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Dr. Michael Holick took a big step forward in 2001 in making the case that sun-induced vitamin D is critical to human health.

He stood there, again, on the ballroom stage in Nashville in front of hundreds of indoor tanning facility operators, for the sixth year in a row playing a major part in Smart Tan's educational conference.

He is Boston University's Dr. Michael Holick - perhaps the world's leading researcher touting the belief that humanity, in its recent obsession over fitness and preventative medicine, has overlooked the importance of one particular vitamin - the human hormone sometimes called "The Sunshine Vitamin."
We know it as vitamin D.

So Holick stood there again Oct. 25 in Nashville, reviewing what he has deemed "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly" about ultraviolet light. Many in the audience have heard him speak several times before - three, four or even five times. For any other speaker, that's a recipe for yawns. But the indoor tanning industry soaks in Holick's material each year, and Holick pours an increasing amount of energy and excitement into his talks.

And this year the tanning industry had something to be excited about. Holick is on the verge of publishing the results of research the tanning industry funded, confirming some long-believed theories about indoor tanning and vitamin D production. Call it the first giant step in the tanning industry's new effort to mount data in support of the positive effects of ultraviolet light.

"We think that in general the population is in risk of vitamin D deficiency chronically at all ages," Holick said. "Only by having adequate exposure to sunlight or taking much more vitamin D will you satisfy your vitamin D requirements."