Britons Deficient in Vit. D?
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free skin care · Mon Sep 20, 2004 2:20 pm

Since I know a number of you on the forum are from Great Britain, I thought I'd post this nutrtion article from NutraIngredients.com.

This, on the surface, sounds like bad news, but the good news is that recent research has shown sufficient levels of Vitamin D to be helpful in controlling certain diseases that we'd all like to avoid. For people living in northern areas, supplementing is a good thing. I personally prefer quality vitamin supplements rather than relying on cereal makers or milk producers to get my Vitamin D, since when I take a supplement I know more about how much I get.

If you go towww.NutraIngredients.com, there are other articles about Vitamin D supplementation that are helpful.

Britons suffering from lack of sunshine

20/09/2004 - Health experts said at a news briefing last week in London that a quarter of Britons may suffer from a winter deficiency of vitamin D and that supplementation and further fortification of foods may be the answer.

Britain's northern location and lack of sunshine means that during the winter months many people do not get enough of the vitamin made by the body when it is exposed to sunlight.
This lack can be serious, increasing the risk of muscle weakness, autoimmune diseases, osteoporosis and certain types of cancer.

"About 25 per cent of adults are deficient in vitamin D in winter," Dr Birgit Teucher, of the Institute of Food Research, said during the briefing at the Science Media Centre.

Graham Bentham, a professor of environmental science at the University of East Anglia, said 80 per cent of vitamin D comes from exposure to sunlight, but during the months of October to March sunlight exposure in Britain is not be sufficient for the body to produce any vitamin D.

During the winter months, the body relies on stores of vitamin D built up from summer exposure to the sun and that obtained from food. However, increased time spent indoors and fears about the risks of cancer from too much sun now limit many people's exposure to sunlight, leaving them with depleted winter reserves.

The health experts concluded that more research is needed but suggested vitamin D supplements such as cod liver oil and fortifying more foods could be a solution – at present foods such as breakfast cereals and margarine are fortified with the vitamin.

The food industry could help by fortifying milk, bread and even orange juice with vitamin D.

A number of scientists have raised the profile of vitamin D deficiency in recent months, demonstrating an association with cancers, autoimmune diseases as well as fractures.

A US cancer prevention expert recently called for action to raise vitamin D levels, inciting the government to require calcium and vitamin D to be added to foods. He argued this could achieve a 20 per cent reduction in colon cancer deaths and osteoporosis-related fractures.

Most recently, a study propsed that vitamin D could be important for oral health. Researchers led by Bess Dawson-Hughes, director of the Bone Metabolism Laboratory at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston demonstrated that the higher the levels of vitamin D in volunteers' blood, the better their gum health. Among men and women aged 50 and older, those with the lowest vitamin D levels had 25 to 27 per cent more tooth loss than had those in the highest range.

An adequate intake for dietary vitamin D has been established as a range from 200 to 600 international units (IU) daily, depending upon age group, although recent evidence suggests that more vitamin D may be needed.

JUDY

free skin care · Tue Sep 21, 2004 2:31 am

Hi Judy,

I've often thought about that.

I work in an office - no sun.
In the winter it's dark when I get up it's dark when I go home. No sun.
It's cold so you cover up. Again no sun. I suppose on the upside many foods are fortified with vit D although I still think it's better to get it from the real source.

On another tack does artificial light eg. sunbed's stimulate vitamin D?

free skin care · Tue Sep 21, 2004 2:40 am

Also does wearing SPF hinder vit D production?? hmm

free skin care · Tue Sep 21, 2004 3:36 am

so many questions Laughing

I figured I could get round it by having occasional sunbed sessions but turn off the face panels Cool

free skin care · Tue Sep 21, 2004 5:34 am

Britons lack sunshine....boy tell me about it!! Sad

Got back from Spain early hours of Monday morning to the wind and rain and cold of Manchester! I've been sat in work with a jumper and also the heater on! I just can't get warm.

Its mad, we are only 2 and a half hours away from Spain and the weather is so different.

free skin care · Tue Sep 21, 2004 5:47 am

Gucci wrote:

Britons lack sunshine....boy tell me about it!! Sad

Got back from Spain early hours of Monday morning to the wind and rain and cold of Manchester! I've been sat in work with a jumper and also the heater on! I just can't get warm.

Its mad, we are only 2 and a half hours away from Spain and the weather is so different.

Gucci, and the prices! we seriously get ripped off here, menu del dia 9E 3 course meal (great quality) and a bottle of wine for £6.30!! it's gotten so bad I'm seriously considering moving to spain.

free skin care · Tue Sep 21, 2004 8:39 am

Exactly.....oh and dont forget the alcohol measures!!!!....

