12 Ways Vitamin D Protects Your Health

Tags: vitamin d, sunshine vitamin, vitamin d supplements

Vitamin D, the "sunshine" vitamin, does a lot more than help keep bones strong — scientists are finding that it impacts all aspects of our health.

Vitamin D can be obtained from exposure to sunlight, vitamin supplements (vitamin D-3 is recommended by many experts), and foods such as salmon and tuna. Recent studies show that having high levels of vitamin D in our blood can help protect against many diseases, while low levels are linked with several disorders. Here are 12 critically important ways vitamin D can help protect your health:

1. Colon cancer. A study by cancer prevention specialists at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California found that high amounts of vitamin D could slash colorectal cancer rates by two-thirds. A European study found that high levels of vitamin D cut the odds of colon cancer by almost 40 percent.