Vitamin D3 Deficiency

[OakLeaf]

Is it a coincidence that diseases like MS seem to be more prevalent in the PacNW?

That's not what I said at all. (That would be both reductionist AND defeatist.)

When you don't get enough sun, your vitamin D levels will be lower than someone who does. You will also have disruption to other hormones. Is it vitamin D that's responsible for the health problems? One of the other hormones? Or (most likely) more than one of the hormones in combination? Taking a vitamin D pill won't affect your melatonin levels, your leptin levels, or the levels of any other hormone that's influenced by your sun exposure. (Serotonin and dopamine are suspected, too: from today's NYT http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/0...=me&ref=health ... and dopamine is implicated in many symptoms of MS.)

I just read what was described as the classic example of correlation-is-not-causation: ice cream sales correlate very tightly with drowning deaths. Come to think of it, high vitamin D levels probably correlate very tightly with drowning deaths as well, for the same reason. But I don't think you have to worry about an increased risk of drowning if you take a vitamin D pill.