One guy said to me, in England you get a very expensive meal which is ok on great plates, in Spain you get an excellent meal on a chipped plate for a quarter of the price!!!

free skin care · Tue Sep 21, 2004 2:55 pm

This is a very interesting article about a professor who wrote a book on Vitamin D and sunshine.

http://www.mercola.com/2004/may/12/sunshine_recommendations.htm

The article shows that they are beginning to again see cases of Rickets, which have not been seen in any number since the 1800's? The article raises the question that perhaps derms insistence on no sun exposure is making us so deficient in Vit. D that we are suseptible to many diseases because of this deficiency.

Still looking for info on getting Vit. D from a tanning bed.

One thing I do know is that it's manufactured partly from your skin's exposure to the sun, but partly from your eyes being exposed to sunlight.

I've also read many times that our propensity to skin cancer is much more a result of inadequate anti-oxidant levels than it is moderate exposure to sunlight. Even when someone is sunburned, if they have high levels of anti-oxidants, that is a protection against skin cancer.

SPF does definitely interfere with absorption of Vitamin D, but unless you put it all over your body or have all body parts covered, the exposed parts will get some advantage.

I think the recommendation is 10 to 15 min. 3 times a week. And, of course, you can get Vit. D from fish, oysters, cream and fortified foods.

JUDY

free skin care · Tue Sep 21, 2004 3:01 pm

You're in luck. Tanning beds will produce Vit. D. Here's the word from the formost authority on Vitamin D

http://www.httg.com/vitamin_d.htm

But, as with anything, moderation is highly important. You don't want to tan in the sun or with a tanning bed to the extent that your skin is like leather.

JUDY

Tue Sep 21, 2004 5:07 pm

JudyMarshall wrote:

You're in luck. Tanning beds will produce Vit. D. Here's the word from the formost authority on Vitamin D

http://www.httg.com/vitamin_d.htm

But, as with anything, moderation is highly important. You don't want to tan in the sun or with a tanning bed to the extent that your skin is like leather.

JUDY

Just an agreement on the tanning bed thing--artificial light is recommended to people with SAD (seasonal affective disorder, you can get it from lack of sun, so similar to the vit. D thing). In fact I think SAD corresponds with very low vit. D levels. I remember watching a video on SAD in psychology class, and they told the poeple to wear these funny hat things that produced artificial light, and it makes them better.

free skin care · Wed Sep 22, 2004 8:51 am

The number of children with rickets in the uk is less than 70 and most of them come from black/asian backgrounds. You don't need sunshine to make vit D, just sunlight, so it's not lack of sunshine that is causing the minescule incidence of rickets in the uk. It's more likely to be a genetic thing or a dietary thing due to lack of dairy products or green veg. If it WAS down to lack of sunSHINE though, maybe the nhs would have to send all us brits to mauritious for a week every year to top up our levels Laughing

free skin care · Wed Sep 22, 2004 12:56 pm

guapagirl wrote:

The number of children with rickets in the uk is less than 70 and most of them come from black/asian backgrounds. You don't need sunshine to make vit D, just sunlight, so it's not lack of sunshine that is causing the minescule incidence of rickets in the uk. It's more likely to be a genetic thing or a dietary thing due to lack of dairy products or green veg. If it WAS down to lack of sunSHINE though, maybe the nhs would have to send all us brits to mauritious for a week every year to top up our levels Laughing

What the news says is that Rickets is once again showing up in higher than normal incidences in Great Britain. Some of this is due to the number of Africans and Asians who have migrated to the U.K., according to the linked article below.

The article does also show though that sunshine on the skin is vital to the creation of Vitamin D in the body, as the amounts contained in foods is so small, most people don't consume enough of any food with Vitamin D to get what they need. The article does state that sunshine is necessary to make vitamin D.

GuapaGirl... maybe the gov. will send you to sunny Spain. Maybe you and Lori can go together. Laughing

JUDY
http://www.chclibrary.org/micromed/00070460.html

free skin care · Thu Sep 23, 2004 8:44 am

...poor bloody spaniards...what have they done to deserve us? rofl

free skin care · Thu Sep 23, 2004 12:56 pm

speak for yourself the spaniards love me. Although my daughter who was 15 at the time we went last year believes it was her who was getting all the whistles and looks. I told her she was dillusional. I wont repeat what she said back.

free skin care · Fri Sep 24, 2004 2:53 am

take no notice, they appreciate the older woman on the continent. Cool

free skin care · Fri Sep 24, 2004 8:10 am

..especially if we haven't turned into their mothers! rofl

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