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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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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.

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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)

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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

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