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2010-04-19T09:28:00.000-07:00

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Vitamin D In A New Light

2010-01-27T09:02:00.000-08:00

There are thirteen vitamins humans need for growth and development and to maintain good health. The human body cannot make these essential bio-molecules. They must be supplied in the diet or by bacteria in the intestine, except for vitamin D. Skin makes vitamin D when exposed to ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation from the sun. A light-skinned person will synthesize 20,000 IU (international units) of vitamin D in 20 minutes sunbathing on a Caribbean beach.

Vitamin D is also unique in another way. It is the only vitamin that is a hormone, a type of steroid hormone known as a secosteroid, with three carbon rings.

Steroid hormones such as cortisone, estrogen, and testosterone have four carbon rings. Ultraviolet B radiation in sunlight breaks open one of the rings in a steroid alcohol present in the skin, 7-dehydrocholesterol, to form vitamin D (cholecalciferol). The liver changes this molecule into its circulating form, 25-hydroxyvitamin D (calcidiol, 25[OH]D), the "vitamin D" blood tests measure. Cells throughout the body absorb 25-hydroxyvitamin D and change it into 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D (calcitriol), the active form of vitamin D that attaches directly to receptors on the DNA of genes in the cell’s nucleus.

The vitamin D hormone system controls the expression of more than 200 genes and the proteins they produce. In addition to its well-known role in calcium metabolism, vitamin D activates genes that control cell growth and programmed cell death (apoptosis), express mediators that regulate the immune system, and release neurotransmitters (e.g., serotonin) that influence one’s mental state.

Severe deficiencies of some vitamins cause vitamin-specific diseases, such as beriberi (from a lack of vitamin B1, thiamine), pellagra (B3, niacin), pernicious anemia (B12), and scurvy, (vitamin C). A deficiency in iodine produces a goiter, mental retardation, and, when severe, cretinism.

Rickets, a softening and bending of bones in children, first described in 1651, is another nutritionally-specific disease. It reached epidemic proportions following the industrial revolution, which began in the 1750s. In the 19^th century, before the importance of exposing children to sunlight was recognized, the majority of children that lived in cities with sunless, narrow alleyways and pollution developed rickets. An autopsy study done in Boston in the late 1800s showed that more than 80 percent of children had rickets.

Early in the 20^th century an investigator found that cod liver oil could prevent rickets in puppies. The nutritional factor in the oil that promotes skeletal calcium deposition was named "vitamin D," alphabetically after already-named vitamins A, B, and C. Rickets was thought to be another vitamin-deficiency disease, and the curative agent, a steroid hormone, was mislabeled a "vitamin."

Now, a century later, a wealth of evidence suggests that rickets, its most florid manifestation, is the tip of a vitamin D insufficiency/deficiency iceberg. A lack of Vitamin D can also trigger infections (influenza and tuberculosis), autoimmune diseases (multiple sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and inflammatory bowel disease), cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Practitioners of conventional medicine (i.e., most MDs) are just beginning to appreciate the true impact of vitamin D deficiency. In 1990, medical journals published less than 20 reviews and editorials on vitamin D. Last year they published more than 300 reviews and editorials on this vitamin/hormone. This year, on July 19, 2007, even the New England Journal of Medicine, the bellwether of pharmaceutically-oriented conventional medicine in the U.S., published a review on vitamin D that addresses its role in autoimmune diseases, infections, cardiovascular disease, and cancer (N Engl J Med 2007;357:266–281).

Up until 1980, doctors thought that vitamin D was only involved in calcium, phosphorus, and bone metabolism. Then two investigators proposed that vitamin D and sunlight could reduce the risk of colon cancer. A growing body of evidence indicates that they were right and that vitamin D can prevent a whole host of cancers – colon, breast, lung, pancreatic, ovarian, and prostate cancer among them. Colon cancer rates are 4 to 6 times higher in North America and Europe, where solar radiation is less intense, particularly during the winter months, compared to the incidence of colon cancer near the equator. People with low blood levels of vitamin D and those who live at higher latitudes are at increased risk for acquiring various kinds of cancer. Many epidemiological, cohort, and case control studies prove, at least on a more likely than not basis, that vitamin D supplements and adequate exposure to sunlight play an important role in cancer prevention (Am J Public Health 2006;96:252–261).

There is now strong scientific evidence that vitamin D does indeed reduce the risk of cancer. Evidence from a well-conducted, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial proves beyond a reasonable doubt that this is the case, at least with regard to breast cancer. A Creighton University study has shown that women over the age of 55 who took a 1,100 IU/day vitamin D supplement, with calcium, and were followed for 4 years had a highly statistically significant (P <0.005)>Am J Clin Nutr 2007;85:1568–1591).

Some of the genes vitamin D activates make proteins that halt cancer by inducing apoptosis (programmed cell death), which destroys aberrant cells before they become cancerous, like adenoma cells in the colon and rectum. Others promote cell differentiation and reining in of out-of-control growth of cancer cells (like prostate cancer cells). Vitamin D-expressed genes inhibit angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels that malignant tumors need to grow, as studies on lung and breast cancers show. Other genes inhibit metastases, preventing cancer that arises in one organ from spreading its cells to other parts of the body, as studied in breast, and prostate cancers.

Vitamin D also expresses genes that curb cardiovascular disease. One gene controls the renin-angiotensin system, which when overactive causes hypertension (high blood pressure). Others stifle the immune system-mediated inflammatory response that propagates atherosclerosis and congestive heart failure (Curr Opin Lipidol 2007;18:41–46).

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurologically devastating disease that afflicts people with low vitamin D levels. Its victims include the cellist Jacqueline Du Pré, whose first symptom was loss of sensation in her fingers, and some 500,000 Americans who currently suffer from this malady. MS is an autoimmune disease, where the body’s immune system attacks and destroys its own cells. With multiple sclerosis, T cells in the adaptive immune system, Th1 cells (CD4 T helper type 1 cells), attack the myelin sheath (insulation) of the axons (nerve fibers) that neurons (brain cells) use to transmit electrical signals. The Vitamin D hormone system regulates and tones down the potentially self-destructive actions of Th1 cells. These cells make their own 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D if there is a sufficient amount of vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D) circulating in the blood. Researchers have shown that the risk of MS decreases as the level of vitamin D in the blood increases (JAMA 2006;296:2832–2838). People living at higher latitudes have an increased risk of MS and other autoimmune diseases. Studies show that people who live below latitude 35° (e.g., Atlanta) until the age of 10 reduce the risk of MS by 50% (Toxicology 2002;181–182:71–78 and Eur J Clin Nutr 2004;58:1095–1109).

In a study published earlier this year, researchers evaluated 79 pairs of identical twins where only one twin in each pair had MS, despite having the same genetic susceptibility. They found that the MS-free twin had spent more time outdoors in the sun – during hot days, sun tanning, and at the beach. The authors conclude that sunshine is protective against MS (Neurology 2007;69:381–388).

New research suggests that influenza is also a disease triggered by vitamin D deficiency. Influenza virus exists in the population year-round, but influenza epidemics are seasonal and occur only in the winter (in northern latitudes), when vitamin D blood levels are at their nadir. Vitamin D-expressed genes instruct macrophages, the front-line defenders in the innate immune system, to make antimicrobial peptides, which are like antibiotics (Science 2006;311:1770–1773). These peptides attack and destroy influenza virus particles, and in human carriers keep it at bay. (Neutrophils and natural killer cells in the innate immune system and epithelial cells lining the respiratory tract also synthesize these virucidal peptides.) Other vitamin D-expressed genes rein in macrophages fighting an infection to keep them from overreacting and releasing too many inflammatory agents (cytokines) that can damage infected tissue. In the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, which killed 50 million people, of which 500,000 were Americans, young healthy adults (as happened to my 22-year-old grandmother) would wake up in the morning feeling well, start drowning in their own inflammation as the day wore on, and be dead by midnight. Autopsies showed complete destruction of the epithelial cells lining the respiratory tract due, as researchers now know, to a macrophage-induced overly severe inflammatory reaction to the virus. These flu victims were attacked and killed by their own immune system, something researchers have found vitamin D can prevent (Epidemiol Infect 2006;134:1129–1140).

Randomized clinical trials need to be done to test the vitamin D theory of influenza. With what we know now, however, perhaps an annual shot of 600,000 IU of vitamin D (Med J Aust 2005;183:10–12) would be more effective in preventing influenza than a jab of flu vaccine.

Our species evolved in equatorial Africa where the sun, shining directly overhead, supplies its inhabitants with year-round ultraviolet B photons for making vitamin D. Our African ancestors absorbed much higher doses of vitamin D living exposed in that environment compared to the amount most humans obtain today. A single mutation that occurred around 50,000 years ago is responsible for the appearance of white skin in humans. It turns out that a difference in one rung, or base pair, in the 3 billion-rung DNA ladder that constitutes the human genome determines the color of one’s skin (Science 2005;310:1782–1786). White skin, with less melanin, synthesizes vitamin D in sunlight six times faster than dark skin. People possessing this mutation were able to migrate to higher latitudes, populate Europe, Asia, and North America, and be able to make enough vitamin D to survive.

The majority of the world’s population now lives above latitude 35° N and is unable to synthesize vitamin D from sunlight for a period of time in winter owing to the angle of the sun. At a large solar zenith angle, ozone in the upper atmosphere will completely block UVB radiation. In Seattle (47° N) and London (52° N), from October to April UVB photons are blocked by the atmosphere so one’s skin cannot make vitamin D. (The half-life of circulating vitamin D is approximately one month.) Making matters worse, even when UVB radiation is available in sunlight, health authorities, led by the American Academy of Dermatology, warn people to shield themselves from the sun to avoid getting skin cancer.

Except for oily fish like (wild-only) salmon, mackerel, and sardines and cod liver oil – and also sun-dried mushrooms – very little vitamin D is naturally present in our food. Milk, orange juice, butter, and breakfast cereal are fortified with vitamin D, but with only 100 IU per serving. One would have to drink 200 8-oz. glasses of milk to obtain as much vitamin D as skin makes fully exposed to the noonday sun.

The U.S. Food and Nutrition Board in the Institute of Medicine puts the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for vitamin D at 200 IU for children and adults less than 50 years old, 400 IU for adults age 50–70, and 800 IU for adults over the age of 70. Most multivitamin preparations contain 400 IU of vitamin D. These guidelines are directed towards maintaining bone health and are sufficient to prevent rickets – but not cancer, cardiovascular disease, multiple sclerosis, or influenza. Without evidence to support it, the board arbitrarily set the safe upper limit for vitamin D consumption at 2,000 IU/day.

Vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D) blood levels, the barometer for vitamin D status, are measured in nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) or nanomoles per liter (nmol/l), where ng/ml = 0.4 nmol/l. Children and adults need a vitamin D blood level >8 ng/ml to prevent rickets and osteomalacia (demineralization and softening of bones) respectively. It takes a concentration >20 ng/ml to keep parathyroid hormone levels in a normal range. A level >34 ng/ml is required to ensure peak intestinal calcium absorption. Finally, neuromuscular performance steadily improves in elderly people as vitamin D levels rise up to 50 ng/ml. Accordingly, a vitamin D blood level <8>severely deficient; 8–19, deficient; and 20–29, insufficient, i.e., too low for good health. A level >30 ng/ml is sufficient, but experts now consider 50–99 ng/ml to be the optimal level of vitamin D. Levels 100–150 ng/ml are excessive and >150 ng/ml, potentially toxic.

A majority of Americans have insufficient or deficient vitamin D blood levels. In veterans undergoing heart surgery at the Seattle VA hospital, I found that 78% had a low vitamin D level: 12% were insufficient; 56%, deficient; and 10% were severely deficient.

In order to enjoy optimal health, we should maintain a vitamin D blood level of ≥50–99 ng/ml. Without sun exposure, to reach a level of 50 ng/ml requires taking a 5,000 IU/day vitamin D supplement. There are two kinds of vitamin D supplements: vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol), the kind our skin makes, and vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol), a synthetic variant made by irradiating plants. Vitamin D2 is only 10–30% as effective in raising 25-hydroxyvitamin D blood levels compared to vitamin D3, leading the authors of a recent study conclude, "Vitamin D2 should not be regarded as a nutrient suitable for supplementation or fortification" (Am J Clin Nutr 2006;84:694–697).

Concerns about vitamin D toxicity are overblown, along with those about sun exposure. As one researcher in the field puts it, "Worrying about vitamin D toxicity is like worrying about drowning when you’re dying of thirst." The LD50 of vitamin D in dogs (the dose that will kill half the animals) is 3,520,000 IU/kilogram. One can take a 10,000 IU vitamin D supplement every day, month after month safely, with no evidence of adverse effect. (Am J Clin Nutr 1999;69:842–856). A person must consume 50,000 IU a day for several months before hypercalcemia (an elevated calcium level in the blood, which is the initial manifestation of vitamin D toxicity) might occur. Vitamin D in a physiologic dose (5,000 IU/day) prevents the build up of calcium in blood vessels. (Circulation 1997;96:1755–1760). If one takes 10,000 IU of vitamin D a day and spends a lot of time in the sun, it would be prudent to check vitamin D blood level to ensure that it does not exceed 100 ng/ml.

Sensible sun exposure should be encouraged, not maligned. If one avoids sunburn, the sun’s health-giving benefits far outweigh its detrimental effects. A large body of evidence indicates that sunlight does not cause the most lethal form of skin cancer, malignant melanoma. A U.S. Navy study found that melanoma occurred more frequently in sailors who worked indoors all the time. Those who worked outdoors had the lowest incidence of melanoma. Also, most melanomas appear on parts of the body that are seldom exposed to sunlight (Arch Environ Health 1990;45:261–267). Sun exposure is associated with increased survival from melanoma (J Natl Cancer Inst 2005;97:195–199). Another study showed that people who had longer lifetime exposure to the sun without burning were less likely to get melanomas than those with less exposure (J Invest Dermatol 2003;120:1087–1093.)

The rise in skin cancers over the last 25 years parallels the rise in use of sunscreen lotions, which block vitamin D-producing UVB radiation but not cancer-causing ultraviolet A radiation (UVA). (Newer sunscreen lotions also block out UVA.) Each year there are 8,000 deaths from melanoma and 1,500 deaths from nonmelanoma (squamous and basal cell) skin cancer. Surgical excision of nonmelanoma skin cancers cures them, except in rare cases where the growth has been allowed to linger for a long time and metastasize. Dr. John Cannell, Executive Director of the Vitamin D Council, makes this point: 1,500 deaths occur each year from non-melanoma skin cancer, but 1,500 deaths occur each day from other cancers that vitamin D in optimal doses might well prevent. (The Vitamin D Council website is an excellent source of information on vitamin D.)

