Got Rickets?

Health experts are warning sun-starved Iowans about the dangers of vitamin D deficiency, according to Radio Iowa:

“While the cold winter weather may put you in a bad mood and keep you indoors, one group says it can also have an adverse health impact. Tim Miller is a spokesman for the U.V. Foundation and says many people in Iowa and other Midwestern states aren’t getting enough sunlight.

“Miller says that results in vitamin D deficiency, which he says can lead to increased risk for colon, prostate and breast cancer, M.S. and an increase in children reporting rickets. Miller says there are a lot of remedies including supplements and tanning beds. He says the recommended level of vitamin D is one-thousand units per day.

“He says you can look on the side of the supplement bottle to see how much that is. Miller says one serving of salmon has 900 units, so that would cover a day. One glass of milk is 400 units, and five to seven minutes twice a week in a tanning bed would cover the need.”

My wife, our two children and our dog, Clover, stumbled out into the sunlight on Sunday morning, squinting at the giant, magical orb as we trudged around north Marion, where sidewalk clearing is, evidently, optional. For us, it was a last-ditch effort to stave off madness, but it turns out we also avoided a nasty case of rickets. Bonus.

Scurvy was already covered, thanks to the limes in my gin and tonic. And if there’s some disease cured by loudly swearing at falling snow, I’m also immune to that. Very immune.

Harvard Medical School - The connection between cancer and vitamin D

As we learn more about the importance of nutrition and diet as related to cancer, vitamin D is often the subject of interesting and important research. Several recent studies have shed light on the potential use and benefits of getting enough vitamin D for the prevention of cancers—and in certain circumstances, as part of a treatment program for certain cancers. Its role in promoting bone health is important, especially for people with cancers that are associated with bone loss, such as breast and prostate cancer. The following review, written by my colleague Anne Chiavacci, a senior nutritionist at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, provides very useful information about vitamin D's role in preventing cancer.

What is vitamin D?

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, well-known for helping the body absorb calcium and promote bone health. It's now well-established that getting enough vitamin D decreases your risk of getting many cancers, such as colon, prostate, breast, ovarian, pancreatic and digestive tract cancers.

You can get vitamin D from foods and supplements but the best source is from exposure to sunlight, which triggers the production of vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol). D3 is then changed by the liver to the active form of Vitamin D, called 25-hydroxycholecalciferol (25-OH-D). The final step to make the most active form occurs in the kidneys.

A simple blood test called Total 25-OH-D can tell you if you are getting enough vitamin D from all sources. A 25-OH-D blood level between 30 and 70 ng/ml is optimal.

The Cancer Connection

The hallmark of cancer is uncontrolled cell growth. Vitamin D seems to keep abnormal cell growth in check by:

• blocking a phase of the cancer cell growth cycle
• hindering angiogenesis, the growth of blood vessels that feed a tumor
• triggering the death of abnormal cells
• stimulating cell differentiation, the development of characteristics of normal cells.

Preliminary research is beginning to suggest that, in addition to cancer prevention, vitamin D may also improve survival and decrease the risk of a cancer returning. Several studies, for example, suggest a better survival rate for people with colon, prostate, breast, lung and Hodgkin's lymphoma when they are diagnosed and treated in the summer and fall months. That's when vitamin D levels are typically higher.

How Much Vitamin D Do You Need?

The current recommendation for Vitamin D, issued nearly 10 years ago, is 200 to 600 International Units (IU) a day. Research suggests that much higher intakes are needed to maintain sufficient blood levels for optimum health. People who live in the Northern part of the United States, and those with darker skin pigmentation are more prone to vitamin D deficiency.

