like heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Not to mention that the feel of the warm sun on your skin is one of life’s great pleasures — and it’s free, so what have you got to lose?

The evidence just keeps pouring in.

It’s no coincidence that northern countries (with less intense sunlight and colder winters) have higher levels of heart disease than sun-filled southern countries, and more heart attacks occur in the winter months, when sunlight is scarce.

This recent study found that low vitamin D levels more than doubled the risk of heart attack and death. That’s a huge jump! Past studies have also found that getting a daily dose of vitamin D boosts your natural anti-inflammatory response, which can help to treat congestive heart failure.

Just how does vitamin D help your heart?

Well, there are a number of mechanisms triggered by vitamin D production that help fight heart disease, including:

* An increase in your body’s natural anti-inflammatory cytokines
* The suppression of vascular calcification
* The inhibition of vascular smooth muscle growth

Vitamin D also works by lowering insulin resistance, which is one of the major factors leading to heart disease in the United States.

Using Sunlight for Your Health

Unfortunately, in the United States the sun has been vilified. Many people have been convinced that staying out of the sun is necessary to avoid cancer, when actually the exact opposite is true. Why would anyone in their right mind want to exchange the risk of a few harmless skin cancers with that of serious life-threatening challenges like colon, breast, prostate and colon cancers?

Of course, you always want to avoid getting burned, but generally speaking you can safely spend anywhere from 20 minutes to two hours in the sun every day with beneficial effects. If you have dark-colored skin or live far from the equator, you will need to spend more time in the sun than someone who is light-skinned living close to the equator.

If you are a person who regularly spends time outdoors, without sunblock (sunblock screens out ultraviolet light, which interferes with vitamin D production in your body), then your vitamin D levels may be OK. However, most people spend a lot of time inside and do not get adequate sun exposure on a daily basis.

For this reason, I strongly encourage you to have your vitamin D levels tested. If you are currently facing chronic disease, it’s even more important that you get your levels checked, as vitamin D deficiency could be a factor.

The test is a simple blood test called 25(OH)D, or 25-hydroxyvitamin D. You can request it from just about any doctor, but ideally you will get it from a holistic physician who understands the importance of vitamin D, and can guide you into getting your levels optimized.

What’s the Best Way to Get Vitamin D?

Sun exposure is always the best method of getting vitamin D, but some people do need to take a vitamin D3 supplement to keep their levels up. You should only do this under the care of a knowledgeable physician, however, as you can overdose on vitamin D supplements.

In fact, the only time you don’t need to worry about whether or not you’re getting too much, or too little, vitamin D is when your body makes it naturally from the sun.

There is still massive confusion out there, even among health care professionals, about what’s healthy and what’s not when it comes to sunlight and vitamin D. For instance, certain vitamin D supplements (vitamin D2) are highly inferior to vitamin D3, and should not be taken.

Meanwhile, some doctors will tell you your vitamin D levels are “normal” if they’re over 20 ng/ml. In reality, your vitamin D level should NEVER be below 32 ng/ml and should really be 45-52 ng/ml to be optimal.

My new book, Dark Deception, is coming out shortly and it will help to clear up all of this confusion once and for all.

In the meantime, you can find out the vital details you need to know to keep your vitamin D levels where they need to be throughout the year in my Sunshine Special Report. I decided to make this report available to you now so you don’t have to be at the mercy of my publisher and wait until later this year.

Source. www.mercola.com