I have just finished watching this excellent video presentation on vitamin D deficiency. (from oct 2007) The presenter is Louise Gagne MD, a medical doctor who has become intrigued with this epidemic problem.

This is a presentation worth watching, takes about an hour.

I loved that she recommends doctors consider adding vitamin D testing to annual screenings!!

Another thing I liked was her map of the U.S. I’ve had a hard time conceptualizing where exactly UVB exposure diminishes and therefore D deficiency increases. She had a horizontal line drawn from Los Angeles across to Atlanta and said that anyone south of that line had access to good UVB throughout the year; anyone north of that line was subject to more seasonal limitations of UVB. She also used shadows as a helpful tool in knowing if you’re getting UVB exposure. If your shadow is as long as you are (or longer) your not getting adequet UVB during those times.

She goes on to discuss diseases, research, and treatment of vitamin D deficiency.

Enjoy!

p.s. - I noticed that I couldn’t get the video to work in my firefox browser, but it worked fine when I used Internet Explorer.