The U.S. government and its citizens currently spend $2,000 billion dollars ($2 trillion) on "health care," i.e., sickness care, each year. The cost of taking a 5,000 IU supplement of vitamin D every day for a year is $22.00. The cost for 300 million Americans taking this supplement would be $6.6 billion dollars. The number and variety of diseases that vitamin D at this dose could prevent, starting with a 50 percent reduction in cancer, is mind-boggling. If everyone took 5,000 IU/day of vitamin D, the U.S. "health care" industry would shrink. It would no longer account for 16 percent of the gross domestic product.

Health food stores typically do not sell vitamin D3 in 5,000 IU tablets, but they are readily available online. BIO-TECH Pharmacal produces both 5,000 and 50,000 IU tablets of Vitamin D3, which online sites sell. Some people prefer to take one 50,000 IU table a week (equivalent to 7,100 IU a day) and a three-day course of 150,000 IU vitamin D at the first sign of a cold.

Two sites that sell both "D₃-5" (5,000 IU) and "D₃-50" (50,000 IU) are here and here.

Donald Miller (send him mail) is a cardiac surgeon and Professor of Surgery at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is a member of Doctors for Disaster Preparedness and writes articles on a variety of subjects for LewRockwell.com. His web site is www.donaldmiller.com

(Source)

New Vitamin D Research!

2009-08-10T08:09:00.001-07:00

Tanning Beds For Vitamin D

08/07/2009

New research from Michael Holick indicates that tanning beds may be even more effective at producing vitamin D than was previously believed, according to reports from Smart Tan.

Holick’s group studied 15 people aged 20-53, tracking their vitamin D blood levels as they tanned in tanning equipment three times a week. Fifty percent had higher vitamin D blood levels after one week of tanning and 150 percent had higher vitamin D blood levels after five weeks of tanning.

Source: http://www.lookingfit.com/hotnews/tanning-beds-for-vitamin-d.html

Natural Vitamin D doses and cancer Reduction

2009-08-06T11:14:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

As an advocate of Smart Tanning in moderation and sunburn prevention, it was great to read that a $20 million US government study has been sponsored to examine natural Vitamin D doses and cancer reduction.
Currently 75% os US adults and children are Vitamin D deficient. Higher levels of Vitamin D have been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, help prevent certain cancers, help with weight loss, help increase bone density, reduce depression.........to name just a handful of benefits of this amazing 'Sunshine Vitamin'
Why is it called the Sunshine Vitamin ? When sunlight (UVB) contacts the skin it produces Vitamin D3, through a series of reactions this is converted to Vitamin D. Sun exposure is the most efficicent way of producing Vitamin D in the body.
So it makes you think ! Why is the USA experiencing a Vitamin D deficiency epidemic. Could it be because the $35 billion cosmetic industry is 'sun scaring' people inside and undercover and out of the sun ? Promoting sun 'avoidance' as opposed the 'moderate' sun exposure.
Just 15 minutes, 3 times a week in the sun, can stimulate the skin to produce healthy Vitamin D levels.
We need sunlight for every day functions, we weren't made to live in caves or uderground WE NEED sunlight. The key word to remember here is moderation. As a tanning salon owner we promote Smart Tanning, and that is 'Never Burn'.
Happy Tanning :-)

Source: http://alohasuntan.blogspot.com/

The Health Benefits of Tanning

2009-08-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

The therapeutic exposure to sunlight has origin in ancient Chinese and Egyptian medicine. Recently, however, there has been much controversy as to whether or not tanning is a good idea, whether or not it is healthy. The popularity of tanning beds

has greatly risen with adults, yet skyrocketed with image-obsessed teens. Although many warn it against, people are starting to urge others to tan, stressing the numerous benefits, for both health and self-esteem. Tanning in and of itself is not unhealthy; contrary to what many think, tanning is very healthy for you in a number of ways.

“Tans are natural shields against the sun's ultraviolet radiation, which can damage skin tissue in the form of a sunburn (as well as cause cancer in the long-run). Exposure to ultraviolet rays causes certain skin cells to produce the pigment melanin, which darkens through oxidation. Enough beach bumming and those cells will migrate closer to the skin's surface and produce more melanin, further darkening the skin into a suntan. It's no wonder our bodies have developed the ability to produce melanin. The pigment absorbs ultraviolet radiation and defends against further penetration of skin tissue.” (8) Tans are great because they are our body’s natural protection against sunburns, and without them we would be much more susceptible to burns and skin cancer. This is why, during the summer, people get burned the first time they go into the sun – because their bodies are not yet prepared to fight sunburns. Tanning is necessary to prevent against burning and hurting the skin, and tanning beds are great and easy ways to tan in a controlled atmosphere.

Beginning with physical appearance, tanning adds a young and healthy glow. In addition, a tan makes one look more muscular and defined, and will help hide visible veins, body hair, and impurities in or on the skin. With the intense pressure to look one’s best, many resort to tanning to give themselves a young and healthy look, but do not completely understand its full effect. Tanning has proven to help many skin conditions, from acne to eczema, and even psoriasis, “a fairly common and extremely persistent skin disease … the typical lesion of psoriasis is a red, sharply circumscribed patch with silvery scales.” (11) In fact, eighty percent of psoriasis sufferers who tan show improvement as a direct result of their exposure to the ultraviolet light. “The skin disease had plagued Candy Knox since childhood. Each winter, the red, scaly patches indicative of psoriasis would reappear on her arms and Knox would once again contend with discomfort and feelings of insecurity. But a few years ago her dermatologist recommended a surprising treatment that has helped Knox cope when cold weather hits: indoor tanning. ‘My doctor said my best bet was to move to Florida or go tanning when I needed it,’ said Knox, who now makes periodic trips to the tanning booth. ‘It really seems to help whenever I have a breakout.’” (5)

Sunlight has proven to affect over one hundred of the body’s function. Exposure to light has proven to lower the resting heart rate and blood pressure. It also lowers cholesterol because the body uses the liver’s cholesterol as raw material to produce vitamin D. Sunlight reduces stress and can help the immune system, as well as increase the skin’s resistance to infections. With exercise, sunlight has many beneficial results, as it heightens physical performance. Sunlight can increase cardiac output, as well as increase energy, endurance, and muscular strength. Lastly, it is proven that “sunlight stimulates the thyroid gland, which boosts your metabolism.” (9)

Seasonal Affective Disorder is also known as winter depression, an affective mood disorder that stems from lack of sunlight. Most SAD sufferers experience regular mental health throughout most of the year, but experience depression symptoms during the winter months. Dyane Riel, for example, was born and raised in a small Canadian village where it snows in October and stays dark for almost half the year. Riel said many of the locals experience Seasonal Affective Disorder. “A lot of people I knew were depressed all the time” Says Dyane. “They opened tanning shops in town and everyone uses them. Many people go south for vacations as well. These things are great therapy for them.” (5) Also, exposure to bright light has been found to alleviate some symptoms of Pre Menstrual Syndrome, or PMS, such as mild depression, mood swings, physical discomfort, irritability, and social withdrawal.
Looking at other health benefits, tanning has been shown to release endorphins, a chemical that produces a happy, pleasant feeling. It also produces vitamin D, a vitamin many people are deficient in, which is necessary for calcium absorption in the body. Tanning beds are great because one can go at any time they are available and get that sunlight they have been lacking. One of the benefits of going tanning is that the exposure to UVB light is the body's natural way to produce vitamins. A great percentage of today’s population is vitamin D deficient. People get between ninety and ninety-five perfect of their vitamin D through sun exposure, and people are going outdoors less and less as the years go by. For example, the vast majority of people works indoors, drives cars instead of walking or biking, and exercises inside a gym as opposed to running or working out outside. One of the greatest benefits of tanning is the increased production of vitamin D, which is an excellent vitamin for a number of reasons.

Research has recently shown that individuals with healthy vitamin D levels are much less likely to develop certain forms of cancer, such as breast cancer, ovarian cancer, colon cancer, and prostate cancer. These life-threatening cancers are much more common in those who do not receive regular sunlight, as vitamin D plays a role in slowing the growth of the cancer cells in these kinds of tumors.
When vitamin D is missing, your body releases another hormone, parathyroid, to pull calcium out of the skeleton. One result of this is osteoporosis, a bone-brittling disease which leads to approximately one million hip or bone fractures a year. “[Boston University medical school professor Michael] Holick believes the high rates of osteoporosis among the elderly can be partly traced to the fact that many spend little time outside and they're diligent sunscreen wearers. Indeed, studies suggest that 30 to 40 percent of American and British elders with hip fractures were low on [vitamin] D. The problem could be remedied with the same ultraviolet lights that iguana owners use for their pets. ‘We don't do this for nursing home residents,’ Holick says, ‘but we’ll spend 40 bucks for lights for an iguana.’” (10)

Osteoporosis and cancer, however, are not the only health risks from vitamin D deficiency that we should worry about. “Current research indicates vitamin D deficiency plays a role in causing seventeen varieties of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, muscle wasting, birth defects, and periodontal disease." (7) In Finland, where the sun shows for only a few hours a day during wintertime, natives have the world’s highest incidence of Type 1 diabetes. In a study tracking ten thousand children, researchers discovered that those who had regular doses of vitamin D as infants were approximately 80 percent less likely to develop Type 1 diabetes than those who did not get enough of it. Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is more common the farther one is from the equator.

Aforementioned Professor Holick “recruited 18 volunteers with mild hypertension and put them under UVB lights for at least six minutes three times a week. After six weeks, the amount of D in their systems had more than doubled and their blood pressure had dropped significantly - to normal for some.”

Tanning is undoubtedly good for ones health and appearance, as mentioned before, but many people question why tanning beds are so popular when the sun is free. However, there are a great number of reasons why tanning beds are superior. First of all, there are parts of the Earth that do not always receive as much sunlight as needed during the day for people to remain healthy. Professor Holick joked, “you could stand outside naked from the time the sun rises till it sets and you won’t make any [vitamin] D.” (10) The vast majority of people that do not already tan don’t realize that tanning salons have different strengths of beds, and customers can choose how long they are exposed to the UV rays. Tanners can use either the lotions sold at the store to enhance their tans or a light sunblock to lessen it, however exposure to UV rays from either tanning or the sun is greatly recommended by many doctors to treat skin conditions and prevent a vast number of health risks.

In conclusion, tanning is best in small doses, almost deemed necessary for a multitude of reasons. From the prevention of cancers, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness or wasting, birth defects, and periodontal disease to just wanting to look and feel better, tanning is a great way to stay healthy and look good.

Source: http://www.freeonlineresearchpapers.com/health-benefits-tanning

Benefits of Moderate UV Sunshine Exposure

2009-08-03T08:58:00.000-07:00

Acedemic Fraud

Posted by Tan Man on July 30, 2009

IARC Report Declaring UV “Carcinogenic to Humans” ignored conflicting information JACKSON, Mich. (July 29) –

QUICK ANSWERS:

1. This list means nothing more than SUNBURN is harmful. There’s no research suggesting that non-burning exposure is harmful.

2. Many of the parties promoting this list have ties to the $35 billion sunscreen industry, which wants you to over-use their product.

3. Saying that ultraviolet light causes skin cancer and therefore should be avoided is just like saying water causes drowning and therefore should be avoided.

You need water in order to live and survive – just as you need ultraviolet light in order to live and survive.

4. By including UV light on a list of carcinogens without making the statement clear that overexposure, and not mere exposure, is the danger, the makers of this list have made a glaring and fraudulent omission.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer ignored conflicting information in its classification of ultraviolet light as ‘carcinogenic to humans’ – a one-dimensional conclusion that benefits the $35 billion sunscreen industry, which has strong financial ties to most of the dermatology community today, and forgets the fact that humans need UV light to live.

“If a pharmaceutical company sold you sunshine, we wouldn’t be having this discussion right now,” International Smart Tan Network Vice President Joseph Levy said. “Instead, we are dealing with a report that now has the press comparing Mother Nature’s most important creation – sunlight – to arsenic and mustard gas. It’s ludicrous.” “Saying that UV exposure is harmful and should be avoided is as wrong as saying that water causes drowning, and therefore we should avoid water.”

No data has ever been presented suggesting that UV exposure in a non-burning fashion is a significant risk factor for any skin damage, nor has a mechanism been established whereby UV causes melanoma, which is more common in indoor workers than in outdoor workers and which occurs most commonly on parts of the body that don’t get regular UV exposure. IARC cited its own report alleging “risk of skin melanoma is increased by 75 per cent when people started using tanning beds before age 30.” Ignored in this statement is confounding information pointing out that: * IARC’s analysis was flawed. When the palest individuals who cannot tan (called Skin Type I – people who are not allowed to tan in North American tanning facilities) were removed from the IARC data set, there was no increase in risk for the group being studied. *

In fact, 18 of 22 studies on this topic show no statistically signficant relationship between indoor tanning and melanoma – including the largest and most recent study. “Ignoring conflicting information in the publication of a report and elevating your conclusion without bringing confounding information to light constitutes academic fraud,” Levy said. “This report presents no new data, ignores confounding information and attempts to reach a new conclusion with no new information. While it remains prudent for individuals to avoid sunburn, it should be noted that there is NO RESEARCH suggesting that non-burning UV exposure is a significant risk factor for humans. None.” Levy continued, “Further, it is clearer now more than ever that humans NEED regular UV exposure as the only true natural way to make vitamin D. It is called ‘The Sunshine Vitamin’ for a reason: You produce more vitamin D by getting a tan in a non-burning fashion than you would from drinking 100 glasses of whole milk.

We are very concerned that the politics of profit-motivated anti-UV groups are misrepresenting the balanced message about sunlight that a true, independent evaluation of the science supports. The U.S. government in 2000 placed ultraviolet light on the federal government’s list of known human carcinogens. But the criteria to be labeled a carcinogen does not take into account the dosage of a substance required to increase risk – which means that the listing only indicts sunburn, not non-burning exposure.

According to that report, “The Report does not present quantitative assessments of carcinogenic risk. Listing of substances in the Report, therefore, does not establish that such substances present carcinogenic risks to individuals in their daily lives.”

Source: http://justdfacts.wordpress.com/2009/07/30/acedemic-fraud/

Tanning Truth

2009-08-03T08:23:00.000-07:00

Indoor Tanning: Smart Tan

Posted: Friday, January 18th, 2008

An estimated 30 million North Americans turn to tanning salons as a controlled alternative to outdoor tanning. As we become increasingly aware of the benefits associated with regular exposure to sunlight and of the importance of managing the risks that can be associated with sunburn and overexposure, more people are turning to indoor tanning facilities to help attain their tans in a controlled environment scientifically designed to minimize the risk of sunburn.

