Are You Getting Enough Vitamin D?

[frankie]

Are You Getting Enough Vitamin D?

By Jenny Bailly


Photo: © 2009 Jupiterimages Corporation

You may have noticed that we've always preached the merits of sunscreen (and shade). And for good reason: Sun exposure has been shownto cause skin cancer as well as wrinkles, sagging, and dark spots. But ultraviolet rays aren't all bad—they also prompt the skin to manufacture vitamin D, which has made headlines recently for its potential health benefits; new research links it to everything from stronger bones to a more robust immune system to reduced cancer risk. So we wondered whether religiously wearing sunscreen means we're cheating ourselves of some of the advantages of the vitamin.

The short answer: not necessarily. Despite the mounting evidence that vitamin D is crucial to good health, we have yet to find a dermatologist who condones any amount of unprotected time in the sun. "As someone who sees skin cancers daily, it's just not possible for me to recommend intentional sun exposure," says Marsha Gordon, MD, professor of dermatology at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. "And in any case, no matter how careful we are, we all get some unintentional sun. Sunscreens aren't perfect, nor is the way we apply them."

While milk and many cereals are fortified with vitamin D, it occurs naturally in very few foods (mostly fatty fishes like salmon and tuna, as well as red meat). To compensate for the shortfall, supplements are necessary, says Anthony Norman, PhD, a professor emeritus of biochemistry and biomedical sciences at the University of California, Riverside, who has studied the vitamin for several decades. Choose supplements containing vitamin D3, which may be more effective than D2, and consider going above the Institute of Medicine's current vitamin D recommendations of 200 IU for people 50 and under, 400 IU for people 51 to 70, and 600 IU for people over 70. Many doctors believe these numbers are far too low, especially for people with any of the prime risk factors for vitamin D deficiency: age, obesity, lack of sun exposure, and darker skin. Norman recommends that everyone request a vitamin D test when they have blood drawn at their yearly physical, and supplement accordingly— he takes a 2,000 IU supplement daily (still far from the 10,000 IU considered the maximum safe daily intake by many experts). The Institute of Medicine's official vitamin D recommendations could change as early as next year—the group recently put together a panel to reevaluate its guidelines

http://www.oprah.com/article/omagazi...omag-vitamin-d

[sparky]

we have yet to find a dermatologist who condones any amount of unprotected time in the sun

I BEG TO DIFFER; A Dermatologist Who's Not Afraid to Sit on the Beach

By GINA KOLATA

Published: Tuesday, July 20, 2004

Dr. A. Bernard Ackerman, a dermatologist, spends much of his time diagnosing the potentially deadly cancer melanoma and other skin diseases.

But when he returned from a recent trip to Israel, he was, well, deeply tanned.

Burnished brown, in fact.

Dr. Ackerman did not use sunscreen on his trip.
He did not give any thought to the hundreds of moles that speckle his body.
He did not even put a hat on his bald head.


Link to the New York Times STORY

[sparky]

Is He just a 'quack"

uh,,,,,,, no.

This award is given to only ONE person each year.

The American Academy of Dermatology recognized Ackerman in 2004 with its Master Dermatologist Award which recognizes "an Academy member who throughout the span of his or her career has made significant contributions to the specialty of dermatology" and to the leadership and education programs of the Academy.[6]

[John]

Nice find Sparky!

[sparky]

not a Derm, but a favorite on Oprah's shows, and this is from her website.

The Importance of Vitamin D


Listen In
Who did Dr. Oz count on for answers to questions he couldn't figure out in medical school? His father-in-law! Dr. Gerald Lemole, Lisa Oz's father, talks with Dr. Oz and Lisa about the importance of getting enough vitamin D.

Dr. Lemole says the importance of vitamin D is highly underrated. It's not only good for bone health, but has also been correlated to improving a host of illnesses, including colon cancer, inflammation, multiple sclerosis, seasonal disorders and depression. In addition, Dr. Lemole says many older people lose their balance not because of their age, but because they have low levels of vitamin D, which helps regulate muscle and balance.

Dr. Lemole says that although you can take vitamin D as an oral supplement, the best way for it to be absorbed is by getting some sun exposure. "Everybody is afraid of the sun—everyone uses hats and sunscreen to cover up everything, and we don't really get out in the sun," Dr. Lemole says. Because of this, people are getting less vitamin D, he says. While Dr. Lemole doesn't recommend spending a long time bathing in the sun, 15 minutes a day will get you the vitamin D levels that are recommended, he says.

