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Sunshine Vitamin May Prevent Heart Disease
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/ 4- Details
- Parent Category: Lower-Intermediate News Lessons
- Category: Health Lessons
- Written by Chris Cotter
Vitamin D has been called "the sunshine vitamin" because the sun's rays contain Vitamin D. Scientists used to think that vitamin D strengthened bones and teeth. However, new studies show that vitamin D is significantly more important for good health.
A study was conducted in Austria with 3,258 men and women. Many of these people had heart disease. The study found that people are more likely to die if they also have low levels of the sunshine vitamin. 737 people died during the study, which lasted eight years. Of this figure, 307 of the test subjects had the lowest levels of vitamin D. The researchers looked at age, physical activity, and other factors. They concluded that people with insufficient levels of the sunshine vitamin were twice as likely to die.
People shouldn't begin taking a lot of vitamins or spending long hours in the sun, though. Too much can also cause problems. However, low levels of vitamin D have been connected to high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity. There is also a connection between levels of vitamin D and some forms of cancer. In fact, some scientists believe that the vitamin could prevent the development of cancer.
Milk, fatty fish, a multivitamin, or ten minutes in the sun every day should provide good health, especially a healthy heart.
Preview some of the lesson material:
Discuss: Do you agree or disagree? Why?
- Sunshine is healthy for the human body.
- It's important to take a multivitamin every day.
- I exercise regularly to stay healthy.
- I rarely eat junk food because I'm concerned about my health.
- Scientists still have a lot to learn about what makes people healthy.
Fragments: Remember how the fragments were used, and complete the sentence from today's article.
- Vitamin D has been called "the sunshine vitamin" because...
- Of this figure, 307 of the...
- However, low levels of vitamin D have been...
- There is also a connection between...
post-Comprehension: Talk about the following questions in pairs/groups. Remember to support your answers!
- How healthy are you? What do you do to stay healthy?
- If you had to guess, do you have high or low levels of vitamin D in your blood? Why?
- How important is good health? What guidelines would you set to stay healthy?
- Will you make any lifestyle changes based on this article? Why/not?
- Have you ever made any lifestyle changes based on an article or TV program?
Google Search: Type "sunshine vitamin" into Google. Look at the websites, and/or read additional articles on this topic. Discuss or write an essay about your findings.