The Tanning Industry’s Base Belief

The professional indoor tanning industry’s scientifically supported position is summed up in this declaration: Moderate tanning, for individuals who can develop a tan, is the smartest way to maximize the potential benefits of sun exposure while minimizing the potential risks associated with either too much or too little sunlight.

This position is founded on the following tenets:

Ultraviolet light exposure from the sun or from an indoor tanning unit is essential for human health, and getting it in a non-burning fashion is the smartest way.
The professional indoor tanning industry promotes and teaches what we refer to as The Golden Rule of Smart Tanning: Don’t ever sunburn.
For the past decade, the indoor tanning industry has been more effective at teaching sunburn prevention than those who promote complete sun avoidance. Since the mid-1990s, tanning industry research has supported what millions of indoor tanners have known all along: that non-tanners sunburn outdoors more often than people who tan indoors. The professional indoor tanning salon industry is part of the solution in the ongoing battle against sunburn and in teaching people how to identify a proper and practical life-long skin care regimen.
A tan is the body’s natural protection against sunburn. Your skin is designed to tan as a natural body function.
Every year, millions of indoor tanners successfully develop “base tans” before embarking on sunny vacations – tans that, combined with the proper use of sunscreen outdoors, help them prevent sunburn.
There are known physiological and psychological benefits associated with sunlight exposure and there are many other potential benefits that appear linked to sun exposure, but need further research. The potential upside of these benefits is considerable and deserves further consideration. Because sunlight is free and vitamin D is a relatively cheap pharmaceutical product, research into the many benefits of vitamin D has not been funded to its natural conclusion.
The body produces Vitamin D naturally when the skin is exposed to sunlight. Vitamin D deficiency has become a recognized epidemic in North America and overzealous sun protection practices likely have contributed to this.
The risks associated with UV overexposure are manageable for anyone who has the ability to develop a tan.

Why Is Indoor Tanning “Smart Tanning?”

Indoor tanning, if you can develop a tan, is an intelligent way to minimize the risk of sunburn while maximizing the enjoyment and benefit of having a tan. We call this SMART TANNING because tanners are taught by trained tanning facility personnel how their skin type reacts to sunlight and how to avoid sunburn outdoors, as well as in a salon.

Tanning in a professional facility today minimizes risk because the government regulates indoor tanning in the United States and Canada. In the United States, exposure times for every tanning session are established by a schedule present on every piece of equipment that takes into account the tanner’s skin type and the intensity of the equipment to deliver a dosage of sunlight designed to minimize the risk of sunburn. The schedule, as regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Health Canada, also takes into account how long an individual has been tanning, increasing exposure times gradually to minimize the possibility of burning.

That kind of control is impossible outdoors, where variables including seasonality, time of day, weather conditions, reflective surfaces and altitude all make outdoor tanning a random act and sunburn prevention more difficult.

How Do Indoor Tanning Salons Teach Sunburn Prevention?

The indoor tanning industry is at the forefront in educating people how to successfully avoid sunburn over the course of one’s life.

Studies of indoor tanners have shown consistently that indoor tanning customers once they begin tanning in a professional salon, are less likely to sunburn than they were before they started tanning.
Studies have also shown that indoor tanners are less likely to sunburn outdoors as compared to non-tanners.

Consider, in recent years sunburn incidence in the general population has been steadily increasing while sunscreen usage has been declining. And according to the American Academy of Dermatology, the sub-group most likely to sunburn is older men. In contrast, sunscreen usage outdoors among indoor tanners is increasing.

We believe that teaching people strictly to avoid the sun may be making them more likely to sunburn when they do go outside for summer activities – and everyone does go outdoors at some point. Consider:

Tanning is your body’s natural defense mechanism against sunburn, and indoor tanners have activated this defense against burning – a tan essentially multiplies the ability of sunscreen worn outdoors to do its job. That’s one reason non-tanners are more vulnerable when they inevitably do go outdoors.
Indoor tanners are educated at professional tanning facilities how to avoid sunburn outdoors, how to use sunscreens appropriately and how to properly moisturize their skin.

When you also consider that the majority of people who sunburn are male, according to the AAD, and that 65-70 percent of indoor tanning customers are female, clearly, it is non-tanners who are doing most of the burning outdoors. In the war against sunburn, tanning salons are part of the solution. Those who abstain from sun exposure completely are more likely to sunburn when they inevitably do go outdoors, even if they attempt to wear sunscreen.

Why We Promote Indoor Tanning As “Smart Tanning”

The professional indoor tanning industry promotes responsible indoor tanning and sunburn prevention as “smart.” We choose not to use the word “safe.” Here is why:

The word “safe” implies that one can recklessly abuse something without any fear of causing harm. And reckless abandon certainly is not the behavior the professional indoor tanning industry is teaching. In fact, we are playing a key role in successfully preventing that kind of reckless abuse. By teaching a “smart” approach to sunburn prevention that recognizes that people do perceive different benefits from being in the sun, we are able to teach sunburn prevention in a practical way that respects both the potential benefits and the risks of sun exposure.

For example, previous generations believed that sunburn was an inconvenient but necessary precursor to developing a tan. Today we know better, and we are teaching a new generation of tanners how to avoid sunburn at all costs. Again, our position: Moderate tanning is the best way to maximize the potential benefits of sun exposure while minimizing the potential risks of either too much or too little exposure.

These graphs illustrate our point. The left graph shows the conventional thinking about sunlight: that totally eliminating sun exposure eliminates risks. That oversimplification is why the $30 billion sun-care industry tells us to wear sunscreen 365 days a year, no matter where we live. But the right graph is a more accurate, albeit more complicated, description of the risk function.

The one thing we do know for certain about sunlight is that zero exposure does NOT equal zero risk; in fact, the risks of zero exposure would be deadly. So the risk function must be curved. The vertex of that curve — where risk is minimized — is different for every person and cannot be randomly defined. What’s more, this graph does not even take into account the balance between benefits and risks. That has to be part of the equation if any campaign is going to be effective.

Human life is totally reliant on sun exposure, and the life-giving effects of ultraviolet light. The question for each of us — a question that nobody knows the exact answer to — is how much sun exposure is appropriate, and how much is too much. Basing the answer to that question on the belief that any exposure increases one’s risk of skin damage — a belief that is not categorically supported in the medical literature —fails to recognize the positive influence ultraviolet light and sunlight have on our lives.

New research on breast cancer, prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, colon cancer, heart disease, multiple sclerosis and other deadly diseases — research that shows that regular sun exposure may play a key part in preventing the onset or retarding the growth of these deadly diseases — supports the position that moderate sun exposure, for those of us who can develop a tan, is the best way to maximize the potential benefits of sun exposure while minimizing the potential risks of either too much or too little exposure.

Why Don’t We Hear More About Smart Tanning Then?

That is changing. In 2006 the American Cancer Society and the Canadian Cancer Society joined health officials in Australia in finally recognizing that individuals need some ultraviolet light exposure in order to be healthy, and that sun avoidance may be contributing to vitamin D deficiency.

Why did this acknowledgement take so long? As we mentioned, the truth about sun exposure is abstract and complicated — the right level of exposure for one person may not be right for another person. Heredity, skin type, and many other factors make it a different equation for everyone. But one truth is universal: We all need sun exposure and UV light in order to survive.

It is a lot easier just to tell people to avoid sunshine than teach them how to enjoy it responsibly and appropriately, so many of our public health advisories have attempted to oversimplify the message and few took into account any potential for positive effects of sunlight. Instead of teaching you how to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks, many reports simply oversimplify the scenario and mislead you into believing that any exposure is bad for you.

You should also be aware of the fact that many industries benefit from scaring you about any sun exposure – twisting a proper message of sunburn prevention into an unwarranted message of total sun avoidance. This profit-based science has created what we believe is a total misuse of sunscreens.

What Do We Mean When We Say “Misuse of Sunscreens?”

Sunscreen should only be used to prevent sunburn. It is being marketed to block all UV exposure, which is unwarranted.

Make no mistake: Sunscreen is a good product with an intelligent usage: the prevention of sunburn. But it is not necessary to wear this product daily most of the year in most climates to prevent sunburn. Yet many in the $30 billion sun care industry encourage everyone to wear products with sunscreen (many of which are women’s cosmetics) 365 days a year — no matter where they live. This is misuse of the product and may in fact cause more harm than good in the long run. Please consider:

Sunscreen, when worn, almost completely prevents your skin from producing any vitamin D. Sun exposure to the skin is the body’s natural way to produce Vitamin D – it is the way you are naturally intended to get it. An estimated 90 percent of the vitamin D in our systems comes from sun exposure. In fact, according to accepted anthropologic evolutionary theory, that’s why fair-skinned cultures developed fair skin: To better produce vitamin D from sunlight.
Vitamin D is very rare in foods and the form of vitamin D you get from foods and dietary supplements is not processed in the body the same way as Vitamin D produced naturally from sun exposure to the skin.
Wearing sunscreen in northern climates most of the year totally blocks your body’s ability to produce vitamin D.
Many studies have shown and it is now universally accepted that up to 90 percent of the North American population is vitamin D deficient. What’s more, recent research has shown that humans need five to 10 times more vitamin D than we previously thought – levels that are not attainable through diet and supplements alone.
Women’s cosmetics today almost always contain sunscreen. It is very difficult for women to find products that do not block UV exposure.

Again, while sunscreen is an excellent product that has an intelligent usage in the fight against sunburn, overuse of the product may have serious consequences as well. Because most women wear foundation products daily, their make-up may be preventing them from producing vitamin D much of the year. And because women are more likely than men to develop osteoporosis, making up 18 million of the 25 million Americans afflicted with the disease, they would stand to benefit even more from an increase in vitamin D production.

What Is The Appropriate Usage of Sunscreen?

Simply stated, sunscreen should be used as a tool to prevent sunburn whenever sunburn is a possibility. It should not be used on a daily basis in climates and seasons when sunburn is not possible.

While the tanning industry does support the use of sunscreens as a tool to prevent sunburn outdoors, we do not believe it is proper to teach people to wear this product during times of the year when one would not be able to sunburn outdoors. That is misbranding the product

That is why the professional indoor tanning industry teaches proper sunscreen usage more effectively than those who simply tell the public to wear the product 365 days a year: The tanning industry’s approach is more credible and practical.

Why Should We Be Concerned About Vitamin D Deficiency?

New research has shown that vitamin D deficiency is epidemic in American adults today, suggesting that up to 90 percent of North Americans are vitamin D deficient. It is likely that over-usage of sunscreen in climates and seasons when sunburn is not a possibility has contributed to this epidemic. This is especially significant because:

A 2006 systematic review of 63 studies on vitamin D status in relation to cancer risk has shown that vitamin D sufficiency can reduce one’s risk of colon, breast and ovarian cancers by up to 50 percent. The landmark paper, published in the February 2006 issue of The American Journal of Public Health, is the most comprehensive paper on vitamin D written to date.
Additionally, vitamin D deficiency is a leading cause of osteoporosis, a disease affecting 25 million Americans which leads to 1 million hip and bone fractures every year. In elderly individuals, such fractures are often deadly. Encouraging everyone to wear sunscreen all year long in any climate undoubtedly is contributing to this problem, as vitamin D is necessary for the body to properly process calcium.
While environmental correlations have established for years that people in sunny climates have lower risks of many forms of cancer, in recent years the mechanism by which Vitamin D slows or retards the growth of tumor cells has been researched and identified. It was once thought that only the kidneys could produce active vitamin D, but we now know that many cells in the body perform this function, including cells in the breast, prostate, colon, brain and skin.
Research has shown that the active form of vitamin D, when present in cells throughout the body, inhibits the growth and spread of abnormal cells, including cancer cells.

What Does Indoor Tanning Have To Do With Vitamin D?

Exposure to UVB from sunshine is the body’s natural way to produce vitamin D, accounting for 90 percent of vitamin D production. Dietary “supplements” are just that: Supplemental ways to produce vitamin D.

Research has shown that people who utilize indoor tanning equipment that emits UVB – which most tanning equipment does – also produce vitamin D. And studies have also shown that indoor tanning clients have higher vitamin D blood levels than non-tanners.

While the North American indoor tanning industry promotes itself as a cosmetic service, one undeniable side-effect of that cosmetic service is vitamin D production. Even though it is not necessary to develop a tan to produce vitamin D, this should be considered: Because research suggests that the risks associated with sun exposure are related to intermittent sunburns, it is credible to believe that the benefits of regular, moderate non-burning exposure outweigh the easily manageable risks associated with overexposure.

Tanning is a Natural Body Process – It is Not Damage

Tanning is your body’s natural protection against sunburn — it is what your body is designed to do. Many have referred to this process as “damage” to your skin, but calling a tan “damage” is a dangerous oversimplification. Here is why:

Calling a tan damage to your skin is like calling exercise damage to your muscles. Consider, when one exercises you are actually tearing tiny muscle fibers in your body. On the surface, examined at the micro-level, that could be called “damage.” But that damage on the micro-level is your body’s natural way on the macro-level of building stronger muscle tissue. So to call exercise “damaging” to muscles would be terribly deceiving. The same can be said of sun exposure: Your body is designed to repair any damage to the skin caused by ultraviolet light exposure. Developing a tan is its natural way to protect against the dangers of sunburn and further exposure.
Saying that any ultraviolet light exposure causes skin damage is a dangerous oversimplification. It would be like saying that since water causes drowning, humans should avoid all water. Yes, water causes drowning, but our bodies also need water; we would die without it. Similarly, we need sun exposure; we would die without it.

It is the professional indoor tanning industry’s position that sunburn prevention is a more effective message than sun avoidance, which ultimately encourages abuse. It is a responsible, honest approach to the issue.

But What About Skin Cancer?

There arguably is more misinformation about skin cancer than any other form of cancer, and most of it involves distorting the nature of skin cancer’s complex relationship with sun exposure. Consider:

Melanoma skin cancer is most common in people who work indoors – not in those who work outdoors.
Melanoma skin cancer occurs most often on parts of the body that are not regularly exposed to the sun.
18 of 22 studies examining melanoma and indoor tanning have shown no statistically significant association, including the most recent and largest study, which showed no connection at all. The four older studies that alleged a connection did not adequately control for important confounding variables such as the subjects’ outdoor exposure to sunlight, childhood sunburns, type of tanning equipment utilized (many of which were unsupervised home units) and duration and quantity of exposures.
Melanoma mortality rates in the United States are not rising among young women, but are increasing dramatically among older men, according to National Cancer Institute data. (In Canada, melanoma rates for women under 50 have actually declined in the past 20 years). Yet the majority of the marketing message about this disease is directed at young women, who are the highest consumers of dermatological services.
The photobiology research community has determined that most skin cancers are most likely related to a strong pattern of burning and intermittent sun exposure in those people who are genetically predisposed to skin cancer and not simply to cumulative exposure. That suggests that a pattern of repeated sunburning is what we need to prevent. And that kind of prevention is exactly what the indoor tanning industry is doing effectively.
Skin cancer generally has a 20- to 30-year latency period. The rates of skin cancer we are seeing today in older individuals mostly are a function of the ignorant misbehavior of the 1970s and early 1980s. Recall: Society used to view sunburns as an inconvenient right of spring, or as a “precursor” to developing a summer tan. Severe burns were commonplace. Today we know how reckless that approach was, and the incidence rates of skin cancer today in those over 50 years of age reflect that ignorance.

