According to Dr. Sujata Udeshi, 98% of her patients present with deficiencies of either vitamin D or vitamin B12, which she attributes to lack of sunlight exposure, the use of sun blocks and the consumption of processed foods. And interestingly, she recommends that sunlight exposure takes place between the hours of 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, exactly the time of day that the sunscare practioners tell us to avoid sunlight. It is good to see more health practitioners suggesting reasonable sun exposure.
By Bob Berman–
Vitamin D, produced when skin is exposed to light, is essential for our bodies. Unfortunately, modern lifestyles have minimized our time we spend under the sun. The Sun’s Heartbeat explains why a tan isn’t as bad as previously thought.
The first scenes in one Sun-tragedy unfolded long before there were written records of any kind. Spurred by events we can only guess at, a human exodus began 50,000 to 70,000 years ago, when our ancestors migrated away from the tropics and the equatorial region’s strong sunlight. Immediately, people developed vitamin D deficiencies.
Our bodies make vitamin D when our skin is struck by the Sun’s ultraviolet rays. Because UV intensity declines dramatically with lower Sun angles, people in temperate regions, and especially those in even higher latitudes, receive as little as 10 percent of the UV experienced by those near the equator. As our ancestors migrating north developed vitamin D deficiencies, the results were swift and brutal. They were removed from the breeding pool by a cruel Darwinian process: the fetus inside a woman with rickets (a disease resulting from low vitamin D) is unable to emerge from her body, and both die in childbirth.
Within just a few thousand years, natural selection had turned some people’s skin white, and they were now able to manufacture ample vitamin D even from the reduced Sun intensity of the higher latitudes. (Dark skin color, called melanin, is a sunblock, needed because naked bodies near the equator can suffer from too much ultraviolet exposure.) In North America and northern Europe, the climate is sufficiently warm that their skin was almost fully exposed for more than half the year, and their bodies stored vitamin D in the muscle and fat. A new balance had been restored.
But starting a century ago, everything changed. First, the United States and Europe went from a mostly outdoors agrarian society to a mostly indoors manufacturing one. Then people started driving around in vehicles surrounded by windows. Glass prevents any vitamin D production because it blocks the Sun’s UV. When air-conditioning became widely available starting in the late 1950s and then got cheaper in the 1970s, people stopped keeping their windows open. Fixed- pane units became increasingly popular. The only sunlight that reached us in our homes and workplaces came through UV-stopping glass.
The last straw was sunblock. It did not even exist until thirty years ago. The initial UV- reducing creams, which cut exposure only in half, were marketed in the 1950s to promote tanning, not totally screen out ultraviolet rays. Then, in the 1980s, a new product came on the market: sunblock. With SPF (sun protection factor) numbers such as 30 and 45, sunblock essentially stops the body’s vitamin D production cold. At the same time, people were advised to cover themselves with these lotions throughout the summer months. Even the medical establishment urged hiding from the Sun as a way to counter skin cancer.
The metamorphosis was complete: we had become like the Morlocks in H. G. Wells’s book The Time Machine, shielded almost totally from sunlight’s UV.
Enter modern vitamin D researchers such as John Cannell, MD, executive director of the Vitamin D Council, a nonprofit educational corporation that believes that “many humans are needlessly suffering and dying from Vitamin D Deficiency.” Cannell is no ordinary medical doctor. He’s no ordinary researcher either. He is a proselytizer, the first in the theater to shout “Fire!” when the smoke appears, while there’s still time to get out. And these days, he’s very, very passionate. He believes that human beings have unwittingly transformed themselves into something uniquely and self- destructively unnatural.
“We are the first society of cave people,” he lamented to me in 2010. “In the development process of creating the skin, nature never dreamed that we’d deliberately avoid the Sun so thoroughly.”
What Cannell and a growing legion of researchers are decrying are the past three decades of newspaper and TV scare stories that have made the public afraid of the Sun. The consequence, they believe, is that our blood’s natural vitamin D levels are just a tiny fraction of what nature intended. And this is producing an avalanche of horrible consequences that include vastly increased rates of cancer.
That vitamin D is super-important is no longer in doubt. It has become the new needed supplement, recommended increasingly by family doctors and the popular media alike. The March 2010 Reader’s Digest calls vitamins in general “a scam” and urges people to take no daily supplements whatsoever – with the single exception of 1,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D3, the form most recommended as a supplement.
