Main description:

Since its discovery in the early years of the 20th Century, and its use as the treatment of childhood rickets, vitamin D has become neglected. Cholesterol has developed as the thing to avoid, as responsible for so much disease. This book sets out to explain why these things have happened, explaining how the benefits of vitamin D extend beyond healthy bones to a vital role in the development of immunity. The deficiency of vitamin D, particularly in inadequate exposure to the sun, suppresses immunity and makes people susceptible to a number of diseases, including heart attack, stroke, several cancers, diabetes and multiple sclerosis. The book also points out the misdirected obsession with cholesterol, which is not bad for us in the way that is generally portrayed. In fact vitamin D and cholesterol share the same precursor, a high cholesterol in the blood being the result of inadequate exposure to the sun. But the causes of so many modern diseases remain obscure. They are usually not the result of faulty living but due to the micro-organisms, the identity of which is not clear.
It is the lack of sunlight and the resultant deficiency of vitamin D that makes people particularly susceptible to heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, cancer, and more. The geography of disease within different countries, different parts of the UK and Europe, different socio-economic groups and different ethnic groups is also explained by varying levels of exposure to the sun. This is particularly true for immigrants in this country from South Asia, and even more so for their children. The importance of vitamin D for the developing foetus is explained. This books draws upon a wealth of information published in leading medical journals, and displays it clearly. It gathers together bits of information that have previously been published in isolation, and draws them together to form a coherent picture of health and illness.