The indoor tanning industry believes that our role in teaching sunburn prevention will help to reverse the increases that largely are a result of misbehavior that took place years ago before the professional tanning industry existed and before we were organized to teach sunburn prevention.

How Do You Define Moderate Tanning?

The term “moderate tanning” means something different for every different individual, and that is an important point. The bottom line is what we call “The Golden Rule of Smart Tanning” – Don’t EVER sunburn. A fair-skinned, red-headed, green-eyed person may not have the ability to develop a tan without sunburning. This person should not attempt to tan then. On the other hand, most of us have the ability to develop a tan, and the majority of us tan very easily. Moderation, in our view, means avoiding sunburn at all costs. Going about that agenda will mean something different to every different person.

What About Teenage Tanning?

In the past few years the dermatology industry’s lobbyists have argued that teenagers should be totally prohibited from tanning in salons despite having no solid evidence that tanning in a non-burning fashion results in any significant risk. In fact, such prohibitions would likely do more harm than good. Consider:

Studies have shown that teens who tan in salons are less likely to sunburn outdoors compared to non-tanners.
83 percent of teenagers who tan indoors prior to taking sunny vacations report that their indoor tan, combined with the proper use of sunscreen, helped them to prevent sunburn.
Further, 72 percent of teenagers who currently tan indoors say they would simply tan more aggressively outdoors or purchase home tanning units – both of which are more likely to produce sunburns – if they were unable to utilize indoor tanning salons. If teenagers are unable to tan in salons, sunburn incidence actually will increase, and it is likely that total UV exposure in this age group will increase. This would be hurting people, not helping them.
There is no data to suggest that tanning is more dangerous for any specific age group. Photobiology suggests that burning (not tanning) at an early age could increase risk later in life. As we just discussed, it appears that indoor tanners sunburn less than non-tanners, including teen-agers who tan outdoors.
Indoor tanning facilities today are at the forefront in teaching teenagers outdoor sunburn prevention, including the proper use of sunscreens to prevent sunburn outdoors. If teenagers are denied access to indoor tanning, sunburn incidence will increase.

The tanning industry supports existing laws requiring parental consent for minors who wish to tan in salons, and would support constructive efforts to bolster enforcement of this standard.

Are All Dermatologists Against Indoor Tanning?

While most of the dermatology profession has an inexplicably myopic view about tanning, some enlightened dermatologists have broken ranks with their peers in recent years, urging their profession to re-think its one-sided dogma about sun exposure. Two of the most recent:

Research dermatologist Dr. Sam Shuster, professor emeritus to the Department of Dermatology at Newcastle University in northern England, challenged his peers to quantify the alleged increase in skin cancer incidence, which is not based on actual numbers but only estimates. In the book, “Panic Nation: Unpicking the Myths We’re Told About Food and Health” Shuster calls his peers to acknowledge that a tan is the body’s natural protection against sunburn – a reality that has been all but stampeded under the establishment’s rhetoric. “Unfortunately our attitude to sun and ultra-violet (UV) light is subject to much perverse and dubious technical ‘advice’, which society has passively accepted without questioning its provenance,” Shuster writes.
Boston University Professor Dr. Michael Holick – the scientist who was involved in the discovery of the active form of vitamin D in the early 1970s – wrote the book “The UV Advantage” in 2004, urging people to embrace moderate exposure to ultraviolet light as the body’s natural way to produce Vitamin D. Holick is one of the world’s leading authorities on vitamin D production. “Since some exposure to sunlight is beneficial to your health, it is reasonable that if you wish to be exposed to sunlight, that you can do so with relative safety if you make sure that you do not receive a sunburn,” Holick says.
Many rank-and-file dermatologists have more moderate views about sensible sun exposure, but have been intimidated by their peers not to discuss these views publicly. Indeed, upon publishing “The UV Advantage” in 2004, Holick was forced to resign his post at Boston University as a professor of dermatology, with the chair of that department calling his work “schlock science.” In spite of such rhetoric, in the two years since publishing his book, most of Holick’s positions have become mainstream thinking.

Source: http://www.tanningtruth.com/index.php/category/headline/

"Maximize the benefits while minimizing the risk..."

2009-08-03T08:09:00.000-07:00

Report slammed Sat, August 1, 2009
By SUN MEDIA

The head of Calgary-based Fabutan is slamming an international report released this week that labels tanning beds as a definite cause of cancer alongside tobacco.

Fabutan president Doug McNabb said comparing tanning beds to tobacco and mustard gas is "over the top." "To me, that means the advice is that we should never, ever go outside and get unprotected sunlight and I think that's a very dangerous message -- it contributes to vitamin D deficiency," he said. "The bottom line is we think there is an intelligent way to use moderation and UV light."

McNabb said it's unlikely the report condemning tanning beds will prompt his clients to abandon their quest for bronzed summer skin.

"We like to say there's such a thing as smart tanning -- maximizing the benefits while minimizing the risks," he said.

"We make sure they avoid overexposure (and) we skin type every customer so we aware of how much exposure they should receive."

Source: http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/Today/2009/08/01/10332681-sun.html

Great Information about the Benefits of Vitamin D

2009-07-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

The following is from an interview on News-leader.com, which features a discussion of vitamin D with Lance Luria, an internal medicine physician and the associate medical director of St. John's Health Plans.

Q. Over the past few years, vitamin D has been making headlines. Why is that?

A. Vitamin D was discovered in the early part of the 20th century when it was found that adding a fat-soluble factor "D" to the diet prevented rickets, a disease that results in defective bone growth and bowed legs. More recently, numerous large studies have raised questions as to whether the standard recommendations assure optimal vitamin D levels. These questions come on the heels of mounting evidence pointing to the important role vitamin D plays in promoting bone health, in addition to preventing osteoarthritis, diabetes and cancer, as well as mental, cardiovascular and neuromuscular diseases.

Q. Where does vitamin D come from?

A. Since our bodies have the ability to make vitamin D, it is not technically a vitamin, but falls more in the category of a steroid-like hormone that just needs a jumpstart from sunshine. The problem is that most of us aren't getting enough UVB rays to generate sufficient vitamin D. Here are some interesting points:

During the summer, 10 minutes of exposure of your hands and face (without sunscreen) provides about 400 international units (IU) of vitamin D3. A young person whose entire body is exposed to simulated sunlight produces the equivalent of 10,000-25,000 IU of vitamin D taken orally.
Don't worry about getting too much vitamin D from sunlight. The same UVB rays that help make vitamin D will also destroy what is not absorbed quickly enough.
Wearing sunscreen blocks your body's ability to make vitamin D.
People living north of the 37th degree-latitude line don't get enough UVB rays in winter. A good rule of thumb is that you don't get enough during the seasons when your shadow at noon is taller than you are.
Your ability to make vitamin D decreases as you reach old age.
Darker-pigmented people have more melanin in their skin, and since melanin acts like sunblock, less vitamin D is made. In fact, a black person with very dark skin pigmentation will require about a tenfold longer exposure to make the same amount of vitamin D as a light-skinned white person.
Vitamin D is stored in fat cells, which can act as a reservoir for the winter months. Paradoxically, obese people have about one-half the levels of circulating vitamin D levels as people of normal weight. It is thought that large fat deposits act as a sort of sinkhole for vitamin D.

Q. How much vitamin D is needed?

A. Current recommendations call for 200 IU for children and adults up to age 50, 400 IU from age 51 to 70 and 600 IU for adults 71 and older. However, based on more recent studies, most authorities are now recommending at least 800 IU of vitamin D3 daily for children and adults if you're not getting enough UVB exposure and at least 1,000 IU daily for those that do not get any UVB exposure. A safe upper limit is 2,000 IU daily. Although a number of studies have shown that higher daily intakes do not result in toxic effects, these higher doses are not routinely recommended. If you're not sure that your intake is adequate, taking a daily supplement of 1,000 IU of vitamin D3 is currently recommended by a number of authorities. Tests to show vitamin D blood levels are available but costly, but they can resolve those situations where there remains a question as to whether you are getting enough.

Q. Why is vitamin D needed?

A. Maintaining adequate blood levels of vitamin D is important not only for bone health but also in the prevention of a number of chronic diseases, including osteoporosis, hypertension and prostate, breast and colon cancers.

Q. Are there food sources of vitamin D?

A. Naturally occurring vitamin D is relatively rare in foods. Oily fish and egg yolks contain significant amounts, as do mushrooms.

Q. What's the difference between vitamin D2 and D3?

A. Supplemental vitamin D comes in two forms: D2 (ergocalciferol) or D3 (cholecalciferol). Vitamin D2 comes from UVB-irradiated yeast and plants; vitamin D3 comes from UVB-irradiated lanolin from animal sources. It was originally thought that vitamins D2 and D3 were pretty much the same, but now we know that the D2 form is only about 20 percent to 40 percent as effective as D3. Vitamin D2 also doesn't last as long in our circulation and may even cause premature breakdown of circulating D3. Fortified foods can contain either vitamin D2 or D3, but recent studies in the United States and western Canada noted that up to 80 percent of milk did not contain the advertised amount of vitamin D and half the milk tested contained less than 50 percent of the advertised amount. Remarkably, 15 percent of the skim milk samples contained no detectable vitamin D at all.

Q. How common is vitamin D deficiency?

A. It is estimated that 1 billion people worldwide don't get enough vitamin D. That includes vitamin D deficiency among 40 percent to 100 percent of independently living elderly Americans and Europeans. Further, in the United States, half of women receiving treatment for osteoporosis, 73 percent of pregnant women (and 80 percent of their infants at birth) and between 48 and 52 percent of adolescent girls in the Northeast show vitamin D deficiency. This is a problem because, without vitamin D, only 10 percent to 15 percent of dietary calcium is absorbed, and bone mineral density is directly correlated with vitamin D levels.

Q. How can you get enough vitamin D?

A. If you believe you need to increase your vitamin D levels, here are some tips:

During the spring, summer and fall, 5 to 15 minutes of sunshine between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., two or three times weekly, should do the trick. (Note: If your skin becomes slightly pink, you've gotten too much sun.)
Tanning beds, when used in moderation, provide ample vitamin D and may be particularly helpful in the winter months.
Milk, cereals and bread products that contain vitamin D may be highly variable in their vitamin D content and should not be depended upon as a reliable source.
Don't forget that vitamin D2 (from yeast and plants) is probably only one-third as effective as vitamin D3 (from animals). So when you go shopping for supplements, remember that 1,000 IU of D3 is comparable to 3,000 IU of D2.

Source: http://www.lookingfit.com/hotnews/vitamin-d-medical-expert-doctor-tanning,p2.html

Don't fall for media scare tactics.

2009-07-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

The Indoor Tanning Association will not stand by and allow some members of the media to unfairly malign our product and the thousands of small business owners who are our members, by grossly exaggerating the risks associated with tanning beds. Because tanning beds produce the same UV light as the sun, OVEREXPOSURE and abuse of our product—just like OVEREXPOSURE to sunlight—is associated with an increased risk for some types of skin cancer. Other items in this category are red wine and salted fish. According to IARC’s report on alcohol, drinking red wine or other alcoholic beverages carries a greater cancer risk than tanning. It is completely irresponsible to compare indoor tanning with mustard gas or arsenic as so many media reports today have done.

· Tanning beds have been categorized as “Group 1” by a group of scientists in France. “Group 1” means there is evidence that the use of tanning beds can increase the risk of skin cancer.

· The information is not very new: sunlight is in the same category as tanning beds, and has been in that category since 1992. Just like sunlight, the light from tanning beds has UV rays that cause your skin to produce melanin.

· Since 1992, thousands of doctors have recommended moderate exposure to sunlight for a variety of health benefits. Oprah guest Dr. Oz Mehmet and Dr. Andrew Weil are two prominent examples.

· Being in the “Group 1” category does not say anything about the size of the risk, just that there is any risk at all. Some things in the category are very dangerous, like arsenic and mustard gas. Other substances only carry a very small risk, like red wine, beer, and salted fish.

· News stories that say things like “tanning is as dangerous as arsenic” are flat-out wrong. The scientists have not made that kind of comparison at all, only reporters looking for a scary headline.

· The report itself has not been made available. All the news stories are working off of a press release, and no reporters have actually read the report.

· The IARC is a group of scientists that works with the United Nations. Their report is not a new study; it is a review of a paper from 2006, which itself was a review of 23 studies, some dating to the early 1980s. Those studies had a wide range of findings.

· Of the 23 studies:

- 5 were excluded for unusable data

- 6 had results suggesting that tanning beds actually reduce the risk of skin cancer

- 16 had results within the margin of error – In an election, experts will say that you shouldn’t trust a poll that shows one candidate ahead by 1%, with a margin of error of 5%.

· Some news stories are including a misleading statistic: that tanning beds increase the risk of melanoma by 75%. This number comes from a study with questionable methods. The study’s authors admit that they did not adjust for factors like outside sun exposure and sun sensitivity. Even if the study is accurate, it does not mean that 75% of tanning bed users will get melanoma, it means that their relative risk is higher. Because the issue is relative risk, when the original risk is very small, a percentage increase that looks big actually translates into a very small added risk.

· To use another example, your annual risk of a fatal car accident is about 0.013%. If that risk were increased by 75%, it would be 0.023%, or about 1 in 4,500. To put that number in perspective, the increase is 10 times smaller than the OSHA guideline for “acceptable risk.”

Vitamin D Helps With Weight Loss

2009-07-27T10:44:00.000-07:00

People whose vitamin D levels test high before they go on a diet experience significantly better results on that diet than people with low levels of vitamin D, according to a new study, suggesting that vitamin D plays a part in weight loss and that increasing your intake of this incredibly important nutrient just might help you drop additional pounds.

We already know that vitamin D deficiency is associated with obesity, but it's not clear which comes first -- are people obese because of inadequate vitamin D or does obesity cause vitamin D levels in the body to somehow drop?