This sudden interest has been sparked by a spate of studies strongly indicating that vitamin D is the most powerful anticancer agent ever known. Robert Heaney, MD, of Creighton University, a vitamin D researcher, points to thirty- two randomized trials, the majority of which were strongly positive. For example, in a big study of women whose average age was sixty-two, subjects who were given a large daily vitamin D supplement enjoyed a whopping 60 percent reduction in all kinds of cancers after just four years of treatment compared to a control group.
The skeptical might well wonder how, when cancer typically takes decades to develop, such a huge drop can be detected after just a few years. Heaney believes it’s because vitamin D prevents tiny predetectable tumors from growing or spreading. “That’s the kind of cancer I’d want to have – one that never grows,” he told me in June 2010.
The Canadian Cancer Society raised its vitamin D intake recommendations to 1,000 IU daily in 2009. But Cannell, Heaney, and others think that even this is still way too low.
“I went to a conference and asked all the researchers what they themselves take daily and give to their families,” Heaney said. “The average was 5,500 IU daily. There is certainly no danger in doing this, since toxicity cannot arise in under 30,000 IU a day.”
Why is this vitamin D craze happening now? It sounds suspiciously familiar – like the antioxidant craze of the 1990s, when everyone was gobbling vitamin E to guard against “free radicals.” Or the Linus Pauling– led vitamin C frenzy of the 1970s. Recent studies have shown that all those vitamins have no effect on mortality whatsoever. Indeed, a multivitamin a day now seems to be no better for your health than gobbling a daily Hostess Twinkie. Perhaps our bodies were not designed to get flooded with vitamins. Or maybe the couple of dozen known minerals and vitamins are only the tip of the health iceberg, and what’s important are hundreds, or perhaps thousands, of trace substances of which we are not yet even aware.
Yet it is here, in a discussion of the natural environment in which our bodies were fashioned, that vitamin D makes so much sense. After all, our bodies create it naturally out of the Sun’s ultraviolet rays.
Spending just ten minutes in strong sunlight – the kind you get from 11:00 AM to 3:00 PM between April and August – will allow your body to make as much vitamin D as you would get from drinking two hundred glasses of milk. This is astonishing. Asks John Cannell rhetorically, “Why does nature do this so quickly? Nature normally doesn’t do this kind of thing.”
The implied answer, of course, is that we were designed to have a high and steady level of this vitamin in our bodies. Yet as more and more people are tested, researchers are finding serious vitamin D deficiencies in virtually all of the population of the United States, Canada, and northern Europe. The reason? According to Cannell and the other doctors on the Vitamin D Council, we have been hiding from the Sun for decades.
The results may be even worse than we realize. Many researchers now fear that the explosive increase in autism is a result of pregnant mothers having close to no vitamin D in their bodies and then young babies and infants being similarly shielded from the Sun. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) says that virtually no infants are getting enough vitamin D. The inadequacy figures, even using the CDC’s pre-2011 lower recommendations of what they thought the body should have, was that 90 percent of infants are deficient.
According to Cannell, the highest autism rates occur in areas that have the most clouds and rain, and hence the lowest blood levels of vitamin D. A Swedish study has strongly linked sunlight deprivation with autism. Moreover, blacks, whose vitamin D levels are half those found in whites living at the same latitudes, have twice the autism rates. Conversely, autism is virtually unknown in places such as sunny Somalia, where most people still spend most of their time outdoors. Yet another piece of anecdotal evidence is that autism is one of the very few afflictions that occur at higher rates among the wealthier and more educated – exactly the people most likely to be diligent about sunscreen and more inclined to keep their children indoors.
As we saw in assessing links between earthly events and sunspot fluctuations, it’s perilous to assign connections too quickly, and autism in particular is a can of worms. Nonetheless, these early threads should set off alarms: it might be wise for pregnant women and mothers of small children to immediately start exposing themselves and their kids to more sunlight.