Dr. Lemole also says that every person is different and may require different levels of vitamin D depending on how much you take, how your body absorbs it and what you eat. He also stresses that it helps to improve the immune system as well and works with more than a thousand genes in the body.


Link Back

[Kathe]

WOW! Great info - this stuff is really fantastic! This is the stuff, if enough of us use it to educate our customers, that will turn the tide! Grass roots stuff is what America has always been about! Thanks so much for the info Frankie and Sparky!

[sparky]

Been collecting them.

Go to JUST D FACTS for some more of my collections

[frankie]

Thanks Sparky great info.

[eileen]

Sparky do you have Dr. Lemole's article from a few years ago on Vitamin D? It's now online if you want it. Dr. Oz graduated the same year as I did locally here and Dr. Lemole did my father-in-laws heart surgeries.

[frankie]

Don`t you just love this one.

CDC Finds 97% of Americans Contaminated by Sunscreens

Posted by Tan Man on April 22, 2008
by Ellen Holder (NaturalNews)

The Center for Disease Control (CDC) released a new study showing that nearly all Americans are contaminated with oxybenzone, a widely-used sunscreen ingredient.

This chemical so far has been linked to allergies, hormone disruption, and cell damage, as well as low birth weight in baby girls whose mothers are exposed during pregnancy.

Oxybenzone is also a penetration enhancer, a chemical that helps other chemicals penetrate the skin. So where has the FDA been on this?
Apparently in the back pocket of the sunscreen industry, The Food and Drug Administration, again, has failed in its duty to protect the public from toxic chemicals like oxybenzone.

Caving to the industry lobbyists, the agency has delayed final sunscreen safety standards for nearly 30 years. FDA issued a new draft of the standards last October under pressure from Environmental Working Group (EWG), but continues to delay finalizing them because of pressure from the industry.

In their online cosmetic safety database, EWG identifies nearly 600 sunscreens sold in the U.S. that contain oxybenzone, including leading brand names like Hawaiian Tropic, Coppertone, and Banana Boat, and many facial moisturizers as well.

On top of that, they also show many of these so-called sunscreens offer inadequate protection from the sun. In fact, they found that sunlight also causes oxybenzone to form free radical chemicals that may be linked to cell damage, which is the exact opposite reason many women mistakenly use the sunscreen – to protect them from damaging free radicals which lead to premature aging!
And interestingly, as sunscreen sales have risen, so has the rate of skin cancers. Go figure.

We’ve been pressured to believe that the sun is our enemy and we need to slather on loads of sunscreen to protect ourselves, when in actuality we need sunlight for our bodies to manufacture vitamin D.

For those of us who are either fair skinned or just plain vain and worry about age spots and wrinkles, limiting our unprotected sun exposure to 20 minutes a day is adequate for our daily dose of vitamin D.

For more fun in the sun, overexposure can be avoided by using a natural or organic sunscreen with a reflective barrier like zinc, instead of chemical sunscreens. Even a small amount of shea butter rubbed into the skin daily offers a bit of natural UV protection.

Whatever you do, don’t wait for the FDA to help you in your choice. Based on their history in this category, it could be another 30 years before safety standards are improved.

References:
1. Environmental Health Perspectives: Concentrations of the Sunscreen Agent, Benzophenone-3, in Residents of the United States: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2003–2004
http://www.ehponline.org/docs/2008/1126…

2. Environmental Working Group: Comments from EWG on the U.S. FDA’s Proposed Amendment of Final Monograph for Sunscreens
http://www.ewg.org/node/25705

3. Environmental Working Group: Americans Carry ‘Body Burden’ of Toxic Sunscreen Chemical
http://www.ewg.org/node/26212

[frankie]

When I was young all I used outside was Zinc. You could go to the beach and see people with white all over their face and shoulders.

[sparky]

Feed me links, I'll post up anytime.

[John]

Just sign up on Google & Yahoo news alerts. It's free & you can have a few if you like.

Vitamin D
Tanning

You'll get new stories daily to your email.

[sparky]

I think the idea is to have places to send clients for more info, rather than let them go 'fishing' on their own.

[eileen]

Here you go.
The Great Debate