Neon Beach

How to get vitamin D?
By Kim Painter, USA TODAY


Vitamin D, the "sunshine vitamin," is hot.
In just the past few weeks, researchers have said:

• Adults who consume 1,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D daily might lower their risks of colon, breast and ovarian cancers by up to 50%.

• Children whose mothers get plenty of vitamin D during pregnancy have bigger, stronger bones at age 9. In fact, maternal vitamin D matters more than all the milk children drink in those first nine years.

Other studies suggest the vitamin might even help prevent hypertension, diabetes and multiple sclerosis.

"Everyone has always focused on bone health, but that is only the tip of the iceberg," says Michael Holick, a researcher at Boston University.

So would you benefit from more of this stuff?

Sources of the 'sunshine vitamin'
Only a few common foods are good vitamin D sources:
International Units (IU) per serving
Cod liver oil, 1 tablespoon 1,360
Salmon, cooked, 3½ ounces 360
Mackerel, cooked, 3½ ounces 345
Tuna fish, canned in oil, 3 ounces 200
Sardines, canned in oil, drained, 1¾ ounces 250
Milk (non-fat, reduced-fat or whole), vitamin D fortified, 1 cup 98
Margarine, fortified, 1 tablespoon 60
Egg, 1 whole (vitamin D is found in egg yolk) 20
Liver, beef, cooked, 3½ ounces 15
Cheese, Swiss, 1 ounce 12
Current daily recommendation: 200 to 600 IU
Proposed by some: 1,000 IU

Source: Office of Dietary Supplements, National Institute of Health


Although there's some debate about the various health claims — and even more about how best to obtain the nutrient — many experts say yes.

That's partly because many people do not get even today's "adequate intakes" for bone health, which are set by the Institute of Medicine: 200 IU daily for children and young adults, 400 IU for those ages 51 to 70 and 600 IU for those 71 and older.

And 1,000 IU a day — the amount Holick and some other proponents recommend? "Essentially no one in the United States is getting that," he says.

Look at the food sources and it's easy to see why. To get 1,000 IU a day, "you would have to eat salmon every day, drink at least three glasses of milk and a glass of vitamin-D-fortified orange juice," Holick says.

Not likely. So this is where the controversial advice comes in. It turns out that you can make your own vitamin D — by exposing your skin to the sun. And Holick advocates just that: five to 10 minutes, two to three times a week from spring through fall, without sunscreen, for people with average skin tones; less for fair-skinned people and more for dark-skinned people. (Dark skin takes more time to make the vitamin — one reason many African-Americans are low on D).

Researchers speculate that differences in sun-produced vitamin D partly account for different cancer death rates among blacks and whites and among people from different latitudes.

That idea is intriguing, but it's no reason to sunbathe and increase your risk of skin cancer and wrinkles, says Barbara Gilchrest, dermatology department chairman at Boston University. In a review for an upcoming edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, Gilchrest calls for more research on cancer prevention and other claims. In the meantime, she says, anyone already convinced can go ahead and take supplements. (Up to 2,000 IU is considered safe.)

Even Holick agrees that supplements are often the only option in winter: "If you live above Atlanta, Ga., you basically cannot make any vitamin D from November through February; for New York and Boston, it's mid-October through mid-March."

But he says taking enough is a hassle. The typical multivitamin contains only 400 IU, he says, so you need at least one vitamin D pill on top of that. (Don't take two multivitamins because you will get harmful levels of vitamin A, he warns.)

A small dose of sunshine, on the other hand, is often readily available — and, he says, pretty safe. That's where he parts company with the dermatology mainstream, which says any unprotected sun exposure adds to cumulative damage.

American Cancer Society senior epidemiologist Marji McCullough says: "We'll definitely address this issue in some way (soon). ... It's worth looking into."

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body tan

Good one Neon.

mr belvedere

More propaganda. It's interesting to me that the department chairwoman for Dermatology at Boston College is calling for yet more research reagarding cancer prevention and "other claims". I thought the verdict was already in? Too bad these voices aren't louder, although, I have been told that national media campaigns don't really do much for our industry. Is there a whitepaper I can make 100 copies of and tape them up all around the salon to help get this valuable information to the people that come in? Thanks for the research Neon! -Belvy

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"A dusty bible leads to a dirty life ..." -Synonymous