Your "D-Fense" Plan

1. Make foods rich in vitamin D part of your diet. Choose from this list:

o salmon – 3.5 ounces (360 IU)

o mackerel – 3.5 ounces (345 IU)

o sardines – 3.75 ounces (250 IU)

o shrimp – 4 ounces (162 IU)

o milk, any type – 8 fluid ounces (100 IU)

o orange juice, D-fortified – 8 fluid ounces (100 IU)

o yogurt, vitamin D-fortified – 6 to 8 ounces (40-80 IU)

o fortified cereal – ¾ cup (40-50 IU)

2. Take a supplement. A reasonable and safe starting dose is 1,000 IU of vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) per day, in addition to food sources. Vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol) is a less effective form. It takes about 1,000 IU of vitamin D3 to increase D blood levels by 10 ng/ml. It's safe to take 2,000 IU per day; some researchers would say 4,000 IU per day. Consult with your doctor or dietitian before taking more than 2,000 IU per day.

3. Achieve and maintain a healthy weight. Being overweight is associated with lower blood levels of vitamin D because the fat-soluble vitamin is stored in body fat and less available for the body's needs.

4. Enjoy the sunshine. About 15 minutes of sun exposure daily without sunscreen to 50% of the skin can help boost vitamin D levels without increasing skin cancer risk.

Did you know about the connection between cancer and vitamin D? Do you eat a lot of the foods listed above, or do you make sure to get out in the sun for a short period of time every day? If you have any questions about how you can get enough vitamin D, let me know!

Source: gather.com

The Advantages of Indoor Tanning

There's a reason for this; sunlight provides the Vitamin D that the body needs to fight off feelings of depression. When the body gets low on Vitamin D, it can't fight those feelings as effectively. And of course, that's not all that the body needs Vitamin D for. Vitamin D regulates calcium which assists with kidney function and bone growth (that's why you drink your milk, right?) It is also helps improve the efficiency of the immune system and provides many other benefits to the body including possible cancer prevention. And without that Vitamin D, those benefits are lacking.

So, what are people to do when the sun isn't shining? After all, you aren't going to move away from your home or job just because it happens to be in a place that rains all of the time. And you probably don't have the option of maintaining a winter home in a sunnier hemisphere just to get your Vitamin D. So, clearly, you have to find an alternative source of Vitamin D for those times when the sun doesn't shine enough for your health. Tanning beds may be able to help provide that Vitamin D. But are they a safe source?

Absolutely. In fact, tanning beds may be a safer source of Vitamin D than spending time in the sun itself. The reason for this is that the best way for a body to get Vitamin D is through moderate exposure to UV light. When you spend time out in the sun, it's usually not for a moderate amount of time. Even if it is, you can't really tell how much exposure you're getting to UV rays because there are so many weather and location factors to take into consideration. When you tan indoors, you control the exposure to UV rays to make sure that you are getting only moderate levels, minimizing the risks of UV exposure and maximizing the benefits.

Furthermore, tanning beds are located inside of tanning salons which give you direct access to professionals who can give you advice on the best methods of tanning for Vitamin D absorption. These professionals are the first to learn about newly approved tanning lotions and new types of tanning treatment that can better maximize your tanning experience. Rather than trying to research the right way to tan outdoors, you can book a tanning bed at a salon where the information about safe tanning will be right at your fingertips.

Finally, the benefits of the tanning salon environment can help to decrease the effects of Vitamin D deficiency, at least in the area of depression. People who take the time out to enjoy the salon experience and who get the relaxation of time spent in a tanning bed are more capable of warding off the feelings of depression that can happen from low Vitamin D than are those people who simply try to wait until the sun returns. So, tanning beds are not only a safe source of Vitamin D, they're a good place to go get it."

Source: Natural-Skincare Blog

Vitamin D and Your Heart

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Lack of the so-called Sunshine Vitamin may not just affect your bones, it could be hazardous to the heart.

It's estimated that one third to one half of otherwise healthy adults are low in Vitamin D. Couple that with this winter's lack of sunshine, and levels for Midwesterners could be dipping even lower. Not only does Vitamin D help keeps bones healthy, but folks with too little of this vitamin could be facing up to twice the risk of heart attack or stroke.

Vitamin D seems to be the new buzzword of the millennium. It's causing controversy and creating confusion because most of us get our Vitamin D from the sun. Scientists have said too much sun exposure is bad for you, but now we're being told maybe we've gone too far -- and, possibly, are not getting enough.

A new wave of research is showing Vitamin D may reduce risk from several major illnesses, including cancer, diabetes and now heart disease.

