Good ol' rickets-preventing vitamin D turns out to be much more significant than once thought.  In fact, it influences over 200 genes and directly highlights links to major diseases:

The researchers found 2,776 binding sites for the vitamin D receptor along the length of the genome. These were unusually concentrated near a number of genes associated with susceptibility to autoimmune conditions such as MS, Crohn's disease, systemic lupus erythematosus (or 'lupus') and rheumatoid arthritis, and to cancers such as chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and colorectal cancer.

They also showed that vitamin D had a significant effect on the activity of 229 genes including IRF8, previously associated with MS, and PTPN2, associated with Crohn's disease and type 1 diabetes.

I take a quality vitamin D supplement every day.  I recommend Designs for Health's Vitamin D Supreme.  It's a top quality brand led and managed by some of the brightest folks in the field.

I could read all day about Don Wildman.  Susan Casey’s profile of him in Esquire is equal parts fitness horror:

A deep growl booms out from the center of the room, where Don Wildman, the Circuit's master practitioner, wearing faded jeans and a Sonic Youth T-shirt, stands barefoot, holding a pair of fifty-pound weights. Muscular, lean, six-two, with a trim beard, he looks like Sean Connery, if Connery had borrowed the body of a U.S. marine. This gym, filled with cutting-edge equipment, occupies a wing of his home. I've heard about the Circuit, I've heard about Wildman, and I've come to see for myself what, exactly, is going on in here.

And life wisdom:

Humans waste a lot of energy worrying about things. Might get cancer, might go bankrupt. Might marry the wrong person or screw up at the office. Emerging from war, Wildman no longer had these kinds of concerns. At twenty, he'd crawled out of the darkest of pits, and in comparison, 1950s America looked like one big, golden party. Anything was possible. And no matter what went wrong now, it wasn't likely to result in death. "My father gave me a piece of advice once," Wildman says. "He said, 'Never walk. Always run.'"

And boy, has he ever.

The NY Times compares the differences in our weekly diet from 1970 and today.  Overall, we're eating an extra 1.8 pounds of food per week per individual, .5 lb. of which is pure fat.  Check out the infographic.

I can't argue with a single thing Jack LaLanne says in this video. The coming trend is to eat natural foods, exercise vigorously, and live simply. I think we've lost our way, and no matter how affluent you may be, there is a movement afoot to get back to solid ground -- for our health, quality of life, and happiness. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEboAJf9UVc] [via BB]

If you have a daughter, the message depicted in this video might be one of the most important she'll ever hear. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaH4y6ZjSfE] Update: The more I watch this video, the more I'm moved. So I did some research. The music -- which is perfect, BTW -- is “La Breeze” by the (now-defunct) band Simian. The line Here comes the breeze that'll blow you away is a perfect narrative layer atop the video content and provides a somber counterpoint to the otherwise turbulent music. Dove's onslaught piece is the second one in a series produced by Dove's ad agency, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide. The first piece, called evolution, is equally powerful and fights for the same cause as does onslaught. It's below. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U] Kudos to Dove for stepping outside its industry's mainline messaging and (a) reaching out to young girls, and (b) differentiating itself from its competition.

[Via YDA]