When Cannell was in medical school in 1973, he was taught that human breast milk contains little or no vitamin D. “This didn’t make sense,” he said during a phone conversation with me in 2011. “Why would nature ever deprive a nursing infant of this vital substance?” Then it came to him: “When pregnant women start taking 5,000 international units of vitamin D daily, their milk soon contains enough vitamin D for a breast-feeding baby. So there’s the key to how much a woman should naturally be getting every day.”
In contrast to all this, and to the great annoyance of physicians and researchers on the Vitamin D Council, the FDA continued to advise only 400 IU of D3 daily as of early 2011. The agency officially regards most vitamin D studies as “incomplete” or “contradictory” and clearly has taken a cautious, go-slow approach.
In November 2010, the National Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Medicine issued its first new recommendations about the vitamin since 1997, and many people were disappointed. The institute did boost its recommended daily amounts to 400 IU for infants, 600 IU for most adults, and 800 IU for those over age seventy. It also said there was no harm in taking up to 10,000 IU daily, although it conservatively adopted 4,000 IU as the official recommended upper limit.
According to Cannell, the new recommendations are still “irrelevant dosages.” Michael Holick, MD, of Boston University, another vitamin researcher, agreed, saying that he personally takes 3,000 IU daily.
Cannell told me that the National Academy of Sciences report was a “scandal” and that four physicians had disgustedly resigned from the committee that put out the paper. “Commonsense aspects are totally lacking,” he said. “For example, they urge infants to get 400 IU daily, but adults just 600 IU. Yet this vitamin is distributed in muscle and fat. The more you weigh, the more you should be getting. It doesn’t make sense.”
“Listen,” he added, “everyone knows that there is an explosion of childhood cases of autism, asthma, and autoimmune disease. It all began when we took our children out of the Sun. Starting twenty-five years ago, a perfect storm of three events has changed how much sunlight children get. First came the scare of childhood sexual predators in the early eighties, then the fear of skin cancer, and finally the Nintendo and video game craze. Nowadays, kids do not play outdoors. Playgrounds are empty. You’re a bad mother if you let your child run around. And it’s almost a social services offense if your kid gets a sunburn. Never before have children’s brains had to develop in the absence of vitamin D.”
Since this is not a medical book, I can only pass on the recommendations of those in the forefront of vitamin D research. Their best advice is to go in the Sun regularly without burning. Wear as little clothing as you can. You know how much Sun you can han-dle without turning red. Unless you have a very light complexion and blond or red hair, you should be able to expose yourself safely to ten to twenty minutes of strong sunlight at a time. Lie out in the Sun in shorts for five to ten minutes on each side. The key to UV intensity is Sun height. If your shadow is shorter than you are, your body will produce a good amount of vitamin D.
After experiencing twenty minutes of unprotected midday Sun from May to July, or a full hour or more during March, early April, and late August through October, you can certainly use sunblock. The experts say to buy the kind whose active ingredient is either zinc or titanium oxide. Most other kinds will be absorbed by the skin, then enter the bloodstream and circulate. “You might as well drink the stuff,” Cannell says disdainfully.
During the low-Sun winter months, you need to spend much more time sunbathing and probably take a vitamin D supplement. The experts are currently urging 2,000 to 3,000 IU daily.
Why not skip the Sun altogether and just pop the pills year- round? Some doctors, including those responsible for the 2010 National Academy of Sciences report, suggest doing exactly that. They figure that you can have it all – nice, high vitamin D serum levels plus no UV exposure, with its skin cancer risk. But others believe that’s a bad idea. “Some of my colleagues think D3 supplements are enough,” Cannell says. “But that supposes we know everything. I suspect that we do not know everything. Natural sunlight has to be the preferred route whenever possible.”
Everyone should use solar power wisely and not go totally bonkers. There’s no need to fry. But whatever extra skin cancer risk we might assume certainly seems to me to be a reasonable price to pay, considering the benefits. It now appears that adequate sunlight- mediated vitamin D might prevent as many as 150,000 cancer deaths a year in the United States alone and also reduce infections, bone problems, and perhaps, though more science is needed, even autism and asthma rates. Of course, on the other side of the balance beam, melanoma causes 8,500 US deaths a year. Every activity from bicycle riding to barroom brawling involves some balancing of risks, and the decision of what trade- offs to make is, of course, yours alone.
Tomorrow is a new day. As the Sun rises, its orange beams will cast magical rays in the morning mist. Is the Sun our enemy or our friend? Will it take our life or save it?
