A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Minnesota found that overweight people are more successful in losing weight when their vitamin D levels are increased. Dr. Shalamar Sibley, the researcher who led the study, placed 38 obese men and women in a diet program and found that those whose vitamin D levels were increased up to a pound lost more than half of those followed the diet plan only.

When combined with a reduced calorie diet, it appears that supplementation with vitamin D helps to promote greater weight loss among those whose levels are low to begin with. For each increase in nanograms per milliliter of vitamin D precursor in the blood, it was noted that a further loss of weight and a half pounds was able to be reached, while the diet plan.

A study published earlier this year in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that 75 percent or more of American adolescents and adults are deficient in vitamin D. The vitamin D deficiency is linked to all sorts of serious illnesses including cancer, diabetes and heart disease. Researchers in the study of weight loss are unsure whether the deficiency of vitamin D causes obesity or whether obesity causes lack of vitamin D. However, there is a clear link between the two.

Vitamin D, in conjunction with calcium and sunlight, helps to digest food properly and regulate normal blood sugar levels. When there is a calcium deficiency, often due to a lack of vitamin D, the body increases production of synthase, an enzyme fatty acid that guards the calories into fat. Calcium deficiency can cause synthase to increase production by up to 500 percent, explaining the correlation between low vitamin D levels and obesity.

Mainstream research has just begun to scratch the surface about the importance of vitamin D in maintaining overall health. A clinical trial in April 2000 revealed that patients who were tied to a wheelchair because of chronic fatigue and weakness of the body becomes mobile after just six weeks of supplementation with 50,000 IU of vitamin D per week. Other studies show significant recovery from all types of diseases in which vitamin D has brought to proper levels.

Although current guidelines suggest a daily intake somewhere between 400 and 600 IU, recent research suggests that this may be too low. Arrive between 4000 and 10,000 IU per day will have a much better therapeutic effect, improving health and defend against disease. When natural sunlight is not an option, supplementation with vitamin D3 is the best option.