So there’s this new EPA sun safety program in Washington State. When you read the article, it’s clear that there’s still a lot of confusion surrounding the topic of safe sun exposure and vitamin D.

Although I completely agree that people need to BE VERY CAREFUL NOT TO GET A SUNBURN, the outreach specialist for this program says “he echoes scientists who say that about 10 minutes of sun a day on your arms and legs in the summer will give you plenty of vitamin D.” This is just baloney. At our clinic in the middle of summer most people are testing abnormally low with regard to vitamin D. Mind you, these are folks who are getting plenty of time outside in the mid-day summer sun. What’s a possible explanation for this phenomena? We stand by our belief that we just don’t get the UVB rays that we need at our latitude to generate adequet vitamin D levels, but we do get ample damaging UVA rays - hence the high incidence of melanoma.

So, two big tips for today:

1. Check your vitamin D levels and treat low vitamin D levels adequetly.

2. Always avoid getting a sunburn!

Later,
Darcy

Here’s a case report that appeared as “Lesson of the Week” in the British Medical Journal.

A 53 year old woman of Pakistani origin who had been treated for breast cancer went to her doctors regularly over the next two years with severe widespread muscuIo skeletal pain. When it was misdiagnosed as metastatic bone disease, she was put on the usual drugs for that condition. Her pains worsened, but prior to going on a planned combination chemotherapy treatment, she went for a six-week summer trip to visit her family in Pakistan. On her return to the U.K., her symptoms had completely resolved. Chemotherapy was delayed, and a whole body CT scan showed no evidence of metastasis. Symptoms showed up again after another British winter. Eventually, her severe vitamin D deficiency was recognized and treated appropriately.

You can read more details about this important lesson here.

Source: redorbit

Just loved writing this headline

Testing for vitamin D deficiency skyrockets

Testing for vitamin D levels, once uncommon, has skyrocketed as medical studies raise awareness about vitamin D deficiencies, according to three of the USA’s largest medical diagnostic labs. Physicians agree that they’re increasingly using the blood test to find out whether their patients are low on the vital vitamin.

Most of us get tired of the gray and rainy weather we’re subject to for so much of the year here in the Pacific Northwest, but did you know it could make you fat?

Scientists are finding that people who are overweight have lower levels of vitamin D, which is created when skin is exposed to sunlight.

The study found that low levels of the vitamin in blood interfered with the function of a hormone called leptin, which tells the brain when the stomach is full.

Read more why lack of vitamin D makes you fat

This may just help explain my mouth full of childhood cavities…how about YOU?

Vitamin D during pregnancy may impact baby’s teeth

If that headline doesn’t get your attention I’m guessing nothing will……

New research shows that having low vitamin D levels leads to an increase risk of death.

OMG - This new 2008 paper is fantastic!

Expert Opinion Paper on Vitamin D Deficiency
Diagnosis and Treatment of Vitamin D Deficiency is a new paper by four vitamin D experts.
JJ Cannell†, BW Hollis, M Zasloff & RP Heaney

A new study has come out about kids and vitamin D deficiency that will soon be published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Here’s the headline from this important research:

Raising current vitamin D levels from 200 International Units (IU) to 2,000 IU could boost bone health amongst children and have long-term health benefits, says new research.

Now that is exciting stuff!!

New research shows a connection between low vitamin D and back pain in older women.

Here’s a quote from the study:

“Given that low vitamin D status is fairly prevalent in older adults and that there are significant functional consequences to untreated chronic pain, these findings argue strongly for querying adults about their pain and potentially screening older women with significant back pain for vitamin D deficiency,” Dr. Gregory E. Hicks of the University of Delaware in Newark and his colleagues write.

There’s more information coming out with regard to vitamin D being connected to various pain problems. There was a recent pilot study completed at a Multidisciplinary pain rehabilitation center. The study was call - Prevalence and Clinical Correlates of Vitamin D Inadequacy among Patients with Chronic Pain

Here’s the conclusion of that study:

Conclusion: The prevalence and clinical correlates identified in this pilot study provide the basis for the assertion that vitamin D inadequacy may represent an under-recognized source of nociception [feeling pain] and impaired neuromuscular functioning among patients with chronic pain.

How about you? Have you noticed any reduction in pain by taking vitamin D?

This is sort of a follow-up post to the previous one about Asian women hiding from the sun for cosmetic purposes. There’s quite a body of work studying veiled women and vitamin D deficiency. I get so focused on the parts of the world that are naturally deprived of vitamin D due to latitude I guess I sometimes forget about those deprived of vitamin D due to cultural circumstances.

Vitamin D deficiency in veiled or dark-skinned pregnant women

Vitamin D deficiency in mothers of infants with rickets

A study of Arab women in Denmark (Calcif Tissue Int 2000; 66: 419-424) by researchers Glerup, Mikkelsen, Poulsen and others found that a group of Arab women suffering from muscle pain and weakness were suffering from a deficiency of vitamin D, which improved after three months of vitamin D therapy.
High prevalence of vitamin D deficiency among pregnant women and their newborns in northern India

“Almost every woman I see has osteomalacia,” Samar says. “Their bones are softening due to a lack of Vitamin D. They survive on a diet of tea and naan because they can’t afford eggs and milk and, to complicate matters, their burqas and veils deprive them of sunshine.