"I was dumbfounded cause this was not in our radar that we should be checking this," said Dr. Annabelle Volgman, cardiologist, Rush Univ. Med. Ctr.

Rush cardiologist Annabelle Volgman started to check her female patients for Vitamin D deficiency. She was shocked to learn the majority were lacking. Baumgart, 31, who works at Rush, is one of them.

"She tested my blood and I was severely Vitamin D deficient," said Baumgart.

Doctors don't know if that played a role, but Angela's heart was skipping beats. She says a pacemaker made a big difference in her health. She later added a Vitamin D rich diet --along with supplements.

"My activity has gone up I do feel better," said Baumgart.

Josie Lempa, who was also measuring on the low side, is also taking prescription Vitamin D.

"I haven't taken anything other than the D, and it really has made a difference."

A recent study in the journal "Circulation" may be the strongest evidence yet linking Vitamin D to cardiovascular disease. It found that events such as heart attacks, strokes and heart failure were anywhere from 53 to 80 percent higher in people with low levels of vitamin d in their blood. That risk increased even more in people with high blood pressure.

"This article in Circulation just made it a great mark in my suspicion that we should be checking Vitamin D deficiency in all of our cardiac patients," said Baumgart. "I have been telling a lot of physicians about this and I'm not sure they have accepted it yet."

Vitamin D is best known as one of the most important regulators of calcium absorption in the body. It can be found in dairy products, fatty fish such as salmon and eggs.

So why would it help the heart? Researchers speculate that more of this vitamin could lead to less inflammation in the arteries. It has also been linked to reduced blood pressure. But, don't be too quick to rush out and stock up on Vitamin D supplements.

source: abc7chicago.com

Some Facts about our Sun

Forget Paris. Forget Britney.What we need is a real star. A great big sizzling hot one.

We need Mr. Sun.

Yeah, I know, he's a good 93 million miles away. But in our instant gratification society, I can't help but wonder why that should matter. He's no stranger down Phoenix way, after all.

According to weather stats, Phoenix, Ariz., gets the most sunshine in the United States, a good 3,752 hours a year. No wonder they call their basketball team the Suns.

Other contenders for the sunshine capital title are Texas cities Fort Worth, El Paso and Amarillo, and Albuquerque, N.M. The Southwest gets everything. (So much for Florida, the self-professed Sunshine State. Hey Gators, just because you say it doesn't make it so.)

Chicago? Well, we're way down the list. We get about 2,645 hours of the tanning agent each year, and most of those are crammed into May, June, July and August.

Needless to say, we spend the rest of the year missing Mr. Bright Skies.

So here we are, on the outer edges of another long, cold, dark winter - kind of like an extended eclipse.

We need relief. But that's a good month or two away.

Meanwhile, all we can do is look on the sunny side of life.

• The sun is a star made up of hot gases. It is about 4.5 billion years old, but still shining brightly.

• The temperature of the sun is 27 million degrees Fahrenheit - enough to melt your iced-over driveway for sure.

• The outermost layer of the sun is called the corona. Good name for a tropical beer, no?

• The sun is 109 times bigger than Earth, and yet it is only a medium star.

• According to Australians, a sundowner is a man who arrives at a party too late to do any work but just in time to eat. Gee, know any of those?

• Sun worshipping is hardly new. Ancient sun gods included the Egyptian Ra, the Greco-Roman Apollo, the Hindu Garuda and the Aztec Tonatiuh.

• The sun is essential in the production of vitamin D. It enables photosynthesis. And it diminishes Seasonal Affective Disorder.

Without it, we'll just have to make do with whatever sun particles we can find.

Here's where you can catch some rays:

In song

"Here Comes the Sun" by the Beatles.

"Good Day, Sunshine" also by the Beatles. Hey, the Fab Four were from Britain, a dark, dank place where residents know our pain.

There's Terry Jacks' "Seasons in the Sun," if you don't have enough things to cry about already.

The Fifth Dimension's "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In."

"Total Eclipse of the Sun," wait, that's not what we want.

"You are the Sunshine of My Life" by Stevie Wonder.