Link: http://gizmodo.com/5823058/tanning-can-cause-cancer-but-not-tanning-coul…
Did you know that by getting adequate exposure to sunshine health levels actually increase? It’s true. Of course, you wouldn’t learn this truth by reading most news reports. Media reports have practically vilified sunlight exposure. It is true that excessive exposure to sunlight, just like excessive levels of just about anything, is bad for your health.
We cannot afford to throw out the baby with the bathwater when it comes to gleaning the health benefits of proper exposure to sunlight. Our bodies need to soak up sunshine to be truly healthy. In fact, there are vital processes that are slowed or stopped altogether when people avoid going out into the sunshine.
How Does Sunshine Improve Health?
The human body needs to interact with sunshine in order to process and properly utilize Vitamin D. Vitamin D has many benefits, but one of the most important is its role in the mineralization and strengthening of bones. Without regular exposure to sunlight this essential vitamin will be unavailable to your body. Brittle bone diseases and serious bone injuries happen when bones lack strength.
It’s not just bones that benefit from a regular regiment of sunshine exposure. Routine exposure to sunshine also helps your body to maintain healthy nerves, blood rich in iron and more powerful muscles.
In cultures where the people are not afraid of regular exposures to sunshine, health levels seem to increase. People who live in North America and Europe suffer the most from lack of exposure to the sun. Millions of people in these countries suffer from a variety of health issues that could be averted altogether by taking time for regular sun exposure to the skin.
Experts estimate that as little as 10 to 15 minutes in the sun each day can dramatically reduce many serious health issues. There simply aren’t many things that can have such a dramatic impact on your health that are so simple to do. Not only is it easy to get regular sunlight exposure, it’s also free. Imagine that; something you can do every day to live a healthier life, that won’t cost you a penny.
What’s the Fuss about Skin Cancer?
In order for more people to take advantage of the power of sunshine health benefits, reeducation about sunlight exposure seems to be necessary. As was previously mentioned, the epidemic of skin cancer has caused a backlash against spending any time at all in the sun. Of course, skin cancer is a very serious condition, but it is usually caused by failing to protect the skin and inordinate amounts of time spent on tanning and other outdoor activities. True health is all about balance. If you eat too much health problems will occur. In a similar manner, spending huge chunks of your time tanning in the sunlight will also cause significant health problems, like skin cancer.
Simply put, your body will never be in a state of true health without regular time spent in the sunlight. Sunshine health benefits are available to everyone under the sun. This huge asset is free and people need to know just how important it is for living a healthier life.
Link: http://www.longevitystrategist.com/sunshine-health/
According to the Centers for Disease Control in May 2011, “about one in 12 people in the United States now has asthma—a total of 24.6 million people and an increase of 4.3 million since 2001.”[1]
Researchers in Boston have hypothesized that the decrease in sunlight exposure and resultant vitamin D deficiency is responsible for the asthma epidemic.[2] Others show the same facts: the increase in asthma has paralleled the decline in sunlight exposure, and asthma risk is 40% lower in children of women who have the highest vitamin D consumption during pregnancy.[3] Is it time to return to the sun?
Another study shows an asthma reduction of 52-67%.[4] In that study, THREE-YEAR- OLD CHILDREN WHOSE MOTHERS WERE IN THE HIGHEST QUARTILE OF VITAMIN D CONSUMPTION DURING PREGNANCY HAVE A 61% REDUCED RISK OF A “RECURRENT WHEEZE,” A SYMPTOM OF ASTHMA, WHEN COMPARED TO THOSE WHOSE MOTHERS WERE IN THE LOWEST QUARTILE. The researchers believed that inadequate D levels in the fetus leads to improper development of the lungs and immune system, and they demonstrated that each 100-IU increase in vitamin D consumption resulted in a 19% risk reduction.