In the current study, presented at the Endocrine Society's 91st annual meeting in Washington DC, researchers measured blood levels of vitamin D in 38 overweight men and women before putting them on a calorie-restricted diet for 11 weeks. Here's what they found: Higher levels of vitamin D predicted greater success on the weight-loss diet.

In general, most of the subjects had insufficient levels of vitamin D in the first place. But for each 1-ng/mL increase in the active form of vitamin D, subjects lost nearly one-fourth pound more weight. Baseline levels of vitamin D -- the levels measured before the subjects went on a diet -- actually predicted how much weight they would lose on the diet itself, with those with the least vitamin D losing the least amount of weight on the diet, and those with the most vitamin D losing the most.

In addition, the researchers measured body fat distribution on all the subjects using a DXA (bone densitometry) scan. Higher baseline levels of vitamin D also predicted greater loss in troublesome (and more dangerous) abdominal fat.

"Our results suggest the possibility that the addition of vitamin D to a reduced-calorie diet will lead to better weight loss," said Shalamar Sibley, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota.

Source: http://www.thatsfit.com/2009/07/20/vitamin-d-helps-with-weight-loss/

Sunshine vitamin may make you brighter

2009-05-27T13:51:00.000-07:00

LONDON - Getting more of the "sunshine vitamin" may make you brighter later in life, according to a study published on Thursday that bolsters evidence vitamin D may help older people stay mentally fit.

The findings also raise the prospect that people who do not get enough of the vitamin could use supplements to keep the brain fully functioning as they age, David Lee and colleagues at the University of Manchester reported.

"At the population level, we are talking about large numbers of people. If there is a link it could potentially have a significant effect," Lee, who led the study, said in a telephone interview. "It is so easy to rectify with supplementation."

Vitamin D, produced by the body when skin is exposed to sunlight, is also found in certain foods such as oily fish. It helps cells absorb calcium and is important for bone health.

Recent studies have also indicated vitamin D may protect against cancer, artery disease and tuberculosis.

While others have suggested a link with mental ability, the findings so far have been inconsistent, Lee and colleagues reported in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

The researchers compared the cognitive performance of more than 3,000 European men aged 40 to 79 and found those with low vitamin D levels did more poorly on a task designed to test mental agility.

The findings are some of the strongest evidence yet of such a link because of the size of the study and because the researchers adjusted for a number of lifestyle factors believed to affect mental ability when older, Lee said.

"We were able to take into account their educational level, their depression, their levels of physical activity and measures of physical performance," he said.

"When we adjusted for all these other health and lifestyle factors we still found that there was a link between vitamin D and the cognitive outcome."

The researchers do not know exactly how vitamin D and mental agility may be connected but said possible suggestions include the vitamin's role in increasing certain hormonal activity or the protection of neurons in the brain.

They also stressed their findings should not spur people to bask in the sun, which can increase the risk of skin cancer.

Source: msnbc

IOM studies boost in vitamin D requirements

2009-04-27T12:04:00.001-07:00

Researchers suggest a huge bump in recommended daily levels as the vitamin's benefits extend to helping fight diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. Posted April 20, 2009.

Vitamin D's star is on the rise and physicians who have studied it say it's about time.

Recent research has found that higher D levels are beneficial in fighting ills ranging from colds to cancer. And, on March 26, the Institute of Medicine's Food and Nutrition Board began reviewing those studies and many others with an eye to revising the recommended dietary intake of vitamin D and its close companion in maintaining bone health -- calcium. A report is expected within two years.

Vitamin D has long been recognized as essential to promoting calcium absorption to allow for bone growth and remodeling. Now, its role in health maintenance is expanding in other directions. Some researchers say if we dramatically increase amounts either absorbed from the sun, or ingested in supplements or fortified foods, a corresponding drop could occur in many rapidly proliferating illnesses, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Since sun exposure is itself considered a cancer risk and people often use sunscreen to block it, supplements and fortified foods may be the best routes. So food manufacturers also have their eyes on the IOM Board's work to see whether a boost in fortification will be allowed.

But you would have to eat a lot of fortified foods to get the amounts of D urged by its fans. For example, some physicians who study the vitamin consume 2,000 International Units daily, well beyond the 200 to 400 units per day currently recommended for older teens and adults up to age 70.

Last fall the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended infants, children and adolescents double the amount of D they ingest each day from 200 IUs to 400 IUs. New research shows the higher amount would not only prevent rickets but treat it, said the AAP recommendation.

Is "D" even a vitamin?

Still, a lot is not known about vitamin D. First, it's actually a hormone. "Vitamin D is probably one of the oldest hormones on earth," said Michael Holick, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics at Boston University Medical Center.

"Back in the 1970s we realized we could make it in our skin so it couldn't be a vitamin," he added. But Dr. Holick is OK with calling it a vitamin. "People are afraid of hormones."

Vitamin D is actually a hormone.

And the last thing he wants is for people to neglect their vitamin D. His hope is the IOM board will conclude its current Dietary Reference Intakes -- and those for calcium -- are woefully inadequate. He would like to see a minimum daily intake of 1,000 units per day for adults, with 1,500 to 2,000 units preferable.

It is difficult to get too much D, he said, noting that mankind evolved in the sun, thus ensuring adequate amounts before its rays' harmful effects were noted.

The last time the IOM set the intake limits was in 1997 and Dr. Holick was on the panel. "Even then we knew they were inadequate, but there was no literature to support a higher recommendation," he said -- a circumstance that has since changed.

David Klurfeld, PhD, who leads the Human Nutrition Program at the Dept. of Agriculture agrees. Hundreds of studies have been released on vitamin D since the last intake rates were established, he told the board.

The IOM review is being sponsored by the Agriculture Dept., the Dept. of Health and Human Services and the Dept. of Defense as well as Health Canada and the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Danielle Brule, PhD, director of research for Health Canada, told the board the amount of vitamin D people can absorb at her nation's far northern latitudes is too low. Plus, people who have darker skin have more trouble absorbing adequate amounts of sunlight to gain sufficient D.

People with darker skin have trouble absorbing adequate amounts of sunlight to gain sufficient D.

Despite the increased focus on the need for higher vitamin D levels, people are actually getting less, researchers concluded in a March 23 Archives of Internal Medicine study. They compared the vitamin D levels in blood collected from participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey between 1988 and 1994 with the D in blood levels of participants in the 2001-2004 survey.

They found the amount of 25-hydroxyvitamin D had dropped from 30 nanograms per milliliter, the amount generally considered necessary for optimal health, to 24 ng/mL.

The main reason for the drop is that people are less likely to go out in the sun, said lead author Adit Ginde, MD, MPH, assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver.

He and his colleagues also concluded that current recommendations are inadequate to address the "growing epidemic of vitamin D deficiency." They advocate increasing intakes to 1,000 IUs per day or more -- especially during the winter and at higher latitudes -- and allowing for judicious sun exposure. They suggest large randomized controlled trials be conducted to evaluate the effects of the increased dose.

Meanwhile, John Whitcomb, MD, medical director for patient access at Aurora Health Care, a nonprofit Wisconsin health care system based in Milwaukee, isn't waiting for the IOM board to make its decision. He's already an enthusiastic booster of increased vitamin D uptake, recommending that people take 1,000 IUs to 2,000 IUs per day.

He called the evidence supporting this increase, "the most critical public health advance in 30 years. We can reduce diabetes, coronary artery disease and cancer. We can drive down the cost of health care in America." He has spread the word of the virtues of D supplements throughout the Aurora system and beyond. "We want everyone in the state of Wisconsin to take vitamin D during the winter."

The print version of this content appeared in the April 27, 2009 issue of American Medical News.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Who needs more vitamin D

The National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements compiled a list of people who may require dietary supplements to meet their daily allowance. Among them are:

Breastfed infants: Vitamin D requirements cannot be met by human milk alone. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that exclusively and partially breastfed infants be supplemented daily with 400 International Units of this nutrient.

People age 50 and older: This group is at increased risk for vitamin D insufficiency. As people age, their skin is less efficient in synthesizing the vitamin and the kidney is less able to convert it to its active hormone form.

People with limited sun exposure: This population includes the homebound, those living in northern latitudes and individuals who wear long robes and head coverings.

People with dark skin: Greater amounts of the pigment melanin result in darker skin and reduce the skin's ability to produce vitamin D from sunlight.

People with fat malabsorption: Vitamin D requires some dietary fat in the gut for absorption. Individuals who have a reduced ability to absorb dietary fat might require supplements. Fat malabsorption is associated with conditions including pancreatic enzyme deficiency, Crohn's disease, cystic fibrosis, celiac disease, surgical removal of part of the stomach or intestines and some forms of liver disease.

People who are obese: Individuals with a body mass index equal to or greater than 30 typically have a low concentration of the vitamin in the blood.

Source: National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements (ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp)

Weblink

"Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet: Vitamin D," National Institutes of Health Office of Dietary Supplements (ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/vitamind.asp)

"Dietary Reference Intakes for Vitamin D and Calcium," a project of the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine (www.iom.edu/cms/3788/61170.aspx)

"Demographic Differences and Trends of Vitamin D Insufficiency in the U.S. Population, 1988-2004," abstract, Archives of Internal Medicine, March 23 (archinte.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/abstract/169/6/626)

Sunshine Cuts Blood Clot Risk

2009-03-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

A new study by Swedish researchers finds the risk of blood clots can be lessened with a little help from the sun.

"We found that women who suntan had about 30 percent lower risk of suffering blood clots," Pelle Lindqvist told AFP. Lindqvist is an associate professor at the obstetrics and gynecology department at the Karolinska University Hospital in Stockholm.

"There is also a 50-percent higher risk of blood clots in December, January and February in Sweden, when there is the least sun here," he said.

Researchers at Lund University in southern Sweden studied 40,000 Swedish women in 1990 and looked at their sunning habits which included whether they suntanned in the summer, the winter, used a sun bed, or traveled south to catch a few rays.

The researchers then studied the women's medical health records for a dozen years.

They discovered that 312 of the study participants had developed thrombosis, or blood clots.

Researchers adjusted for variables like exercise, smoking, alcohol habits, and weight. Yet, the study found any amount of sun tanning helped lower the risk of blood clots.

The study was published in the March edition of the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

"By sunning, you avoid a shortage of Vitamin D in the winter when people here in Sweden very often suffer a deficiency of that vitamin. It is only during the summer that we really have enough Vitamin D," he said.

Lindqvist said he does not know how Vitamin D prevents blood clots. However, he says more questions raised by the research would be the focus of future studies.

He also noted that people should try to avoid sunburn as they try to balance beneficial sun exposure and skin cancer risks.

"But you should go out a bit every day, and it's not true that it's enough to go out late in the afternoon. You really should go out in the middle of the day, because that is when the production of Vitamin D occurs," he said.

Source: Redorbit.com

Does Sun Exposure Really Cause Melanoma?

2009-03-24T09:39:00.000-07:00

Source: Mercola.com

Slash Your Prostate Cancer Risk -- With Sunlight!

2009-03-19T07:43:00.000-07:00

Source: Dr. Mercola

Men with prostate cancer are as much as seven times less likely to die if they have high levels of the “sunshine vitamin” -- vitamin D -- according to a new study.

The research looked at 160 patients with prostate cancer who were classified as having either low, medium, or high blood levels of vitamin D. Over the course of the multi-year study, 52 of the patients died of prostate cancer. Low vitamin D levels were found to significantly affect chances of survival.

The study’s authors theorized that since vitamin D has a similar structure to androgen, it might amplify the therapeutic effects of lowering androgen levels and improve the survival chances of men with prostate cancer.
Sources:

British Journal of Cancer 2009; 100: 450-454

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

For all of you male readers, if you want to avoid prostate cancer, and protect your health if you already have it, getting regular sun exposure to optimize your vitamin D levels is an absolute must.

Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer found in American men, other than skin cancer, and the American Cancer Society estimates that one man in six will get this disease during his lifetime. In all, ACS estimated there were over 186,000 new cases of prostate cancer in the United States in 2008.

The conventional treatments for prostate cancer include surgery to remove the prostate gland or radiotherapy. However, more recent research has begun to question these invasive treatments, as they may not be necessary for most men diagnosed with a low grade of the disease.

Prostate cancer is typically slow growing, and the five-year survival rate for all stages of prostate cancer combined is 99 percent, the 10-year survival rate is 91 percent, and the 15-year survival rate is 76 percent.

So it is very much a disease that can be managed … if you make the appropriate lifestyle modifications.

Why Sunlight is One of Your Most Important Cancer-Fighting Tools

This most recent study found men with prostate cancer are as much as seven times LESS likely to die if they have high levels of vitamin D. And a previous study found men with higher levels of vitamin D in their blood were half as likely to develop aggressive forms of prostate cancer as those with lower amounts.

Another groundbreaking study discovered that correcting vitamin D deficiencies through appropriate sunshine exposure could prevent 600,000 cases of colorectal- and breast cancer each year, worldwide. This is important as prostate cancer is essentially the male equivalent of breast cancer.

Numerous other studies also confirm the link between vitamin D deficiency and multiple types of cancer. The “sunshine vitamin” has a protective effect against cancer in several ways, including:

• Increasing the self-destruction of mutated cells (which, if allowed to replicate, could lead to cancer)
• Reducing the spread and reproduction of cancer cells
• Causing cells to become differentiated (cancer cells often lack differentiation)
• Reducing the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones, which is a step in the transition of dormant tumors turning cancerous

How Much Vitamin D do You Need?

Your doctor can measure your serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) to determine your vitamin D status. Your vitamin D level should always be above 32 ng/ml, and anything below 20 ng/ml is considered a serious deficiency state, which will increase your risk of breast and prostate cancers and autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

The one caution here in the US is to be certain your test is performed at a lab like Labcorp, that uses the gold standard Diasorin test for checking vitamin D levels. Due to information published by the New York Times about Quest labs , where they admitted to inaccurate results, I no longer recommend using them.

In the United States, late winter 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels generally range from 15 to 18 ng/ml, so this vitamin deficiency affects a very large portion of the U.S. population.

African Americans are even more prone to vitamin D deficiencies, as they produce less vitamin D3 than do whites in response to usual levels of sun exposure, and therefore have lower vitamin D serum concentrations year-round.

This deficiency may help explain why African Americans also have the highest rates of prostate cancer in the world, according to the Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention.

The OPTIMAL value that you’re looking for is 45-52 ng/ml (115-128 nmol/l), but previous research has suggested that maintaining a slightly higher level of 55 ng/ml (nanograms per milliliter) is optimal for cancer prevention.

For those who already have cancer, meanwhile, vitamin D can help to treat the disease and you’ll want to keep your levels around 65-90 ng/ml for this purpose.

