Do you need pain relief? Have you considered a tanning bed?

As I previously posted, vitamin D deficiency correlates quite closely to chronic pain, and pain is usually reduced or eliminated by bringing blood levels of D to optimum. Another scientific paper on vitamin D and pain was recently brought to my attention; it discussed the case of a woman with Crohn’s disease, which tends to cause vitamin D deficiency.[1] She complained of bone pain and muscle weakness and had critically low vitamin D levels—only 7 ng/ml—which will do little more than sustain life. The woman was treated by putting her in a tanning bed three times weekly for ten minutes over a period of six months. She wore a one-piece bathing suit during these sessions. After the six months of treatments, she was “free of muscle weakness and bone and muscle pain.”

It is difficult to find anyone outside the tanning industry, other than vitamin D scientists, who has anything good to say about tanning beds. I am an exception, and use one in my home in winter when I cannot get any vitamin D from sunlight. I am careful not to burn in a tanning bed just as I am careful not to burn in the summer sunlight. It elevates my mood and gives me the vitamin D I need to lessen my risk of at least 105 diseases and disorders. However you decide to obtain your vitamin D3, make sure you get enough to produce a serum level of 50-60 ng/ml. If vitamin D supplementation is your only source, that will require about 4,000-5,000 IU per day, according to your size. Remember never to burn.

Here’s wishing you a pain-free future!

[1]Koutkia, P et.al. Treatment of vitamin D deficiency due to Crohn's disease with tanning bed ultraviolet B radiation. Gastroenterology. 2001;121:1485-8.Here’s to a pain-free future!