When Cole Porter penned the lyrics, "It's delightful, it's delicious, it's delectable, it's delirious; It's dilemma, it's de limit, it's deluxe, it's de-lovely," he wasn't talking about vitamin D. But he could have been, because it also has many definite distinctions.

A new study published in the journal Seminars in Cancer Biology points out that in addition to being a vital element in bone health and immune strength, vitamin D's cancer-preventing powers are pretty impressive. And vitamin D deficiency is associated with increased risk of colon, breast, prostate, and blood cancers.

To reap vitamin D's benefits, you need to know how you respond to vitamin D2/D3 supplements (we really don't know if D2 or D3 is better).

According to the study’s authors, who are from Finland and Spain, some people are low responders and need higher doses to gain the benefits; some are high responders.

That's why it is so important to get a blood test to establish your baseline blood level of vitamin D and set an initial dose.

And you should go back in two or three months for another test to see if your blood level has gone up enough. If not, increase your dose.  

Our recommendation is that you also get 10 minutes a day of sun exposure without sunscreen and take a supplement dose that gives you a blood level reading of 50-80 nanograms per milliliter.

The standard recommendations are to aim for 20 ng/mL to 30 ng/mL, but between indoor living, sunscreen, and poor nutrition, we think the higher blood level is beneficial, with no risks.