A scientific experiment from Australia also demonstrated that when asthmatic mice were exposed to ultraviolet light, before being exposed to an asthma-causing allergen, asthma symptoms were reduced.[5] Considering the yearly $700-million expenditure for Australian asthma-treatment, regular sunlight exposure seems a small price to pay. Tanning beds, like the sun, put forth ultraviolet light to produce vitamin D. These researchers were really using tanning beds for mice! Finally, another recent study from Spain has shown that children exposed to the most sunlight have lower risks of asthma.[6]
Steroids are used as an asthma therapy, but in some individuals, asthma is resistant to steroids. However, when vitamin D3 is added to the steroid treatment, symptoms are greatly reduced.[7] Perhaps sufficient supplementation or sunlight exposure could eliminate steroid need completely. This is the bottom line: children and adults are meant to play outdoors or otherwise be exposed to non-burning ultraviolet B (UVB) light—the most natural way to produce vitamin D. Every child should have a natural life playing outdoors, and both children and adults should regularly have sunlight exposure. It is critical for human health. What a travesty to deprive our children of healthy, normal lives because the Powers of Darkness need to make money selling sunscreens. Be careful not to burn, and enjoy the sun!
Link: http://drsorenson.blogspot.com/2011/05/could-asthma-upsurge-be-due-to-su…
[1]Vital Signs: Asthma Prevalence, Disease Characteristics, and Self-Management Education — United States, 2001–2009 MMWR, 2011; 60(17);547-552
[2]Litonjua, A. et al. Is vitamin D deficiency to blame for the asthma epidemic? J Allergy Clin Immunol 2007;120:1031-35
[3] Camargo, C. et al. Maternal intake of vitamin D during pregnancy and risk of recurrent wheeze in children at 3 y. Am J Clin Nutr 2007;85:788-95.
[4] Devereux, G. et al. Maternal vitamin D intake and early childhood wheezing. Am J Clin Nutr 2007;85:853-59
[5]Hart, P. et al. Sunlight may protect against asthma. Perth (Australia) Telethon institute for child health research. Quoted in Australian AP Oct 24, 2006.
[6] Arnedo-Pena, A et al. Sunny hours and variations in the prevalence of asthma in schoolchildren according to the International Study of Asthma and Allergies (ISAAC) Phase III in Spain. Int J Biometeorol 2011;55:423-434.
[7]Xystrakis, E. et al. Treatment of Steroid-Resistant Asthma. J Clin Invest 2006;116:146-55
By Dr Singh (Meerut)–
A study has found that vitamin D, which is produced by the body when exposed to the sun, boosts the quality of sperm in men.
They become better at swimming towards the egg, have greater speed and are more penetrative.
Researchers at the University of Copenhagen tested the quality of sperm from 340 men and found that almost half had an insufficient amount – linked to lack of exposure to natural sunlight or time in a solarium.
“Vitamin D levels were positively associated with sperm motility, suggesting a role for vitamin D in human sperm function,” the Daily Mail quoted Dr Martin Blomberg Jensen as saying.
Link: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-07-09/health/29751534_1…
While it’s long been known that a little sunshine can spread happiness, researchers in New Zealand have found that it can also save the lives of pneumonia patients.
Medical scientists have found that vitamin D, which is absorbed through the skin and produced with exposure to sunlight, is a major factor in the survival rate of pneumonia patients.
Researchers at Waikato University collaborated with doctors at Waikato Hospital, both Hamilton-based institutions, to study blood samples of 112 patients admitted to the hospital with pneumonia during the winter.
They found that those with severe vitamin D deficiency 17 of the patients were more likely to die within a month, compared with patients with normal or slightly low vitamin D levels.
Dr Bob Hancox, of the hospital’s department of respiratory medicine, said five of the 17 died, a 29-percent mortality rate, compared with four deaths among the 95 patients with higher vitamin D levels, a 4-percent mortality rate.
“The analysis confirmed that the difference in mortality rates between the two groups was very unlikely to be due to chance,” Hancox told Xinhua.
Vitamin D deficiency was a concern around the world, Hancox said.
“Sunlight is the main source of vitamin D, so it tends to be a winter problem in temperate climates when people spend a lot of time indoors. But it occurs in all countries and vitamin D deficiency is believed to be a major problem worldwide.
“There is accumulating evidence that we need vitamin D to help fight infections, such as pneumonia as we have shown, as well as improve bone health,” he told Xinhua.
“What is not yet clear is whether we can do anything about it. We don’t know whether treating people with vitamin D supplements would help to prevent or treat respiratory infections. This is what we need to find out now.”
