A Lot More Vitamin D Than the Government Says

By Jon Herring

Vitamin D is one of the most potent health-promoting substances in your body, performing countless vital functions. This amazing vitamin provides powerful protection against cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, not to mention dozens of other conditions. It also improves energy metabolism, builds immunity, increases muscle strength and coordination, and boosts brain function.

But if you follow the government's advice about how much you need, you will almost certainly be deficient, substantially increasing your risk of disease. The government tells us that adults need just 400 international units (IU) of vitamin D per day, an amount that is woefully inadequate.

So how much do you need? We don't know exactly, but we do know how much the body uses on a daily basis. In a study performed at Creighton University in Omaha, researchers found that adults will use 3,000 to 5,000 units of vitamin D per day, if it is available. We also know that a young adult with fair skin makes 20,000 units of vitamin D in less than half an hour of strong sun exposure.

But when the sun is low in the sky during winter, it can be difficult to get enough sun exposure, even if you spend time outdoors. That's why I strongly suggest taking a vitamin D supplement during the colder months. Most adults should take 2,000 to 5,000 IU per day in the late fall, winter, and early spring. Children should take 1,000 to 2,000 IU per day.

You should also consider supplementing year round if you have darkly pigmented skin, if you are over 65, if you're overweight, or if you just can't bring yourself to be in the sun without sunscreen.

Most multivitamins contain very little vitamin D. That's why I recommend a supplement like this one made by Carlson's, which has 2,000 IU per soft gel.

And please remember that you should never take more than 5,000 IU of vitamin D on a regular basis without consulting a physician and having your blood levels tested. You want to measure your vitamin D levels periodically to make sure you're succeeding in bringing your levels into a healthy range... and to make sure you're not overdoing it.

[Ed. Note: Jon Herring, a copywriter for Early to Rise, is co-author, with Dr. Al Sears, of the book Your Best Health Under the Sun. Discover how the healing power of sunlight can improve your mood, increase your fitness, and protect you against dozens of diseases, including cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.]
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The Language Perfectionist: Expletive Deleted

By Don Hauptman

Consider these sentences, which I found in published articles:

. There is a war on for your mind.
. Obviously, there are pressing issues evoked by "family values."

A word that serves no grammatical function, but simply fills space or supplies emphasis, is called an expletive. (The more familiar meaning of the word - a profane or obscene exclamation - also fits this definition.) Linguists tell us that there is, among other expletives, serves as a "dummy subject" or "anticipatory subject" that precedes the appearance of the real subject.

Of course, there are - oops, strike that! I meant to say: In some situations, the construction is unavoidable or sounds more natural. One commentator suggests that the urgency of "There's no time to lose!" would be lost if the sentence were reframed.

But that's an exception. In most cases, the use of there is and there are is anemic and a sign of lazy writing. Fortunately, it's easily circumvented. "There's a salesman at the front desk" is better rephrased as "A salesman is at the front desk."

According to the late Bergen Evans, "The there construction detaches the statement from the speaker and makes it impersonal. If such a sentence is recast it does not lose emphasis but becomes more immediate, more concrete and more vivid."

[Ed Note: Don Hauptman, a direct-response copywriter for more than 30 years, may be best known for the space ads he wrote with the classic headline "Speak Spanish Like a Diplomat!" He also writes books and articles on language and wordplay.]
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It's Fun to Know: About Leap Year

A leap year contains an extra day - February 29 - to make sure the calendar year is in sync with the seasonal year. A leap year usually occurs when the year is divisible by 4 - 2008, for example. But centennial years are exceptions. They must be divisible not only by 4 but also by 400. So though 2000 was a leap year, 2100 will not be.

(Source: Contrary to Popular Belief by Joey Green)
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Word to the Wise: Fatidic

"Fatidic" (fuh-TID-ik) means prophetic. The word is derived from the Latin for "fate."
Example (as used by Kathleen Cambor in In Sunlight, in a Beautiful Garden): "With a fatidic clarity that comes only occasionally and only to the young, she understood that... this too was a sign, an omen."
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These articles appear courtesy of Early to Rise [Issue #2244, 01-05-08], the Internet's most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com/.
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