And, of course, how could we forget John Denver's "Sunshine on My Shoulders."

At the grocery store

Sunny Delight beverages.

Sun-Maid raisins.

Sunshine Biscuit Co., makers of Hydrox chocolate sandwich cookies, Cheez-It crackers and those scrumptious Vienna Fingers.

Sunkist citrus, as well as Sunkist Fruit Gems and Fruit slices candy. And for those in need of wake-up call, Sunkist Orange soda, which has more caffeine than Pepsi and Coke.

At the movies

"Little Miss Sunshine."

"Empire of the Sun"

"A Raisin in the Sun"

"Tears of the Sun"

"Under the Tuscan Sun"

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"

"A Place in the Sun"

And, of course, that famous 1973 hit "Sunshine," starring Cliff DeYoung, which was followed by "Sunshine Christmas" in 1977.

If none of that works, you always can fall back on the ancient ritual known as sun dancing. That's right, Native Americans didn't limit their spiritual calls to rain dances.

During a sun dance, participants were known to sing, dance, drum and even have their bodies pierced. If you decide to go that route, might I suggest you stick it where the sun don't shine. Chicago.

Source: The SouthtownStar

Pilot study to examine link between vitamin D and insulin resistance

Vitamin D isn’t just for bones anymore. Researchers at The Rockefeller University Hospital have begun a clinical study to explore a possible connection between vitamin D deficiency and insulin resistance. The hypothesis, that raising blood vitamin D levels in an obese, insulin-resistant population will improve the subjects’ ability to metabolize sugar, could have eventual implications for patients with type 2 diabetes and their doctors.

Vitamin D is produced through a photochemical reaction that occurs when the skin is exposed to ultraviolet B radiation. Because few food sources are naturally rich in the nutrient, the human body depends on sunlight and/or supplements as its main sources. The connection between vitamin D and calcium absorption — and thus the necessity of vitamin D for bone formation — is well established in the medical community. But researchers have begun to uncover other links as well, to diseases as significant and as varied as — among many others — rheumatoid arthritis, cardiovascular disease, schizophrenia, cancer and diabetes.

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey — a report of statistics kept by the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — and its report on vitamin D and diabetes supported for the study’s lead investigator and Instructor in Clinical Investigation Allegra Grossman the connection between vitamin D and insulin.

Vitamin D receptors exist on various kinds of cells throughout the body, including those responsible for the action of insulin: Sugar is deposited on muscle cells, where insulin, produced by pancreatic beta cells, processes it. The question posited by Grossman is double-edged: Does vitamin D sensitize muscle cells to insulin? And does it improve insulin secretion in pancreatic beta cells?

Grossman and her colleagues at Rockefeller are recruiting 10 insulin-resistant subjects between the ages of 18 and 65 with a minimum body mass index of 28 kilograms/meter² (within 10 percent of maximum weight) and a low blood vitamin D level as determined by screening tests conducted at the hospital. Subjects will take capsules of vitamin D3 — cholecalciferol, the form produced by the body and one of two forms currently on the market — three times a week at a dosage of 30,000 international units per week, for eight weeks. The dosage is roughly 20 times the minimum daily intake recommended by the United States Department of Agriculture (whose figures assume a lack of adequate sunlight exposure).

Following vitamin D repletion, the researchers will test for insulin sensitivity, using the euglycemic hyperinsulemic glucose clamp. They will also test for markers of inflammation, which has been correlated to both vitamin D level and insulin resistance.

“If we’re right, then the results of this study may one day help support the use of vitamin D in a clinical setting,” says Grossman. “Practitioners could implement this at very low cost, because vitamin D supplements are cheap. Some of the more common treatments currently available for insulin resistance are quite expensive.” Investigators at The Rockefeller University Hospital began screening applicants in January and expect a conclusion to the study in one year.

Source: The Rockefeller University Hospital

Vitamin D & High Blood Pressure

More blood pressure news: If you’re running low on vitamin D, more than your bones are in trouble - you might also be at risk for hypertension.