Dr Ray Cursons, of the Biological Sciences department at Waikato University, said patient age, sex, additional health conditions, and other prognostic factors did not affect the research outcome, although researchers still could not establish a causal link between vitamin D deficiency and mortality in the patients.
Waikato Hospital D respiratory specialist Dr Noel Karalus said it was not yet known whether giving patients vitamin D supplements after their admission to hospital with respiratory tract infections would alter outcomes.
“It may transpire that vitamin D helps us avoid infection rather than cure it once established.”
Cursons said the best source of vitamin D was sunlight as dietary sources such as fatty fish and cod liver oil did not contain enough vitamin D.
“There is still some controversy regarding the optimal daily allowance of vitamin D. How much we absorb through the skin depends on sun exposure, skin type and geographical latitude. M ori and Pacific Islanders absorb less because of their darker skin, and people in colder climates also have lower levels of vitamin D. ”
Pneumonia is the single largest cause of death in children worldwide, killing an estimated 1.6 million children under the age of five each year, according to the World Health Organization.
The research findings are published in the journal Respirology, published by the Asian Pacific Society of Respirology, this month.
Link: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2011-05/13/c_13873372.htm
1. Those admitted to the Waikato, New Zealand hospital with severe vitamin D deficiency were more likely to die within a month compared to those who had normal or only slightly low levels.
2. The overall death rate was 29% for those with severe D deficiency, and only 4% for those with higher levels. This could indicate that vitamin D deficiency causes a 700% increase in the risk of death by pneumonia. Follow this link to read more about the research: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/health/2011-05/13/c_13873372.htm
The authors noted that sunlight is the best source of vitamin D, and that winters in Hamilton, New Zealand area, like most temperate areas of the world, do not allow sufficient sunlight to stimulate vitamin D production. They also state that pneumonia is the single largest cause of death in children worldwide, killing about 1.6 million children under the age of five each year.
What a horror that so many countries, by means of their health departments and dermatological societies, are frightening children and their parents away from the sunlight during the seasons of the year when it is available. This ensures that vitamin D deficiency will ensue in winter. Also, at the very least, supplementation of vitamin D3 should be recommended during winter—supplementation of about 1,000 IU for every 25 pounds of bodyweight.
This is not the first time the relationship between pneumonia and sunlight has been observed. In 2003, Dr. Dowell and his colleagues showed that the disease is seasonal, with the lowest rates in summer, an increase in fall and a peak in winter.[1] This relationship exactly mimics the quantity of sunlight exposure available in different seasons. Other research has pointed out the same relationship,[2] [3]and still other studies have shown the importance of vitamin D in prevention of pneumonia and related infections to it,[4]
A popular fitness guru used to scream the slogan, “Stop the insanity!” I agree with her advice as it relates to sunlight exposure and would like to scream that it is insane for medical and governmental organizations to frighten their citizens out of the sunlight. Sunshine has become one of our most critical health needs, and those who would have us avoid it at all costs have blood on their hands.
Link: http://drsorenson.blogspot.com/2011/05/vitamin-d-sunlight-and-pneumonia….
[1] Dowell, S. et al. Seasonal patterns of invasive pneumococcal disease. Emerg Infect Dis 2003;9:573-9.
[2] Leow L, Simpson T, Cursons R, Karalus N, Hancox RJ. Vitamin D, innate immunity and outcomes in community acquired pneumonia. Respirology. 2011;16(4):611-6
[3] White AN, Ng V, Spain CV, Johnson CC, Kinlin LM, Fisman DN. Let the sun shine in: effects of ultraviolet radiation on invasive pneumococcal disease risk in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. BMC Infect Dis. 2009 Dec 4;9:196.
[4] Oduwole AO, Renner JK, Disu E, Ibitoye E, Emokpae E. Relationship between Vitamin D Levels and Outcome of Pneumonia in Children. West Afr J Med 2010;29(6):373-8.