Sun exposure is, hands-down, the best way to get your vitamin D. But if you find you’re not spending enough time outdoors in the sun, you can instead use a safe tanning bed or an oral vitamin D supplement as the last choice approach to normalize your levels.

The disadvantage of swallowing vitamin D is that you’ll need to have your blood levels tested to be sure your vitamin D levels are in the correct range, but remember not just any test -- or any lab -- will do. I’ve discussed exactly what you need to know to get the right vitamin D test, with accurate results, here.

Please also set aside some time to watch my one-hour vitamin D lecture, as it is loaded with all the details you need to use this vital nutrient to protect your health.

More Natural Tips to Prevent Prostate Cancer

Optimizing your vitamin D levels is an important part of prostate cancer prevention, but it is far from the only method. Another sensible strategy is to increase your intake of vitamin K2 (found in fermented foods such as natto), which may reduce your risk of prostate cancer by 35 percent.

You can also follow these helpful tips for prostate cancer prevention and all-natural alternative treatments given to me by former guest commentator Dr. Larry Clapp, author of Prostate Health in 90 Days Without Drugs or Surgery.

• Be sure to keep your insulin levels below three as high insulin levels drive and promote cancer growth.

• Cleanse past accumulation of toxins in your tissue, gut and colon with a good detox program

• Cleanse your mouth of hidden infections from root canals, amalgam fillings, decay and gum infections. Then, chelate mercury from your body, nutritionally.

• Avoid as many toxins as possible as your prostate was designed by nature to filter toxins from your semen.

• Adopt the advice in Take Control of Your Health and eat a healthy diet based on your nutritional type.

All types must eliminate:

• High glycemic carbohydrates such as sugar, pasta, potatoes, bread and most grains
• All pasteurized dairy
• Conventional grain and chemical fed animals
• Most fish, due to high levels of mercury and PCB contamination

Also if you are not sensitive or allergic to them incorporate natural lycopene foods such as:

o Tomatoes
o Raspberries
o Watermelon
o Cabbage family foods, such as broccoli and broccoli sprouts to help control excess estrogens, the real enemy of the prostate

• Take a high-quality krill oil with vitamin E to rebuild omega-3 fat levels, which are deficient in most people and a major cause of inflammation and disease.

• Get full body sun exposure whenever possible to increase vitamin D levels, which need to be tested regularly.

• Avoid biopsies, which permanently damage your prostate and can spread or cause cancer. Have a far more reliable, non-invasive Power Color Doppler Sonogram of your prostate done by Robert Bard, MD in New York City, www.cancerscan.com or other qualified Radiologists. PCD is the first line of diagnosis in other countries, but is not sanctioned by American Urologists so it is difficult to find.

Low vitamin D levels associated with several risk factors in teenagers

2009-03-12T07:51:00.000-07:00

Low levels of vitamin D were associated with an increased risk of high blood pressure, high blood sugar and metabolic syndrome in teenagers, researchers reported at the American Heart Association's 49th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.

In the study, researchers analyzed 3,577 adolescents, 12 to 19 years old (51 percent boys), who participated in the nationally representative National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) conducted from 2001.

After adjusting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, body mass index, socioeconomic status and physical activity, researchers found the adolescents with the lowest levels of vitamin D were:

• 2.36 times more likely to have high blood pressure;
• 2.54 times more likely to have high blood sugar; and
• 3.99 times more likely to have metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk factors including elevated waist circumference, high blood pressure, elevated triglycerides, low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL or "good") cholesterol and high fasting glucose levels. The presence of three or more of the factors increases a person's risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

"We showed strong associations between low levels of vitamin D and higher risk of high blood pressure, hyperglycemia and metabolic syndrome among adolescents, confirming the results of studies among adults," said Jared P. Reis, Ph.D., the study's lead author and post-doctoral research fellow at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore.

Researchers used a biomarker of vitamin D to measure levels in blood. The biomarker measures vitamin D obtained from food, vitamin supplementation and exposure to sunlight.

The ethnic breakdown was similar to the general U.S. population: 64.7 percent non-Hispanic whites; 13.5 percent non-Hispanic blacks; and 11 percent Mexican Americans.

The study highlights the association between high levels of vitamin D and lower risk of heart disease. The highest levels of vitamin D were found in whites, the lowest levels in blacks and intermediate levels in Mexican Americans. Whites had almost twice as high levels as blacks.

In whites, the average level of vitamin D was 28.0 nanograms per milliliter (ng/mL); in blacks, 15.5 ng/mL; and in Mexican Americans, 21.5 ng/mL.

"Although our study is important, we believe clinical trials designed to determine the effects of vitamin D supplementation on the risk of heart disease risk factors in adolescents should be conducted before recommendations can be made for vitamin D in the prevention of cardiovascular disease," Reis said.

The Institute of Medicine recommends a daily intake of vitamin D of 200 International Units (IU) for those less than 50 years, which includes children and adolescents. More recent recommendations, however, from the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests a daily intake of 400 IU daily. While these intakes have been shown to be important in the prevention of skeletal conditions such as rickets in children and osteoporosis in adults, some specialists have suggested intakes of at least 1,000 IU daily may be needed for overall health.

Low levels of vitamin D are strongly associated with overweight and abdominal obesity. Since vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, it may be sequestered within adipose tissue. This may explain why those who are obese are more likely to be vitamin D deficient, Reis said.

Vitamin D plays a useful role in general human health, particularly in bone health. Other roles are emerging, Reis said. "This is an exciting time; since we are just now beginning to understand the role that vitamin D may play in cardiovascular health."

"These data on serum vitamin D levels in young people raise some concern about their food choices and even the amount of time they spend in the sunshine," said Robert H. Eckel, M.D., American Heart Association past president. "The American Heart Association recommends an overall healthy diet and lifestyle, and that people get their nutrients primarily from food sources rather than supplements."

Source: American Heart Association (news : web)

New Vitamin D Video from Dr. Mercola

2009-02-26T06:13:00.000-08:00

And after thirty years of being vilified by the medical establishment and the press, vitamin D is gaining new popularity -- and even becoming a hero -- as a nutrient that supports your overall health.*

Recent discoveries suggest it has significantly more far-reaching effects than just your bone health.*

In fact, vitamin D is known to support your body's health systems in a variety of ways...*

Watch the video here.

Longer Vitamin D lecture here.

Having too little vitamin D may not have any outwardly obvious signs. Yet vitamin D (specifically the vitamin D3 form) impacts an incredible array of support for systems and functions in your body...

* Heart health*
* Cell formation and cell longevity*
* Skin health*
* Pancreatic health*
* Aging process*
* Sleep patterns*
* Hearing*
* Reproductive health*
* Athletic performance*
* Eye health*
* Vascular system health*
* Respiratory health*
* Immune health*... Most people feel in better health during the summer sunshine months -- ever wonder why?
* Healthy mood and feelings of well-being*
* Weight management, including carbohydrate and fat metabolism*
* Hair and hair follicles*
* Strong and healthy bones, because vitamin D encourages calcium uptake*
* Muscles*
* Proper digestion and food absorption*

Since healthy levels of vitamin D protect and promote so many of your body's functions, a deficiency may mean your body lacks the tools it needs to keep you in optimal health*...

Making sufficient vitamin D a very important issue for you to address!

Because naturally, you want to be at your peak so you feel great, and accomplish so much each and every day.*

Source: Mercola.com

Vitamin D is more than a glass of milk

2009-02-25T06:18:00.000-08:00

Most people miss the sun during the winter when it hides behind snow clouds.

They miss the warm rays on days when temperatures reach 17 below zero and the wind is howling.

They miss sun tans, pool parties and flip flops.

Even on days when the sun shines during the winter, people of Wyoming are missing something much greater than the warmth the sun brings and the fun activities associated with it, said Dr. James Maddy of Casper.

They're missing vitamin D.

It's impossible to absorb any vitamin D from the sun's rays between October and March in places as far north as Wyoming, Maddy said. In warmer months, people absorb a good portion of their vitamin D from the sun.

It's very difficult, if not impossible, to consume enough vitamin D everyday through a person's diet, even if it is a well-balanced, healthy diet, said Maddy, a retired Casper internal medicine physician.

Researchers estimate between 40 and 60 percent of people in the United States are vitamin D deficient and they have linked the deficiency to a variety of ailments, including bone diseases, cancer, diabetes, hypertension and multiple sclerosis.

"There is an epidemic of vitamin D deficiency in the world, especially in the United States," Maddy said.

Current recommended daily allowances for vitamin D are between 400 and 600 International Units, which measure vitamin D. For example, a glass of vitamin D-fortified milk has about 98 IUs. However, most researchers in the field recommend at least 1,000 IUs for someone without adequate sun exposure.

Maddy said there is a group of doctors and scientists trying to raise the recommended daily allowance to 2,000 IUs

"Basically, no one in the United States is getting 1,000 IUs and we are asking for 2,000," Maddy said.

"They say, 'I eat a healthy diet. But most diets contain very little vitamin D. You would have to eat salmon every day, three to four glasses of milk, some vitamin D-fortified orange juice and you still probably wouldn't get enough."

Maddy and other Casper physicians recommend people take a vitamin D supplement or at least a multivitamin to increase their vitamin D levels.

Rita Elmore, an office manager in Maddy's Wyoming Osteoporosis Center, said she had her vitamin D level checked after hearing her boss talk about the deficiency.

"And sure enough, it was in the dumper," Elmore said. After Elmore began taking vitamin D supplements, she said some of her problems, such as tingly hands, disappeared.

She now makes her husband and son take vitamin D supplements.

Some patients of Dr. Cindy Works have seen a "huge difference" in their overall well-being after increasing their levels of vitamin D, said Works, a primary care physician who specializes in geriatric care at the Community Health Center of Central Wyoming.

Her elderly patients have seen the greatest benefit.

Doctors have always known vitamin D was connected with bone diseases, but symptoms of aging, such as muscle weakness and loss of balance, can actually be due to vitamin D deficiency, Works said.

"Studies have shown that fall rates go down in nursing homes where there is adequate vitamin D replacements," Works said.

Almost all patients who enter a nursing home are vitamin D deficient, because they either do not go outside, eat three healthy meals a day or take a supplement, she said.

"When we were made, we were outdoors people -- we weren't indoors all the time," Works said. "Vitamin D kept us healthy. It's one of those things that makes sense."

She said people who live near the equator do not experience the same problems because they receive the vitamin D they need from the sun year round. Very few people who live near the equator have multiple sclerosis, she said.

Maddy said prescription drugs for someone with osteoporosis will not work if someone is vitamin D deficient.

During the summer months, people can absorb a good amount of vitamin D from ultraviolet rays in the sun.

To have your vitamin D levels checked, Maddy recommends talking to a physician about a simple blood test.

"Physicians are astounded now that they have been checking," Maddy said. "It makes no sense not to have it checked and it makes no sense not to take a safe supplement."

Finding vitamin D

Current recommended daily allowances for vitamin D are between 400 and 600 International Units, but some doctors and scientists believe people should be getting closer to 2,000 IUs per day. Especially in the winter, that can be hard to do.

Here are some suggestions for getting enough vitamin D.

* Take a supplement. Vitamin D supplements can be purchased over-the-counter at most grocery stores and pharmacies.

Most over-the-counter supplements contain 1,000 IUs of vitamin D and are not very expensive, said Dr. James Maddy of Casper.

* Take a multivitamin. Multivitamins have about 400 to 500 IUs, Maddy said. But, do not take two multivitamins to get enough vitamin D, because you could overdose on other vitamins.

While it is difficult to overdose on vitamin D because the toxic levels are very high, levels should be monitored.

* Consume more foods and drinks fortified in vitamin D. But, be aware that vitamin D found in milk and other foods is more difficult to absorb than vitamin D received from the sun or supplements.

* Spend time outdoors in the summer months. People cannot absorb any vitamin D from the sun between October and March.

Maddy recommends people spend about 15 to 30 minutes in the sun during peak hours about twice a week without sunscreen.

Sunscreen blocks vitamin D, but people should apply sunscreen if they are going to be outside longer than 30 minutes, Maddy said. People must be safe in the sun despite its benefits to decreasing rates of vitamin D deficiency

* Use a tanning bed briefly during the winter.

Few foods contain vitamin D, but try adding some of these foods to your regular diet.

Foods with vitamin D, serving, units of vitamin D per serving

-- Cooked salmon, 3.5 ounces, 360 IUs

-- Cooked mackerel, 3.5 ounces, 345 IUs

-- Canned tuna fish, 3 ounces, 200 IUs

-- Canned sardines, 1.75 ounces, 250 IUs

-- Milk, 1 cup, 98 IUs

-- Margarine, 1 tablespoon, 60 IUs

-- Fortified cereal, 1 cup, 40 IUs

-- Egg, 1 whole, 20 IUs

-- Swiss cheese, 1 ounce, 12 IUs

Source: Casper Star-Tribune

Millions of needless deaths

2009-01-23T08:46:00.000-08:00

It is hard to imagine, but it was not until 1867 that Joseph Lister published his findings about the critical need of using sterile procedures in the surgical setting. Back then, doctors seldom washed their hands prior to surgery, let alone sterilize the instruments they had used on the previous patient.

Before Dr. Lister’s sterile techniques were adopted, patients frequently died from infections introduced during surgery.

Joseph Lister had little interest in financial or social success. These traits enabled him to endure the criticisms hurled by the medical establishment about the extra steps he took to ensure his surgical environments were clean.

One of Dr. Lister’s greatest challenges was to persuade his colleagues that germs did in fact exist. Back then, most doctors still believed in the theory of spontaneous generation.1

Convincing today’s medical establishment about proven methods to save lives may be less daunting than what Dr. Lister encountered, but it is still nonetheless challenging.

Today’s Body Count

Back in 2007, I urged the federal government to declare a national emergency. My rationale was that millions of Americans were going to needlessly die if the epidemic of vitamin D insufficiency was not immediately corrected.2

My article was based on irrefutable scientific evidence documenting how vast numbers of lives could be spared if everyone took at least 1,000 IU of vitamin D3 each day.2

I went a step further and showed how mandatory vitamin D supplementation could resolve today’s health care cost crisis by slashing the need for expensive prescription drugs and hospitalizations.2

I took it two steps further and offered to donate 50,000 one-year-supply bottles of vitamin D3 so the government could give these away to those who could not afford this ultra-low cost supplement.2

It is now 16 months later. The federal government has done nothing to inform the public of the opportunity to radically reduce their risk of dying by taking a supplement that costs less than 6 cents a day!

