Vitamin D -the sunshine vitamin Health benefits & side effects-by Dr Harold Gunatillake Transcript: Good morning to all my viewers. Let us discuss today about vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, its health benefits, and side effects. Vitamin D – the super nutrient, also known as the sunshine vitamin, is surrounded by mystery and confusion, and is linked to many benefits from bone health to immune boosting. If you are light skinned with little pigment just exposing the body to the sun for 15 minutes is all that is required, and oral supplementation is not necessary. Dark skin people have a problem. The thick dark pigmented layer melanin in the skin will prevent the ultraviolet rays from penetrating through the skin, and the chances of the skin synthesizing vitamin D is questionable. They need to expose their bodies for about 45 minutes daily. Studies have shown that the vitamin D ...