Crohn’s Disease is a nasty autoimmune bowel disease that causes abdominal pain, inflammation and fibrous tissue buildup. It is increasing in incidence, particularly among people younger than 20,[1] a group that spends less time outdoors each passing year. Unfortunately and unnaturally, young people spend their time in indoor activities, and when venturing outdoors are advised by their parents and medical “experts” to dutifully apply sunscreen, which can reduce the production of vitamin D in the skin by up to 99%.[2]
Crohn’s is closely correlated to vitamin D deficiency, and moderate sunlight exposure coupled with winter supplementation has been recommended in the past to reduce its severity. Fifty percent of Crohn’s patients have levels of vitamin D below 20 ng/ml (very deficient) in winter and 19% in summer.[3]
Suffice it to say (without reviewing the copious research indicating that sunlight and vitamin D correlate to lower risk of many autoimmune diseases), it appears that sunlight exposure may help to reduce the risk of Crohn’s. The latest indication is a study from France, demonstrating that people living in geographic areas of lowest sunlight exposure have a substantially higher risk of Crohn’s disease.[4] This disease is just one of more than 100 that correlate closely to deficiency of sunlight and vitamin D, yet we continue to see warnings by dermatologists to avoid the sun. When will they ever learn?
Non-burning sunlight exposure is a boon to mankind, and it does not cause melanoma. Read my book for more information or see my earlier blogs on the subject of melanoma and sunlight.
[1] Chouraki V, et al “The changing pattern of Crohn’s disease incidence according to age in northern France: a constant increase in the 0-19 years age group (1988-2005)” DDW 2009; Abstract 114.
[2] Matsuoka, L. et al. sunscreens suppress cutaneous vitamin D3 synthesis. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism 1987; 64:1165-68
[3] Gilman, J. et al. Determinants of vitamin D status in adult Crohn’s disease patients, with particular emphasis on supplemental vitamin D use. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2006;60(7):889-96
[4] Nerich, V. et al. Low exposure to sunlight is a risk factor for Crohn’s disease. Aliment Pharmacol Ther 2011;33(8):940-945.
MUMBAI: The city’s upper middle class and wealthy may adhere to a healthy lifestyle with plenty of exercise, but our attempt to seek cover from the harsh gaze of the tropical sun has put us at risk.
Most Mumbaikars working in air-conditioned offices are lacking in vital Vitamin D, the benefits of which range from strengthening bones and teeth to preventing diabetes, cancer and cardiac problems. The sun’s rays are a major source of Vitamin D.
A study conducted by doctors at P D Hinduja Hospital at Mahim found that 77.5% of 561 males and 72.68 % of 443 females, who had come to the hospital for routine health checkups, were deficient in Vitamin D. Men and women in the 40-60 age group appeared to be the most vulnerable, said doctors.
Of the 1,004 healthy men and women tested, 75% had a deficiency with less than 20 nanograms (ng) of Vitamin D per milli litre of blood. Another 20% had “insufficient” levels of Vitamin D. Only 2.4% men and 5.4 % women tested had adequate levels of vitamin D in their blood, which is more than 40ng/ml.
Doctors say this is a worrisome trend and call it an “underlying epidemic” .
NOT ENOUGH OF THE SUNSHINE VITAMIN
Though the major source of Vitamin D is sunlight, it’s also found in food items like raw milk and cod liver oil It maintains normal calcium and phosphorous levels in the blood, which are needed for strong bones & teeth Apart from brittle bones and teeth, recent studies have also found a correlation between Vitamin D deficiency and Type-I diabetes, and cancer A study conducted by Hinduja Hospital doctors found that Mumbaikars suffer from a massive Vitamin D deficiency. Only 2.4% of 561 males tested and 5.4% of 443 females had healthy levels of Vitamin D Of the 561 men tested, 435 showed deficiency (less than 20 nanogram per millilitre), while 112 had insufficent amounts of Vit D (between 21-40 ng/ml). Of the 443 women tested, only 24 showed sufficiency (above 40ng/ml)
Lifestyles hit Vitamin D levels
Mumbai: On one hand scientists warn us of the sun’s harmful UV rays. On the other hand, these rays are a vital source of essential Vitamin D, which is often called the sunshine vitamin. When doctors at Hinduja Hospital in Mahim tested people who had come for routine medical checkups, they found that an overwhelming majority—75 % of 1,004 people—were seriously deficient in Vitamin D. All the people hailed from upper middleclass and wealthy families.
The sunshine vitamin is not only required for healthy bones and a strong skeletal structure, emerging studies have linked deficiencies to diseases like diabetes and cancer, cardiacrelated ailments, neuromuscular disorders and even abnormal brain functions.