Vitamin D More Effective Than Previously Known

A large number of new vitamin D studies have appeared in the scientific literature since I wrote my plea to the federal government. These studies don’t just confirm what we knew 16 months ago—they show that optimizing vitamin D intake will save even more lives than what we projected.

For instance, a study published in June 2008 showed that men with low vitamin D levels suffer 2.42 times more heart attacks. Now look what this means in actual body counts.3

Each year, about 157,000 Americans die from coronary artery disease-related heart attacks.4 Based on this most recent study, if every American optimized their vitamin D status, the number of deaths prevented from this kind of heart attack would be 92,500.

To put the number of lives saved in context, tens of millions of dollars are being spent to advertise that Lipitor® reduces heart attacks by 37%. This is certainly a decent number, but not when compared with how many lives could be saved by vitamin D. According to the latest study, men with the higher vitamin D levels had a 142% reduction in heart attacks.3

This does not mean that you should stop taking medications if you can’t get your cardiac risk factors under control by natural methods. It does mean that you should make certain you are not vitamin D-insufficient.

Please note that all forms of heart disease kill over 869,700 Americans each year.4 These lethal forms of heart disease include cardiomyopathy, valvular insufficiency, congestive heart failure, arrhythmia, coronary thrombosis (blood clot in coronary artery), and coronary atherosclerosis (narrowing or blockage of coronary arteries). There is reason to believe that vitamin D could help protect against most of these forms of cardiac-induced death.5

Billions of Dollars in Health Care Savings

There are 920,000 heart attacks suffered in the United States every year.4 According to the American Heart Association, the annual cost of health care services, medications, and lost productivity related to these heart attacks is over $156 billion.4

The annual retail cost of all 300 million Americans (including children) supplementing with 1,000 IU of vitamin D per day is $6.6 billion.

So if vitamin D’s only benefit was to reduce coronary heart attack rates by 142%, the net savings (after deducting the cost of the vitamin D) if every American supplemented properly would be around $84 billion each year. That’s enough to put a major dent in the health care cost crisis that is forecast to bankrupt Medicare and many private insurance plans.

Sparing Countless Numbers From the Agonies of Cancer

The evidence supporting the role of vitamin D in preventing common forms of cancer is now overwhelming.2

Vitamin D-deficient women, for example, have a 253% increased risk of colon cancer.6 Colon cancer strikes 145,000 Americans each year and 53,580 die from it.7 Based on these studies, if everyone obtained enough vitamin D, 38,578 lives could be saved and medical costs would be reduced by $3.89 billion.8,9

A study published in January 2008 showed that women with the lowest level of vitamin D were at a 222% increased risk for developing breast cancer.10 Most studies show that higher levels of vitamin D can reduce breast cancer incidence by around 30-50%.11-14

Each year, approximately 186,800 women are diagnosed with breast cancer and 40,950 perish from it in the United States.15 This needless toll of suffering and death caused by insufficient intake of vitamin D is unconscionable.

Prostate cancer will be diagnosed in an estimated 189,000 American men this year. Almost 30,000 will die from it.16 Men with higher levels of vitamin D have a 52% reduced incidence of prostate cancer.17

The first-year costs of prostate cancer treatment are approximately $14,540.18 If all aging men achieved sufficient vitamin D status, about $1.4 billion could be saved each year.

So as you can see, there is no real health care cost crisis. What the population suffers from is frighteningly low blood levels of vitamin D. During winter months in Canada, for instance, an estimated 97% of the population is vitamin D-deficient.19

Vitamin D Protects Against Stroke

Stroke is the number three cause of death in the United States.20 It is also one of the most feared diseases because of its high incidence of permanent disability.

In a study published in September 2008, blood indicators of vitamin D status were measured in 3,316 patients with suspected coronary artery disease. The subjects were followed for 7.75 years. For every small decrease in blood indicators of vitamin D status, there was a startling 86% increase in the number of fatal strokes.21

The doctors who conducted this study concluded: “Low levels of 25(OH)D* and 1,25(OH)2D* are independently predictive for fatal strokes, suggesting that vitamin D supplementation is a promising approach in the prevention of strokes.”21

*Note: 25 [OH] D and 1,25[OH]2D are blood markers that measure vitamin D status in one’s body.

If all that vitamin D did was to reduce stroke risk, it would be critically important for every American to ensure optimal blood levels.

Low Vitamin D Doubles Death Rate

Vitamin D deficiency is a worldwide problem. Yet no conventional medical organization or governmental body has declared a health emergency to warn the public about the urgent need of achieving sufficient vitamin D blood levels.

According to John Jacob Cannell, MD, founder of the non-profit Vitamin D Counsel: “Current research indicates vitamin D deficiency plays a role in causing seventeen varieties of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, muscle wasting, birth defects, and periodontal disease.

This does not mean that vitamin D deficiency is the only cause of these diseases, or that you will not get them if you take vitamin D. What it does mean is that vitamin D, and the many ways in which it affects a person’s health, can no longer be overlooked by the health care industry nor by individuals striving to achieve and maintain a greater state of health.”22

Vitamin D seems to reduce the risk of almost every killer disease of aging. In fact, a recent study shows that humans with low vitamin D status are twice as likely to die over a seven-year time period!5

Each year, the federal government spends $1 billion in research aimed at finding ways to prevent or cure the killer diseases of aging.23 Yet the government is oblivious to the most medically effective and cost-effective way of preventing needless death. This is analogous to how the establishment ignored Joseph Lister’s pleas for a sterile environment in the surgical arena.

Difference Between “Deficiency” and “Insufficiency”

Doctors are not trained to recognize a vitamin D deficiency until rickets develop in children or osteomalacia (softening of the bones) develops in adults. Clinical vitamin D deficiency is diagnosed when blood levels of a vitamin D metabolite (25-hydroxyvitamin D) drop below 12 ng/mL.

According to the world’s foremost experts, however, optimal blood levels of vitamin D are between 30 and 50 ng/mL and higher.24,25 Those with blood levels below 30 ng/mL are considered to have insufficient vitamin D.

These widely varying numbers explain why mainstream medicine is at a loss to understand the widespread health problem created by less than optimal vitamin D levels. If physicians view a patient’s medical chart and see a vitamin D blood level of 18 ng/mL, they will think this person has adequate vitamin D. The reality is that a vitamin D blood level this low predisposes this patient to virtually every killer disease of aging and may in fact be the reason that individual has become a “patient” instead of remaining healthy.

There clearly is a need for a new consensus in the medical community to redefine vitamin D deficiency as a blood reading below 30 ng/mL. As we at Life Extension long ago learned, it can take decades for the establishment to change its reference ranges to reflect scientific reality.

What Can be Done?

Despite the startling number of needless deaths, the federal government has done nothing to warn the public of the lethal dangers associated with vitamin D insufficiency.

We will distribute my original 2007 article along with this editorial to every member of the new Congress and the President in January 2009. Hopefully someone will understand the urgency of declaring a health emergency and advise that every American maintain a vitamin D blood level of at least 30 ng/mL.

If the government continues to ignore our pleas, perhaps private insurance companies will consider sending free bottles of vitamin D supplements to all of their subscribers. The outlays for medical procedures and prescription drugs would be expected to plummet in groups who took their vitamin D supplement each day.

The media has done a good job in reporting on the numerous positive findings about vitamin D over the past two years. Sales of vitamin D supplements have been increasing, so at least some Americans are getting the message and taking steps to guard against vitamin D insufficiency.

In the meantime, Life Extension will continue to report on new findings about vitamin D. We have found that if we repeat a message long enough, much of the public will wake up to scientific reality and the desire for self-preservation.

Source: Life Extension

Research Finds Healthy Use For Tanning Beds As Pain Treatment

2009-01-21T06:21:00.000-08:00

Winston-Salem, NC-- Ultraviolet light may help relieve pain in fibromyalgia syndrome patients, according to a preliminary study at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center conducted by dermatology, rheumatology, and public health sciences researchers.

A report on the study appears in the January issue of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. Steven R. Feldman, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Center for Dermatology Research at Wake Forest Baptist, said that this study was an outgrowth of a previous tanning addiction study in which participants reported anecdotally some improvement in their back pain.

"We decided to look at fibromyalgia patients because there is such a big need for treatment," Feldman said. "We knew from the tanning addiction study that the UV light was doing something for participants beyond the obvious."

The recent study included 19 fibromyalgia patients who were exposed to both UV and non-UV rays in tanning beds for two weeks. Then they were divided into UV and non-UV groups for the next four weeks. All of the fibromyalgia patients received light treatments three times a week for a total of six weeks.

The participants were treated with sunless tanning lotions to tan all participants because tanning might have indicated which group was receiving exposure to UV light. They were asked to report on their levels of pain as well as their moods. UV exposure resulted in limited improvement in pain, well-being and relaxation compared with the non-UV group.

"People in the UV group reported a modest improvement," Feldman said. "This was a small study and may indicate the need for a larger study."

Fibromyalgia syndrome is a chronic disorder characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain and tenderness in localized areas of the neck, torso and extremities. In addition to pain, patients can experience stiffness, fatigue, sleep disturbances and other symptoms. Other pain syndromes, such as irritable bowel syndrome or migraine headaches, are seen in individuals affected by fibromyalgia. The majority of the three to six million people who have fibromyalgia are women.

"Fibromyalgia syndrome is the most common cause of chronic diffuse pain. Unfortunately, currently available medical therapies offer meaningful improvement in symptoms for less than half of the patients," according to Kenneth S. O'Rourke, M.D., a rheumatologist at Wake Forest Baptist and a researcher on the study. "The evaluation of alternative therapies for patients with fibromyalgia syndrome, based on our increased understanding of how pain signals are generated and sustained, is an important pursuit at many clinical research centers."

Traditional treatments for fibromyalgia are medications, such as antidepressants, analgesics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and non-pharmacologic approaches, most importantly regular participation in an exercise program.

In a previous tanning addiction study, participants getting UV light treatments reported improvement in their arthritis and back pain, Feldman said. That earlier study found that frequent tanning bed users may get more out of the experience than darker skin - exposure to ultraviolet light may produce a "relaxing" effect that lures tanners back to the beds.

According to Feldman, this cannot be just a direct effect of warmth causing an increase in blood flow and a decrease in muscle spasm and tension because there was greater relaxation with UV compared to the non-UV bed users.

Dermatology fellow Sarah Taylor, M.D., participated in the study, as well as former Wake Forest Baptist researchers Fabian Camacho, M.D., and Mandeep Kaur, M.B.B.S., Joy Willard, R.N., and medical student Kristen LoSicco.

For more on this study and others at WFUBMC click here.

Source: click here.

What you need to know about Vitamin D

2008-12-16T06:42:00.000-08:00

How Long is Too Long in the Sun?

This is the tricky part and most often misunderstood. Obviously, there’s plenty of data to back up that being in the sun too long without protection can lead to skin cancers. The flipside is that being in the sun too little might lead to cancer as well.

You may think that applying some sunscreen will get you the best of both worlds, but sadly sunscreen has been shown to block upwards to 95% of vitamin D uptake from the sun.(6)

What are you to do?

A good solution is to spend fifteen minutes in the sun and then apply your sunscreen. It’s suggested that fifteen minutes a day can be enough. However, for a lot, that isn’t the case. And unless you’re living below 42 degrees North latitude (a line approximately between the northern border of California and Boston), in the wintertime you aren’t going to get it at all.(7)

Studies also show that if you’re African America or Hispanic then you need near double what Caucasians need.(8,9)

The Do’s and Don’ts of Vitamin D

If you find yourself stuck inside, above the magic line, or of darker skin, then you might need to look at better options of getting vitamin D.

1. Don’t be obese: Obesity blocks vitamin D intake by as much as 55%.

2. Don’t be scared of the sun: We’re a culture of extremes and look at where it’s got us. You need some sun, so don’t be afraid of it. Just call it quits before you burn like a lobster.

3. Do eat cod liver oil: Cod liver oil in supplement form is a really simple and easy way to get in lots of D3 during those months when you may not be able to.

4. Don’t be scared of the tanning bed: If you’ve ever known a friend with an iguana or turtle, then you know that in order to survive they need those ultraviolet exposures. Well, so do you!

Exposure to tanning beds resulted in a 100% increase in blood concentrations of vitamin D.(10) The problem is, just as with the sun, people take things too far. It’s a great way to get what you need in the winter months, but the same “don’t overdo it” rules apply.

5. Do get tested: In general, you should be getting a full vitamin and mineral testing every six months. Is it time for a checkup?

6. Do hit the numbers: While 400 IU is the recommend dosage, there’s nothing wrong with getting 1,000 IU, especially from D3, and namely during the “off season.”

7. Do take this seriously: I’m not usually one for dramatics, but there are so many low level health problems that can lead to higher level problems, and issues from a vitamin D deficiency can be really simple to solve.

Take it seriously; get in your sun, get in your oils, and take advantage of the problems you can fix every chance you get.

—

References

1. An evaluation of the vitamin D3 content in fish: Is the vitamin D content adequate to satisfy the dietary requirement for vitamin D?

2. Nutrition Coordinating Center. Nutrition Data System for Research (NDS-R). Version 4.06/34. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2003.

3. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. USDA Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 16. Nutrient Data Laboratory Home Page, 2003.

4. Houghton LA, Vieth R. The case against ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) as a vitamin supplement. Am J Clin Nutr 2006;84:694-7.

5. Nesby-O’Dell S, Scanlon KS, Cogswell ME, Gillespie C, Hollis BW, Looker AC, et al. Hypovitaminosis D prevalence and determinants among African-American and white women of reproductive age: third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988-1994. Am J Clin Nutr 2002;76:187-92.

6. http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/reprint/80/6/1678S.pdf

7. Cranney C, Horsely T, O’Donnell S, Weiler H, Ooi D, Atkinson S, et al. Effectiveness and safety of vitamin D. Evidence Report/Technology Assessment No. 158 prepared by the University of Ottawa Evidence-based Practice Center under Contract No. 290-02.0021. AHRQ Publication No. 07-E013. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2007.

8. Nesby-O’Dell S, Scanlon KS, Cogswell ME, Gillespie C, Hollis BW, Looker AC, et al. Hypovitaminosis D prevalence and determinants among African-American and white women of reproductive age: third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 1988-1994. Am J Clin Nutr 2002;76:187-92.

9. Yetley EA. Assessing vitamin D status of the U.S. population. Am J Clin Nutr. In press.

10. Holick, M. F. (2004). Vitamin D: importance in the prevention of cancers, type 1 diabetes, heart disease, and osteoporosis. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 79, 362-371.

Source: Examiner.com

Vitamin D on the MSNBC

2008-12-10T14:46:00.000-08:00

Click on the image to view the video.

