More and more research is coming in showing the many benefits of Vitamin D with everything from helping to prevent the cold and flu to decreasing your risk to developing cancer. The ideal way to get your Vitamin D is by exposing your skin to the appropriate amount of sunshine. Unfortunately, our climate and our daily work environments don’t allow us to expose ourselves to the sunshine long enough for our bodies to manufacture the amount of Vitamin D we need.Sun exsposure (without sunscreen) for 10 -15 minutes per day with at least 40 percent of our bodies skin exposed is the general guide of what is required except if your skin is darker and you will need longer exposure. Reseacher’s have shown that by increasing levels of Vitamin D3 we can decrease many chronic diseases of nearly one million people in the world and cut the incidence of cancer by 40%. New recommendations for Vitamin D3 is 5000 i.u. per day. The best way to test for Vit D3 is via ablood test. We are testing our patients for Vitamin D3 and find that 3000 i.u. is the average dose people need in this area of the country.