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The Benefits of UV Light Read and discuss all the great news about UV light and Vitamin D.

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Old 04-03-2007, 02:46 PM   #1 (permalink)
 
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So can sunshine beat heart disease?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...4&in_a_source=

So can sunshine beat heart disease?

By JEROME BURNE - More by this author » Last updated at 10:16am on 3rd April 2007
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Vitamin D stores decline during the winter.

This Easter, it's not over-indulging in chocolate you should be worrying about, but your lack of exposure to the sun over the past six months.
All through winter, your vitamin D stores will have been declining, and by now you will have a fraction of what you need - not just for strong bones but to fight off a range of diseases, including cancer, heart disease and infections.
Last month, a study of 7,500 men and women found that most don't have enough vitamin D in their bloodstream for at least six months of the year.
'By Easter, 90 per cent of the population are seriously depleted in the amount of vitamin D they have in their bodies,' says author of the study Dr Elina Hypponnen, of the Institute of Child Health in London.
Although our bodies absorb some vitamin D from the food we eat, it can't absorb enough - the body has to manufacture the rest through sunlight, specifically UVB rays.
Fewer UVB rays reach the ground during the winter months, and less so the further north you go. The Scots, according to the new study, are twice as likely to suffer from dangerously low levels of vitamin D.
There have been a number of recent studies linking inadequate intake of vitamin D to poor health.
Researchers have suggested that by ensuring we get adequate amounts, breast, prostate and colon cancer rates would be reduced by more than 50 per cent. Other research has found that improved intake would help to prevent osteoporosis.
Meanwhile, scientists at the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta have suggested the reason we are more likely to get colds and flu in the winter is because that's the time it's hard to get enough vitamin D.
Inadequate levels of the vitamin have also been linked to depression and weight gain.
What's so controversial about this research, conducted at some of the world's top scientific centres, is that it suggests the current recommended daily amount for vitamin D is way too low.
According to some of the new estimates, we could need up to ten times more than we are told we need at the moment - either we should be getting this through supplements, or our food should be fortified with the vitamin, as it is in America.
(What we should not be doing is baking in the sun for hours on end, because of the risk of skin cancer.)
The official advice is that we need between 200 and 400 iu (international units of concentration) a day, some of which we can get from food - notably fatty fish and cod liver oil, but also lard, butter and egg yolk - and the rest from sunlight.
The official line is that a few minutes of exposure of the face and hands a few times a week throughout the year should be enough to prevent the bone softening that shows up as rickets. But experts such as Hypponnen believe that the blood levels that this amount provides would actually leave you with a vitamin D deficiency.
It's long been known that people in some immigrant groups are more likely to be deficient, but it now appears that most white middle-aged people, the ones thought to be all right, are also seriously lacking in the vitamin.
'Only 40 per cent of them had enough vitamin D in their blood to make their bones as strong as possible, even in the summer,' says Hypponnen.
She is one of a number of experts who believe that ideally we need between 1,600 and 2,000 iu a day - on top of whatever we're getting already from our diet and sunlight.
(She also believes that single supplements of the vitamin should be more easily available over the counter. At the moment it usually comes as part of a multi-vitamin.)
This raises another even more controversial issue - toxicity. Along with a low recommended daily amount, vitamin D traditionally comes with a big warning of the harm it can do if you take too much.
Over 2,000 iu, according to some sources, puts you at risk of absorbing too much calcium, leading to liver, kidney and heart damage. Other side-effects of overdosing could include increased thirst, nausea and vomiting.
However, one of the authors of the recent study linking vitamin D and flu, takes 5,000iu daily in the winter, and advises people to take 2,000 iu for each kilo of their body weight daily for three days at the first sign of infection.
There are other examples of people who have taken large doses with no ill-effect. For instance, an American study of wheelchair-bound patients with severe weakness and fatigue, who were given very high doses totalling 50,000 iu a week. They suffered no problems and were walking after six weeks.
Another described how a group of adolescents with a severe deficiency were given single monthly doses of 100,000 iu with no ill effects.
Here, the Food Standards Agency recommends supplements of no more than 1,000 iu because 'intakes above this amount could be harmful'.
As yet, it's too early to say who is right about all of this; the one thing everyone agrees on is that these new ideas about vitamin D need further testing.
So it is probably too early to start going for mega-doses of 10,000 iu. But modern-day living does seem designed to reduce our vitamin D intake to a minimum.
We're Dracula-like when it comes to sunlight, terrified by the fear of skin cancer into spending our days indoors, and when we do venture out, we are urged to slap on the sun block.
As for our diet, the low-fat mantra discriminates against foods with vitamin D, most of which come with high doses of fat and cholesterol. Since our food is unlikely to be fortified any time soon, should you be taking a supplement? No one can tell you for certain, but it's certainly worth making sure you get enough sun. It's time to book that holiday.
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