Stop chronic aches and pains with vitamin D

2008-11-10T07:21:00.001-08:00

As the winter approaches, aches and pains increase as vitamin D levels, already too low in most people, begin to plummet. Bringing vitamin D levels up can often alleviate or eliminate the pain.
For instance, Dr. Stewart Leavitt recently posted the results of a review of 22 scientific studies on the relationship of vitamin D deficiency to chronic pain. (http://Pain-Topics.org/VitaminD). This 2008 analysis is just the latest of many studies on vitamin D and pain, most of which have been ignored by the physicians that treat the disorder. In total, there were 3,670 patients with chronic pain, and 48% of them showed significant vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D supplementation was very helpful in alleviating the pain. Dr. Leavitt states: “When supplementation was provided for improving vitamin D status, pain and/or muscle weakness were resolved or at least subsided in most cases, and there were associated improvements in physical functioning.”

This has actually been known for about 25 years, but because it sells no drugs, it has been virtually ignored. Vitamin D sufficient to keep optimal levels in the blood can be purchased at Bio-Tech Pharmacal for about $10.00 per year, and sunlight—the most natural way to increase vitamin D, is free. Unfortunately, sunlight produces vitamin D only during the late spring through early fall in high latitudes.

The Powers of Darkness (the pharmaceutical/medical complex that has succeeded in frightening most people out of the sunlight) have created a shocking and widespread vitamin D deficiency that is manifesting itself in increased rates of cancer, heart disease, autism, diabetes and myriad other maladies, not the least of which is chronic pain.

Other research has shown similarly impressive results. In one interesting study, conducted on chronic pain patients in Minneapolis, Minnesota (45 degrees north latitude), it was found that 100% of African Americans, American Indians, East Africans and Hispanics were vitamin D deficient, as were most Caucasians.[1] In summer sunlight, dark-skinned people take up to 6 times as long to produce the same amount of vitamin D as light skinned people, making dark skinned people much more susceptible to vitamin D deficiency. Indoor lifestyles and the advice to slather with sunscreen, which can reduce vitamin D production during sunlight exposure by 99.5%[2] puts dark-skinned people at a considerable vitamin D deficiency disadvantage. In addition, during the winter at high latitudes in areas such as Minneapolis, there are several months where little or no vitamin D is produced by the skin due to the sun’s position in the southern sky; the UVB portion of sunlight that stimulates vitamin D production is filtered out by the atmosphere during those months. This is known as “vitamin D winter” and is especially important in the northern US, northern Europe and all of Canada. It is absolutely essential for dark-skinned adults to take vitamin D supplementation of 4,000 to 5,000 IU per day year around or regularly use a tanning bed to stave off pain and to reduce the excessive risk of cancer, hypertension, diabetes, etc., that plague them. It is also critical for most Caucasians during winter.

Another impressive result comes from a clinical observation of five vitamin D-deficient patients who suffered from myopathy, a disease of bone and muscle tissue. They were confined to wheelchairs and experienced severe fatigue, weakness, and chronic pain. After receiving 50,000 IU per week of vitamin D, all regained enough strength and energy within four to six weeks to be mobile and functional, and their aches and pains disappeared.[3] Other research reported that five chronic-pain patients at John Hopkins University Medical School were treated with vitamin D, and their pain resolved within a week![4]

Vitamin D is a potent anti-inflammatory and also helps to strengthen bone, joint and muscle tissue. Be sure to maintain optimal levels (50 ng/ml or 125 nmol/L) in order to avoid the aches and pains of winter.

[1] Plotnikoff G. et al. Prevalence of severe hypovitaminosis D in patients with persistent, nonspecific musculoskeletal pain. Mayo Clin Proc. 2003;78:1463-70.
[2] Matsuoka, L. et al. sunscreens suppress cutaneous vitamin D3 synthesis. J Clin Endocrinology & Metab 1987; 64:1165-68.
[3] Prabhala, A. et al. Severe myopathy associated with vitamin D deficiency in western New York. Arch Intern Med 2000;160:1199-1203.
[4] Gloth, F. et al. Can vitamin D deficiency produce an unusual pain syndrome? Arch Intern Med 1991;152:1662-4.

Source: drsorenson.blogspot.com

Vitamin D Directly Affects Thyroid Function in Mice

2008-11-03T06:14:00.000-08:00

FRIDAY, Oct. 31 (HealthDay News) -- Vitamin D may directly affect thyroid function, according to research in a preclinical animal model published online Oct. 16 in Endocrinology.

Alexander Misharin of the UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles and colleagues tested the role of vitamin D in a mouse model of Graves' disease, in which hyperthyroidism is induced by immunization with an adenovirus encoding the thyrotropin receptor. Because it was previously established that vitamin D enhances regulatory T cells, the authors hypothesized that decreasing vitamin D through a controlled diet would intensify the severity of Graves' disease in the model.

Vitamin D deficiency induced only small immunological changes. Unexpectedly, the vitamin D-deprived mice developed persistent hyperthyroidism following immunization, unlike their vitamin D-sufficient matched controls. This disparity was not explained by any immunological difference, and the authors speculated that the persistent hyperthyroidism was instead caused by an increased sensitivity of the thyroid to the antibodies directed against thyrotropin.

"Rather than affecting the immune response, the most important effect of vitamin D deficiency was on the thyroid," the authors write, providing evidence for the role of an environmental factor, vitamin D, on thyroid function.

Abstract

Vitamin D and infertility

2008-10-27T06:25:00.000-07:00

We previously discussed the relationship of fertility to vitamin D, but a new report adds credence to the idea that infertility may be due in great part to vitamin D deficiency. Dr. Anne Clark, who works at the Fertility First clinic in Sydney, Australia, assessed the blood levels of vitamin D among about 800 men who were unable to produce a pregnancy in their wives. About a third had low levels of vitamin D. Interestingly, after a regimen of lifestyle changes (stopped smoking, coffee drinking and alcohol consumption) and vitamin D supplementation, 40% of the men were able to impregnate their wives, probably due to improvement in the quality of sperm.
Dr Clark stated that "Vitamin D and folate deficiency are known to be associated with infertility in women, but the outcomes of the screening among men in our study group came as a complete surprise."

Though it may have surprised Dr. Clark, the results of her findings should not be surprising to those who read my previous blog on vitamin D and infertility. In that blog, I mentioned that female rats mated to vitamin D-deficient males produced 73% fewer pregnancies. Nearly all tissues of the body contain vitamin D receptors (VDR). For the testes to function properly, those receptors must be stimulated by vitamin D. For couples who are having difficulties in producing a pregnancy, this information is critically important.

Source: drsorenson.blogspot.com/

How to Get Your Vitamin D in the Winter

2008-10-23T06:18:00.000-07:00

(NaturalNews) Over the last year, the evidence has been mounting that getting enough vitamin D is absolutely essential for our health and wellbeing. Without question, the best source of vitamin D comes from sunshine, the source of all life. This is contrary to the advice that has been given in the past, and is still given, by many doctors and other health practitioners which say the sun is dangerous and we need to avoid it as much as possible. But what do we do if we live in a place where there is not enough sunshine for us to have our essential dose of this vitamin? Unless people live in a warm and sunny place that is not too far away from the equator, getting enough sunlight in the winter is extremely difficult.

Among other complaints, vitamin D deficiency can result in:

•Osteoporosis

•Cancer, especially bone, breast and prostate

•Adrenal Insufficiency

•Alzheimer's disease

•PMS

•Depression (especially in the winter)

•Parkinson's

For those who live in a place where there is not a lot of strong sunshine during the winter months, it is essential to find ways of getting this important vitamin. Here are 6 things that we can do to guarantee we get enough vitamin D this winter:

1.Spend as much time outdoors as possible to take advantage of what little sun there is, especially if you live in a place such as the southern part of the England which is often grey, but is still fairly mild and has bouts of sun most weeks. If it is a sunny day, eat your lunch outside and go for a walk, even if your face and hands are the only part of you that isn't covered up. It may not be your entire dose of vitamin D, but it is a start and breathing in fresh air will be beneficial on many levels.

2.Don't wear sunscreen. It is amazing how many skin creams, especially the expensive ones, come with sunscreen in them. This of course is due to the misguided view that we should never be out in the sun without sunscreen on. We must maximize the little amount of sunshine that we have access to, which means avoiding sunscreen. Further, creams with sunscreen in them are often highly toxic for our bodies.

3.Sun showers are vertical tanning units which are often available at health clubs and beauty salons. They increase the amount of vitamin D in the body. Three minutes is all that is needed to bring a little piece of summer into your life. People claim that sun showers completely transform their winters.

4.While pasteurizing milk destroys the vitamin D, unpasteurized milk still has this precious vitamin, as well as many other health enhancing nutrients in tact. It is also worth noting that a lot of pasteurized milks claim to be fortified with vitamin D; however it is much more difficult for the body to use fortified nutrients than the real thing.

5.Mackerel, salmon, and egg yolks are the foods with the highest amount of vitamin D, so if you are not a vegetarian, eat more of these foods in the winter. In saying that, make sure that you are getting fish that is from clean waters so that you don't pollute your body with toxins that are found in the sea. Alaskan wild salmon is one of the cleanest fish you can eat because the waters there are still relatively unspoiled. And non organic eggs are packed with chemicals, hormones and antibiotics that you don't want to go near.

6.Vitamin D can be found in cod liver oil. Again, make absolute sure that the brand you are using is of the absolute highest quality. Really research which brand is most pure.

Source: Natural News

Vitamin D: The Real Facts,Truths, and Sources of The Sun Vitamin

2008-10-13T06:12:00.001-07:00

When you research, read, and watch the news as much as I do, you can see the new nutrient and supplement trends coming a mile away. Sometimes they’re valid, other times they aren’t. I can say for certain to buckle up and hop on the D-train because it’s here to stay. In fact, this isn’t a newly found miracle baby; this is an age old savior that we’ve been neglecting.

What is Vitamin D?

Vitamin D is a fat soluble steroid hormone (and if we weren’t playing fast and loose with the terminology, it technically isn’t a vitamin at all). The main job of vitamin D is to maintain normal blood levels of calcium and phosphorus. Note that’s the main job. It’s said that over 200 genes are affected by vitamin D. It doesn’t matter where you turn, its uses are everywhere. Bone, heart, insulin, depression, pain, happiness, cancer, fibromyalgia, thyroid… you name it, vitamin D plays a role.

Michael F. Holick, a leading researcher on the importance of vitamin D, has said that “Vitamin D deficiency is the disease of neglect.”

And he couldn’t be more right.

The cure for rickets — a widespread epidemic in the children of the softening of the bones — was found by sticking children on the roof of a building. Can you sit there and take that in for a moment? An illness that was making the limbs of children turn into mush was cured by the sun.

You may wonder what this has to do with you, but bones should be your pride and joy. Not to mention the fact that recent studies show an alarming rate of newborns and mothers are becoming more and more deficient. Are past problems coming back to bite us in our vitamin-deficient rears?

Beyond just bones, being too low in vitamin D can lead to a decrease in thyroid function. Although not directly involved in synthesis or secretion, a deficiency can produce increases in the levels of parathyroid hormone.

On the wellbeing side, an increased occurrence of depression and a decrease in mental focus have been found time and time again. There are also links that have shown women who supplement with vitamin D may lose fat easier than those who don’t.

Currently, the desired levels are 30 to 75 ng/mL-nmol/L, and anything less is seen as deficient, though higher doesn’t necessary mean you’re at a toxic level. The concern is for consistent levels above the 200 range.

The bottom-out number should really be 30; however, we’re seeing study after study show that levels are constantly hitting below this all around the world, and the aftereffect is becoming an epidemic.

ng/mL	nmol/L	Status
<>	<>	These levels suggest severe illness, usually seen in rickets or sick infants.
<>	<>	While not directly or instantly crippling, these levels overtime may contribute to illness both acute and chronic.
≥ 30	≥ 75	Seen by some to be the desired range and achieving of optimal health.
Consistently > 200	Consistently > 500	Could be toxic and lead to hypercalcemia and hyperphosphatemia.

Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations and health

How Do You Get It?

Vitamin D is the “sun vitamin,” meaning that you should receive 80 to 100% of your intake from the sun. When ultraviolet (UV) rays hit the skin, they’re absorbed and converted, setting into motion your body’s process of creating vitamin D. In truth, this should be the end all for receiving your daily intake.

However, things just aren’t that simple.

What About Food Intake?

Vitamin D can be found in small amounts in certain fishes, fortified milks, and egg yolks.

The problem is that the intake would have to consist of very high levels and multiple times daily to give you the effects you need. It also would depend on the quality of your food. With fish, for instance, it’s been shown that farmed salmon (fish raised in tiny boxes eating crappy fish food) held at least 25% less vitamin D than wild-caught salmon.(1)

Take-home point being, if you think that the Wal-Mart fish nutrients are doing something for you, think again. What they eat is what you eat. As well, the fortified milk and cereal claims of vitamin D can be off by as much as 80% of what the label says.

Here’s a chart that gives you a general rundown of food sources for vitamin D:

Food	IU per serving	Percent DV
Cod liver oil, 1 tablespoon	1,360	340
Salmon, cooked, 3.5 ounces	360	90
Mackerel, cooked, 3.5 ounces	345	90
Tuna fish, canned in oil, 3 ounces	200	50
Sardines, canned in oil, drained, 1.75 ounces	250	70
Milk, nonfat, reduced fat, and whole, vitamin D-fortified, 1 cup	98	25
Margarine, fortified, 1 tablespoon	60	15
Ready-to-eat cereal, fortified with 10% of the DV for vitamin D, 0.75-1 cup (more heavily fortified cereals might provide more of the DV)	40	10
Egg, 1 whole (vitamin D is found in yolk)	20	6
Liver, beef, cooked, 3.5 ounces	15	4
Cheese, Swiss, 1 ounce	12	4

Selected food sources of vitamin D (2,3)

Differences in Vitamin D

Vitamin D comes in two main forms: vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) and vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol). There’s a D1, D3, and D5, but in short, their importance and our control of them isn’t the main topic here.

Vitamin D2 is made by the UV irradiation of ergosterol in yeast, and vitamin D3 is made by the irradiation of 7-dehydrocholesterol from lanolin and the chemical conversion of cholesterol.

It’s suggested that D3 is far superior to D2 at raising levels in the body and holding them higher for extended periods of time.(4,5) Because of this, if you’re going the supplement route for your intake of vitamin D, D3 is the winner of the group.

The overall goal of vitamin D is to raise serum levels in the body and do so as best as possible. To date, both D2 and D3 supplements at prescription-grade levels have shown to do this. D2, however, has been shown to be toxic at higher levels. (It should be noted that you can’t achieve toxic levels of D in the body with just the sun.)