A study published in the January 2008 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that low blood concentrations of vitamin D were associated with higher blood pressure in Caucasians (the same didn’t hold true in this study among African Americans). Researchers from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta checked blood pressure and vitamin D status among 7,699 adults. They found that 61 percent of the Caucasians and 92 percent of the African Americans participating in the study were vitamin D deficient, but that Caucasians whose levels of “D” were sufficient had a 20 percent lower increase in age-associated systolic blood pressure (the top number).

However, the study didn’t determine whether or not taking vitamin D supplements would lower blood pressure. The investigators did note that vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in the United States and that it is easily corrected by taking supplements or increasing your exposure to sunlight.

Source: DrWeil.com

New Website Launched - TrustTanning.com

It all began when a Harvard Medical School study, published in The New England Journal of Medicine, reported that 60 percent of Americans are vitamin D deficient.

Since then, a number of studies have come out regarding the powerful health benefits of vitamin D—including the potential to ward off various types of cancers, heart disease, hypertension, MS and other chronic health problems.

“More and more science is emerging every day confirming the enormous health benefits of vitamin D and the significant health consequences of not getting enough of it,” says Tim Miller, communications director for the UV Foundation.

Now, the ITA has declared February is National Vitamin D Deficiency Month, and is urging salon owners to tell customers about the importance of getting enough vitamin D and encourage them to share the information with friends and family.

The hard part is disseminating all of this information to each and every client. That’s where www.TrustTanning.com comes in. With sections on vitamin D, UV light and skin cancer misinformation, this site is a great way to teach others about the benefits of tanning indoors and dispel the myths that surround in the tanning industry.

Via lookingfit.com

D Is for Debate

Robert Langreth 02.25.08, 12:00 AM ET via Forbes.com

A controversy is brewing over vitamin D. Will an extra dose protect you from cancer and infections?

Vitamin D builds strong bones. That's what everyone knows. The discovery of how to isolate this nutrient that helps the body absorb calcium led to a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1928. Once authorities started adding the vitamin to milk, rickets, a previously common bone deformity, virtually disappeared. More recently some trials have shown that supplements can boost bone density or reduce fractures and falls in the elderly.

But now a vocal band of researchers are touting a far larger role for this once obscure vitamin. They cite a flurry of intriguing, if preliminary, epidemiological and lab studies hinting that vitamin D may play a role in staving off a wide range of diseases, including colon cancer, infections, multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune ailments and possibly even heart disease. "Up until now we looked at vitamin D the way we look at an iceberg. Eighty-five percent of its function has been hidden, and we had no idea until two or three years ago," says an excited Robert Heaney, an endocrinologist at Creighton University in Omaha. "The field has just exploded." Adds Medical University of South Carolina biochemist Bruce Hollis: "I often say its skeletal effects are the least interesting thing we know about it."

Vitamin D is naturally found in few foods other than oily fish. Most of what we get is synthesized in the skin as it absorbs the sun's ultraviolet light. Just 15 short minutes in the summer sun produces a blast of 10,000 international units. Ancient humans spent all their time outdoors and got such doses. By contrast, the government recommends a mere 200 to 600 IU a day, depending on age--what you get in two to six cups of fortified milk.

Vitamin D researchers estimate that up to half of Americans might be getting inadequate amounts, especially in the winter months when the sun is low. Dark-skinned people living in northern locales are most at risk, as they absorb sunlight more poorly than light-skinned folks. The wide use of sunscreen to prevent skin cancer has also hastened the decline in vitamin D levels.

In Pictures: New Benefits From Your Favorite Vitamins?

"Most people in this world are vitamin D deficient. It is a major health issue," proclaims Boston University's Michael Holick, a doctor and biochemist who has studied vitamin D since 1969.

Robert Heaney, who sat on the panel that made the dose recommendations in 1997, is now agitating to get them raised, calling them "grossly inadequate." Many vitamin D researchers take supplements with 2,000 IU a day or more.

