The Importance of Vitamin D

The northwest's dreary winters are infamous for inducing depression.  but being starved for sunlight can do more than kick you into a psychic hole.

A growing body of evidence suggests it can raise your risk of cancer, increase susceptibility to heart attack, diabetes and other disorders, and at least partly account for the region's sky-high rates of multiple sclerosis.

The reason is vitamin D, an essential nutrient produced in abundance by the skin exposed to the sun's rays.  Long dismissed as being important mainly for strong bones, the so-called sunshine vitamin is now recognized as a key player throughout the body, including the immune system.

Experts say vitamin D deficiency is much more widespread than previously believed-especially in northern climes like Washington, where solar radiation from October to march is too little to maintain healthy levels.