The Ultimate Antiaging Vitamin

Now that the days are shorter than a teenager's attention span, you may be missing something big (other than the opportunity to look cool in sunglasses while driving). Namely, vitamin D3, which your body makes when sunlight hits your skin.

Without D3, you're vulnerable to aging because the sunshine vitamin not only protects your bones but also defends you against cancer, keeps your heart young, and improves more processes than a high-priced business consultant, tuning up your immune system, insulin secretion, blood pressure, balance and muscle strength, and brain development. In fact, 36 different organ tissues contain cells that respond to vitamin D3.

So how do you get enough of this ultimate antiager? Tune in to these truths:

• You can ski all day and still not get enough. In winter, the sun north of a cross-country line that runs through Los Angeles and Atlanta doesn't have the energy to transform the inactive D in your body to the active form you need.


• You can't eat your way there. You can get D3 from tuna and salmon and D-fortified foods, but you'd have to consume a lot -- like 10 glasses of fortified OJ -- to get what you need.


• Your multi probably won't help that much. Most contain far less D3 than you need.


• But you can supplement your way healthy. Check the D3 in your multi and/or calcium tablet, then add a supplement that gets you to a total of 1,000 international units (IU) of D3 a day. Make that 1,200 IU if you're 60 or older. And take it with a little healthy fat -- D3 isn't well absorbed without it.