Yet the deficiency of vitamin D remains unexplained in a city like Mumbai where sunlight is found in abundance. Doctors blame it on urbanization and lifestyle. Dr Vipla Puri, consultant, laboratory medicine , P D Hinduja Hospital said: “Almost all people who hail from higher-income groups work indoors and step out only after the sun sets. It is taking a huge toll, silently.” Her department had collected the data for the study over the last three months.
According to Dr Sudhindra Kulkarni endocrinologist at Fortis Hospital, Mulund, the deficiency is “rampant and alarming” . He said: “It is not only about less or more exposure to sunlight but about appropriate absorption of the light and its conversion to Vitamin D. That process is suffering leading to an array of problems, and recently even metabolic disorders.” People step out of their air-conditioned houses and step into their air-conditioned cars and once again enter their air-conditioned offices, he added.
Experts say that many patients suffering from diabetes and thyroid are also found to have Vitamin D deficiency. This could explain why more youngsters are falling prey to health problems like osteoporosis.
Besides sunlight, an appropriate diet is also required. Head of the endocrinology department at KEM Hospital Dr Nalini Shah said Indian food, unlike in the West is not fortified with Vitamin D. Even after adequate exposure to sunlight , some may suffer from the deficiency, she said. “The UV rays may get filtered due to environmental conditions.”
A workable solution is to expose oneself to adequate sunlight every day for anywhere between 15-30 minutes, added Puri: “The good news is that public awareness is improving . “We do at least 150 Vitamin D tests a day, which was not the case few years ago,” she said.
THE ABCs OF D
It is a fat soluble vitamin, something that gets easily dissolved in body fat SUN’S RAYS | A major source of Vitamin D is exposure to ultraviolet rays from the sun. It is absorbed by the body when UV rays touch the skin. The chemical conversion of Vitamin D into its hormone form is performed by the liver and kidney
OTHER SOURCES |
Though its major source is sunlight, Vitamin D can also be found in certain food items such as raw milk and cod liver oil
WHY DO WE NEED IT?
It maintains normal calcium and phosphorous levels in the blood, which are needed for strong bones and healthy teeth. Phosphorous is required to keep the body’s muscles and nerves in working order
It aids in the absorption of calcium , and helps form and maintain strong bones
DEFICIENCY DANGERS
In adults, Vitamin D deficiency can lead to osteomalacia, where the bones become thin and brittle It can cause muscular weakness It can lead to osteoporosis , which is the thinning of bone tissues and their degeneration over time In kids, it can cause rickets (weakening of bones) Studies have linked deficiency to diabetes, cancer, cardiac ailments, neuromuscular disorders and abnormal brain functions.
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By: Becklund BR, Severson KS, Vang SV, DeLuca HF–
Although the exact cause of multiple sclerosis (MS) is unknown, a number of genetic and environmental factors are thought to influence MS susceptibility. One potential environmental factor is sunlight and the subsequent production of vitamin D. A number of studies have correlated decreased exposure to UV radiation (UVR) and low serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D(3) [25(OH)D(3)] levels with an increased risk for developing MS.
Furthermore, both UVR and the active form of vitamin D, 1alpha,25-dihydroxyvitamin D(3), suppress disease in the experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) animal model of MS. These observations led to the hypothesis that UVR likely suppresses disease through the increased production of vitamin D. However, UVR can suppress the immune system independent of vitamin D.
Therefore, it is unclear whether UVR, vitamin D, or both are necessary for the putative decrease in MS susceptibility. We have probed the ability of UVR to suppress disease in the EAE model of MS and assessed the effect of UVR on serum 25(OH)D(3) and calcium levels.
Our results indicate that continuous treatment with UVR dramatically suppresses clinical signs of EAE. Interestingly, disease suppression occurs with only a modest, transient increase in serum 25(OH)D(3) levels. Further analysis demonstrated that the levels of 25(OH)D(3) obtained upon UVR treatment were insufficient to suppress EAE independent of UVR treatment.
These results suggest that UVR is likely suppressing disease independent of vitamin D production, and that vitamin D supplementation alone may not replace the ability of sunlight to reduce MS susceptibility.
Link: http://bit.ly/bE414S