Holick has a solution--limited direct exposure to the sun--that infuriates many dermatologists worried about the skin cancer risk. (A far better idea, they say: take a supplement.) In 2004 he published his book The UV Advantage, touting the benefits of sun exposure, and was kicked out of the bu dermatology department, where he previously held a joint appointment. Department Chairman Barbara Gilchrest says she asked him to resign because of his ties to the tanning salon industry. Holick gives speeches to salon owners and receives some research funding from the industry-funded UV Foundation.

A wide range of vitamin D benefits beyond bone growth is certainly plausible. Vitamin D works inside the cell nucleus as a basic building block to help turn genes on or off. Starting in the 1970s, researchers began finding the receptor for vitamin D in a huge variety of cells that have nothing to do with bone growth, including breast, colon, lung, brain, prostate and white blood cells. More recently studies using DNA chips have found that vitamin D can raise or lower the activity of at least 1,000 genes, says McGill University molecular biologist John White.

One analysis looked at the effects of vitamin D supplements on mortality in 18 randomized trials of 57,311 people (originally performed to assess vitamin D's bone effects). It found that the supplements reduced the overall death rate by a statistically significant 7%, according to results published in the Sept. 10, 2007 Archives of Internal Medicine. This might "translate into one or two more years of life" for a regular supplement taker, says lead author Philippe Autier of the International Agency for Research on Cancer. By contrast, high doses of antioxidants such as beta carotene or vitamin E slightly boosted the death rate in trials, a giant Danish study found last year.

Many epidemiological studies link low vitamin D levels to a high risk of getting or dying from various cancers down the road, especially colon cancer. In 1980 researchers at Johns Hopkins University noticed that northern states in the U.S. had higher colon cancer death rates than southern ones and theorized that vitamin D might be responsible.

Intrigued by the concept, Harvard epidemiologist Edward Giovannucci in the mid-1990s began examining data from a continuing study of 33,000 female nurses who submitted blood samples in 1989 and another following 18,000 male health workers who gave blood samples in 1993. He had to wait a while for data to roll in. But in 2004 he found that the nurses with the highest initial vitamin D levels had a 47% lower risk of colon cancer over the next decade; in 2007 his researchers reported that the male health workers with the best D levels had a 54% lower colon cancer risk.

In Pictures: New Benefits From Your Favorite Vitamins?

This doesn't prove cause and effect, Giovannucci admits. But if there is that connection, he says, "you could prevent 30% to 50% of colon cancer by getting everyone to the top levels." Muddying matters, a 36,000-patient government-sponsored trial in 2006 compared modest doses of vitamin D with a placebo and found the supplements had no effect on colon cancer rates. It could have been because the dose was too low, the trial researchers admitted.

How vitamin D might ward off cancer is murky. But it's known that vitamin D stimulates white blood cells to produce a powerful natural antibiotic called cathelicidin. In the Mar. 24, 2006 issue of Science, scientists led by ucla dermatologist Robert Modlin found that when white blood cells were mixed with blood serum samples from African-Americans (who are prone to low vitamin D levels), they produce 63% less of this antibiotic than if the cells were mixed with blood samples from Caucasians. So, says Georgetown University immunologist Michael Zasloff, "Vitamin D has the capacity to turn on powerful antimicrobial genes." He predicts there will be new ways of staving off infections by modulating vitamin D levels.

None of this proves that taking extra vitamin D will help healthy people. "The links beyond bone get quite speculative," says Brown University dermatologist Martin Weinstock. "It is an article of faith [to say that] if you took a completely healthy person and gave them vitamin D supplements that they would be healthier ten years later," says Boston University's Gilchrest, who calls the evidence linking vitamin D to nonskeletal diseases "extremely weak" and "inconclusive." For every study showing a link, "there are studies showing the reverse that the vitamin D advocates don't talk about." She worries that the theoretical benefits of vitamin D are being "kidnapped" by the tanning industry to stave off regulation and boost business--putting people at risk of getting melanoma. If you believe in the case for vitamin D, she advises, take supplements and stay pale.

Proving vitamin D prevents nonbone diseases will require big human trials comparing vitamin D supplements with dummy pills. Such trials are largely in the planning stages, and it is not clear how fast they will get done. "If this were a patentable drug you would see tremendous push and hype on this," says Creighton's Heaney.