Vitamin D improves our health—if we get enough.

Stronger bones, a better immune system, protection from some cancers, lower blood pressure, clearer skin, and a healthier brain. These are just a few of the apparent benefits of the strangest of vitamins—vitamin D. Unlike all other vitamins, vitamin D is made by our bodies, but it requires sunshine.

The problem is, we’re just not getting as much sun as we used to or enough to make the vitamin D our bodies need. We spend too much time indoors, and when we do go outdoors, we’re using sunblock, which blocks the ultraviolet rays that create vitamin D.

Our skin is an amazing organ that automatically regulates the amount of vitamin D it produces, and it naturally won’t produce too much. If you spent a day at the beach, your skin would produce about 10,000 IU (international units) of vitamin D3. That’s about the maximum daily production by your skin. Based on the existing research and an equal measure of common sense, here’s an approach to make sure you’re protected and getting enough vitamin D:

• Get your vitamin D from a combination of food, sunshine, and supplements.

• Spend less time indoors and more time outdoors.

• When you’re out in direct sunshine, use sunblock, especially on areas that have already had ample sun exposure, like your face, ears, neck, chest, arms, and hands. Always try to avoid getting a sunburn, children especially. It’s okay to get 10 to 15 minutes of sun daily before you apply sunblock.

• Enjoy healthy foods that contribute to your vitamin D intake, like salmon, sardines, and other fish; and fortified dairy and soy milk products.

• Take a daily supplement of vitamin D3—around 1000 IU per day—depending on your needs.

• Get your blood level of vitamin D checked at your next physical. It should be between 30ng/ml and 100ng/ml.

To learn more about the health effects of vitamin D supplementation, the government has funded a $20 million study that has just begun. Both vitamin D and fish oil will be rigorously studied to see whether supplements can reduce your risk of cancer, heart disease, or stroke.

Blond Doll Takes Over the World!

Normal women are used to being made to feel inferior by fashion mags but now even the likes of First ladies Michelle Obama and Carla Bruni are getting the makeover treatment from the Japanese edition of Bazaar. So how does one improve upon two women already known for being gorgeous with an impeccable sense of style? You make them into a blond doll. Literally.

In this bizarre piece (See what I did there? I'm awesome.), a big-eyed blond-haired couture-dressed doll takes the first ladies' places in several iconic photographs. If this spread had come out in any of the western editions of this magazine, cries of racism would abound. Yet the Japanese did this. And they Stepford-ized Carla Bruni and Jacqueline Kennedy as well as Ms. Obama. While the replacement doll does look vaguely manga, she's certainly not Asian. All of which leaves me with... no explanation. Welcome to the never-good-enough club, ladies!

If I were Michelle Obama, I'd be very very disturbed by this one. And not the least because that doll's outfit is clearly upstaging President Obama. Has a first lady ever done puff-sleeved animal print at a press conference?

Even J.F.K. looks like he's laughing at this chick. But maybe that's just because if you put her on the same step as him, she'd tower over him in height.

That there is threatening to be plastic cleavage in an amount not seen since Debbie Did Washington. Will no one think of the children?! (Well, not her of course - she can't even look at the children. Or maybe she just doesn't bend that way.)

At last, I get it! You can't see her reflection in the mirror! Ergo, Barbie's a vampire succubus who accomplished a soulless domination of world politics! It's all a subtle metaphor for the decline in international relations!! Or maybe it's just lazy photoshopping.

You got a better theory?

Katsidis, puts the lightweight division on notice.

In a clash for the vacant WBO interim lightweight title, Michael Katsidis (26-2, 21 KOs) pressured Vicente Escobedo (21-2, 13 KOs) for twelve rounds to claim 115-113, 118-110 win on two cards. Escobedo was ahead 116-112 on the third card.