Saturday, November 03, 2007

Widespread Vitamin D deficiency drains billions of dollars from Canadian healthcare system

The Vitamin D society, a Canadian non-profit group organized to increase awareness of the many health conditions strongly linked to vitamin D, has calculated the cost of vitamin D deficiency on the Canadian health care system to be no less than $9 billion dollars annually.

Vitamin D has long been known only for its role in bone health and proper calcium absorption. However, the explosion of research over the past few years has revealed that vitamin D plays a key role in cell growth regulation in the body, and may be related to the prevention of 22 forms of cancer as well as heart disease, multiple sclerosis, osteoporosis, and many other disorders. Due to what is being considered a Canadian crisis and worldwide problem, the Vitamin D Society is recognizing the month of November as Vitamin D Awareness Month.
For the complete story and more information about the society and vitamin D research, go to the following link: