I will be taking some time off for my strategic planning for the upcoming year. I wish you a Happy New Year.
Wednesday, December 30th, 2009
Wishing you the gifts of love and joy
this Christmas and throughout the year.
May the Spirit of the season
fill you with thoughts and memories
of those lives you hold dear.
Kudos Michael Holick
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009In recent postings I’ve made reference to the work of Dr. Michael Holick, whom I consider the world’s top authority on vitamin D. He discovered the active form of vitamin D and led the research team that determined in the mid-90s that humans have the ability to make activated vitamin D throughout the body. Until then it was thought that the body’s entire supply of activated vitamin D was synthesized in the liver. Perhaps the most important discovery, however, was that the cells in the skin produced vitamin D after exposure to radiation from the sun.
Just this past May Dr. Holick was awarded the Linus Pauling Institute Prize for Health Research. His work over the years on vitamin D—the sunshine vitamin—has provided many other awards and honors, from such organizations as the American College of Nutrition, the American Skin Association, and the American Society for Clinical Nutrition, and including the Linus Pauling Functional Medicine Award from the Institute for Functional Medicine.
In 2004 he published a book, The UV Advantage, that advocated that we all get at least 15 minutes or more of full sun exposure—no sunscreen—several times a week.
This advice was at odds with the medical profession’s consensus on the damaging effects of the sun’s rays. Dermatologists had been warning the public for years to always stay out of the sun, or lather on sunscreen, because sunlight was the cause of melanoma, as well as less deadly forms of skin cancer. Disagreeing with the medical establishment is not often a good move politically, even if you are a leader in your field. Dr. Holick was fired from his post in the dermatology department of Boston University. Dr. Barbara Gilchrest, the department chairwoman, said Dr. Holick’s book was “an embarrassment for this institution and an embarrassment for him.” This was cheered by most of the dermatology hierarchy in the U.S.
I admire Professor Holick for being a goodscientist and commend him for being undeterred in his efforts to let everyone know that we need much more vitamin D than we can get from foods, and that prudent sunlight exposure, as well as supplements, really is needed for optimal health. He has worked tirelessly to get the word out that any hazards presented by moderate exposure to the sun are far outweighed by the multitude of health benefits. Thank you, Michael.
The Sun-Deficient Zone
Saturday, December 5th, 2009In a recent post on vitamin D I referred to the “sun deficient zones” of the earth, which are the areas farther from the equator in which people do not get enough sun during winter months to produce the needed amounts of vitamin D from their skin. I may have confused some of you when I defined the “sun deficient zone” as being outside the latitudes of 37 degrees from the equator. Let me try and explain it better.
Visualize a line running east and west across the U.S. roughly from San Francisco to Las Vegas, St Louis and on to Washington DC. If you live north of this line, in cities such as Chicago, Toronto and New York, you are in the “sun deficient zone” and are at risk for all the vitamin D-preventable diseases I mentioned in a previous blog.
In Asia this line runs just north of Tokyo and Seoul, so Shanghai, Hong Kong, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore all have healthy sun all year round. In the southern hemisphere, visualize a line running through Melbourne and Auckland. All the areas north of this line are in what we might call the “sun-sufficient” zone. Therefore most of New Zealand is in the sun deficient zone whereas Australia is not.
Virtually all of Europe is sun deficient in winter. Even sunny Italy and Greece are located where there is not enough sun in the winter months to produce adequate vitamin D. In contrast, virtually all of South America and all of Africa are in the sun-safe zone all year.
Proper sun exposure is so important. My guideline is approximately 20 minutes in midday sun most days of the week when you are in a sun-sufficient zone. For more information on sun exposures, see the Safe Sun Tables in Dr. Michael Holick’s book, The UV Advantage. He also discusses the effects of other factors, such as skin type, time of day, etc.
Although the consequences of vitamin D deficiency are extensive, it’s hard to know if you are deficient. It’s been said that if you press on your sternum (breastbone) and it hurts, you may be suffering from a vitamin D deficiency, but otherwise you need laboratory testing to determine what your blood levels are. Becoming deficient in vitamin D happens slowly, and recovery comes slowly, which is another reason why daily supplementation is important, especially if you live in a “sun deficient” zone.
As I promised, here are more study results confirming that sun deprivation increases the risk of degenerative disease.
1. Multiple sclerosis is about five times more likely to affect you if you live in North America or Europe compared with the tropics.
2. Diabetes is very rare in equatorial regions, while Finland has the world’s highest incidence.
3. The cancer death rate is 150 percent greater in people living in high latitudes than in the tropics.
Sun deficient zone 3 2 12/4/2009
