http://www.lookingfit.com/hotnews/doctor-advises-uvb-for-vitamin-d-deficiency.html

 

It's time to take a common-sense approach to UVB light exposure, primarily because moderate UVB light exposure year round will help solve Canada's vitamin D deficiency epidemic, says Dr. Zoltan Rona, a Toronto doctor specializing in complementary and alternative medicine.

"All cells, tissues and organs in the body have vitamin D receptors, meaning they await the arrival of the vitamin to perform various vital functions," shares Dr. Rona. A recent Statistics Canada survey found 65 percent of Canadians are vitamin D deficient. "I believe the actual number is much higher. In my own practice, more than 90 percent of my new patients are vitamin D deficient."

A study published last month in the peer-reviewed Molecular Nutrition & Food research journal, “An Estimate of the Economic Burden and Premature Deaths Due to Vitamin D Deficiency in Canada,” showed vitamin D deficiency is contributing to 37,000 deaths per year in Canada.

In his new book, “Vitamin D, The Sunshine Vitamin,” Dr. Rona recommends Canadians consider using a sunbed that emits UVB light during the winter months to maintain healthy vitamin D blood levels.

He says Canada must overcome its case of sunphobia – a condition imposed on the population by sun-paranoid dermatologists who are paid to promote sunscreens and telling Canadians to spend too much time indoors due to the fear of aging from sun damage – as contributing factors to vitamin D deficiency. "The truth is that the benefits of ultraviolet light have been underestimated while its dangers have been grossly exaggerated," Dr. Rona reports. "It's not too late to return to some balance as it relates to our relationship with the sun."

Because of the country's northern latitudes, Canadians can't produce vitamin D naturally from the sun for four to six months of the year.

"We need to re-examine our current condemnation of all UV exposure. The health implications of vitamin D deficiency caused by anti-sun messaging have put our health at risk. This needs to change. Due to its relationship with UVB light and its ability to produce vitamin D, the skin could turn out to be the body's most important organ as it relates to disease prevention," Dr. Rona asserts.

Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to a number of diseases such as cancer, autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular diseases and adverse pregnancy outcomes.

"Human beings evolved under ultraviolet light. This is the way our bodies were biologically designed to produce vitamin D and it is a mistake to ignore this. In Canada, we are unable to produce adequate vitamin D from sunlight six months of the year," Dr. Rona states. "For this reason, all sources of vitamin D need to be utilized. If you can't bask in the summer sun, then jump into a tanning bed or take a supplement to get your vitamin D levels up," he adds.

http://www.lookingfit.com/articles/science/vitamin-d-what-we-know-what-we-dont.html

When we first started writing about vitamin D 10 years ago, there were only a few scientific articles being published and virtually no mention of this important seco-steroid hormone was made by the mainstream media. Now, hundreds of scientific articles are published every month and you can’t pick up a newspaper or magazine without reading something about the many benefits of vitamin D. So, let’s take a look at what we know, what we don’t know and what we need to know about vitamin D.

What we know about vitamin D. Every cell and organ in the body requires an optimal health level of vitamin D in order to function normally. Therefore, anything that encourages the American public to maintain an optimal health level of vitamin D should be supported and encouraged. In addition, a deficient/insufficient blood level of vitamin D plays an important role in the development of the following diseases/conditions listed below:

• Addison’s disease
• Alzheimer’s disease
• Asthma
• Autism
• Autoimmune diseases
• Benign prostatic hyperplasia
• Bladder cancer
• Brain cancer
• Breast cancer
• Celiac disease
• Cerebral palsy
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
• Chronic pain
• Cognition
• Colon and rectal cancer
• Cystic fibrosis
• Depression
• Endometrial cancer
• Epilepsy
• Eye cancer
• Gaucher’s and Barry’s disease
• Graves disease
• Hashimoto’s thyroiditis
• Heart disease
• HIV and AIDS
• Hypertension
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Innate and adaptive immunity
• Liver cancer
• Liver function
• Lung cancer
• Melanoma
• Mental illness
• Mineral metabolism
• Multiple sclerosis (MS)
• Muscle weaknes
• Neurological diseases
• Obesity
• Osteoarthritis
• Osteomalacia
• Ostenopenia
• Osteoporosis
• Otosclerosis
• Ovarian cancer
• Pancreatic cancer
• Parathyroid function
• Parkinson’s disease
• Premature death
• Prostate cancer
• Renal function
• Rickets
• Sarcoidosis
• Sickle cell disease
• Skin cancer
• Stroke
• Tuberculosis (TB)
• Turner’s syndrome

Authors Note: Take another look at the many vitamin D-mediated diseases and conditions shown above. This begs the questions: Why aren’t more doctors recommending that their patients get their vitamin D level checked and that their patients maintain a vitamin D blood level of at least 100 nmol/L (48 ng/ml) year-round?

What we don’t know about vitamin D. The primary thing we don’t know about vitamin D is whether or not there is a difference between an optimal-health blood level of vitamin D achieved through the use of supplements versus the same blood level achieved through exposure to controlled ultraviolet radiation. In other words, is UVR-induced vitamin D better than supplement-induced vitamin D? Does supplemental vitamin D have the same biological potency as UVR-induced vitamin D? As far as we can tell, there aren’t any studies shedding light on these important questions and it should be obvious why answering this question should be a high research priority.

In addition, we do not currently know the intracellular level of either 25-OH-D or 1, 25-OD-D, or the threshold level of intracellular vitamin D that is necessary for optimal cell function and signaling. This information will be necessary in order to completely understand the role that vitamin D plays within the cell itself, especially as it pertains to a normal cell transforming into a malignant (cancerous) cell.

What we need to know (and hopefully will know 10 years from now). The precise role maintaining an optimal-health blood level of vitamin D plays in:

• The prevention of disease
• Allowing a normal cell to “transform” into a malignant cell
• Cellular signaling
• Optimal physiological and psychological functioning

In addition, we need to know the precise level of vitamin D (both 25-OH-D and 1, 25-OD-D) that exists within cells and the threshold intracellular level equal to optimal health.

In conclusion, there is no longer any doubt that maintaining an optimal level of vitamin D plays a key role in human health or that individuals who have a deficient/insufficient blood level dramatically increase their likelihood of developing one of the diseases listed previously in this article. In fact, maintaining an optimal blood level of vitamin D significantly decreases the probability of dying prematurely. Moreover, unless and until there is scientific proof that dietary and supplemental vitamin D is equal to or better than UVR-induced vitamin D, it is scientifically unacceptable to rely on the former and ignore the latter.

Patricia E. Reykdal and Donald L. Smith operate the Non-Ionizing Radiation Research Institute in Tucson, Ariz. They have written many articles promoting the benefits of controlled ultraviolet radiation exposure (CURE). You can e-mail comments or questions to reyksmith@aol.com.