Tanning beds, sunlight, vitamin D and superb bone strength. Can tanning beds produce the World’s strongest bones?

-

Can tanning beds or sunlight produce sufficient vitamin D to produce superbly strong bones? The answer appears to be “yes.”

I am part of an email list of persons who are intensely interested in vitamin D research and who share articles on vitamin D and sunlight as preventive therapies for various diseases. I recently received a most interesting email from Rufus Greenbaum, who lives in the UK and who organizes vitamin D symposiums there. He had met a man who had been using a tanning bed twice weekly since 1970 and who had just completed a bone densitometer test, known as a DEXA scan. On viewing the results of the scan, his doctor told him “You have the strongest bones that I have ever seen.”

That news certainly came as no shock. Conventional tanning beds produce vast quantities of vitamin D in short periods of time,[1] and vitamin D is absolutely essential for optimal absorption of calcium in the gut.[2] [3] Without calcium absorption, vast quantities of ingested calcium will make little difference to bone strength; much of the calcium will be passed through the intestine and flushed down the toilet. It is already known that people who use tanning beds have dramatically stronger bones and higher blood-vitamin D levels than those who don’t use them.[4]

Both tanning beds and sunlight enhance the levels of vitamin D in the skin by producing UVB light, which converts cholesterol in the skin to vitamin D. In fact, ninety percent of the vitamin D produced in the US population is due to sunlight exposure.[5]

Research has shown that daily sunlight exposure in elderly women, during a period of one year, increased serum vitamin D levels by 400% and decreased the risk of hip fractures dramatically.[6] A control group, who did not receive sunlight exposure, had six fractures for each fracture experienced by the sunlight-exposed group. The message is that sunlight exposure may decrease the risk of osteoporotic fractures by 84%! Finally, and even more impressively, research from Spain showed that among women who actively sought the sunlight, the risk of fractures was only one-eleventh that of women who spent most of their lives indoors.[7] This begs the questions: Should we really avoid sunlight and tanning beds like the plague? Is such avoidance worth the risk of dying from osteoporotic fractures?

The key to safe exposure to sunlight or sunlamps is to be sure not to burn. And for those who are frightened about melanoma, please read my previous blogs on the subjects: http://drsorenson.blogspot.com/2010/07/exposing-melanoma-fraud-part-1.html

http://drsorenson.blogspot.com/2010/07/exposing-sunlightmelanoma-fraud-part-2.html

http://drsorenson.blogspot.com/2011/03/sunshine-weekends-and-vitamin-d-may.html

http://drsorenson.blogspot.com/2009/12/melanoma-midsummer-nights-dream-or.html

[1] Grant, W. Personal communication with the author, June, 2006

[2] Heaney, R. et al. Calcium Absorption Varies within the Reference Range for Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D. Journal of the American College of Nutrition 2003; 22: 142–146.

[3] Heaney, R. Vitamin D and calcium interactions: functional outcomes. Am J Clin Nutr 2008;88(suppl):541S–4S

[4 Tangpricha V. et al. Tanning is associated with optimal vitamin D status (serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration) and higher bone mineral density. Am J Clin Nutr 2004;80:1645-49.

[5] Reichrath J. The challenge resulting from positive and negative effects of sunlight: how much solar UV exposure is appropriate to balance between risks of vitamin D deficiency and skin cancer? Prog Biophys Mol Biol 2006;92(1):9-16

[6 Sato Y, Metoki N, Iwamoto J, Satoh K. Amelioration of osteoporosis and hypovitaminosis D by sunlight exposure in stroke patients. Neurology 2003;61(3):338-42.

[7] Larrosa, M. Vitamin D deficiency and related factors in patients with osteoporotic hip fracture. Med Clin (BARC) 2008;130:6-9.

Gwyneth Paltrow has “seen the light.”

--
I’m a fan of Gwyneth Paltrow—a talented actress who performs well in any movie genre. She recently performed a great service by posting a “sunlight” article on her newsletter: http://goop.com/?page=newsletter_vn&id=most_recent. In it, she related the fact that her tibia had been fractured, and that on having her vitamin D assessed, she was told that her levels were the lowest her doctors had ever seen. She obviously had a disease called osteomalacia, or adult rickets. They suggested strong vitamin D supplementation and that she spend time in the sunlight. Her statement about sunlight was followed by an exclamation point, suggesting her surprise at such a heretical idea. Gwyneth also included an excellent article by her physician, Frank Lipman, which beautifully puts to rest the notion that after thousands or millions of years under the sunlight, we should avoid any contact with it.

Kudos is due Ms. Paltrow and her physicians, especially Dr. Lipman. When celebrities speak, their fans listen. The Powers of Darkness (POD)—those who would have us avoid the sunlight and have even suggested that we live underground to avoid it[1]—are responsible for the weakened bones of Gwyneth and millions more in the US alone. As stated by Susan Brown, PhD, in a research review in Alternative Medicine Review, “Each year in the United States, more than 1.5 million low-trauma osteoporotic fractures occur, including more than 300,000 hip fractures.”[2]

In spite of the fact that calcium cannot be absorbed without sufficient vitamin D, and that “normal” levels of at least 32 ng/ml are needed to optimize absorption,[3] [4] the POD continue to spew their anti-sun venom.

I recently had the opportunity to work with a woman—who had been away from of the sunlight for years—as she worked as a massage therapist in a large resort hotel. She had experienced a great deal of bone and muscle pain and told me that she had to quit her job; her hands hurt too severely to continue. She also informed me that her bones had begun to shift across her chest as she did massages, and she sometimes had to use crutches to walk. I suggested that she have her vitamin D assessed and she complied. Her D measurement was 6 ng/ml, a level indicative of severe deficiency (we now consider optimal levels to be about 60). After bringing her levels to 45, all of her bone disorders disappeared, and she is now able to resume her career in massage therapy.

Those who read the medical literature are not surprised about Ms. Paltrow’s experience. For instance, one of the most compelling studies on fracture risk and sunlight was done by Dr. Sato and his colleagues in Japan.[5] They studied the effects of sunlight exposure—or the lack thereof—on the bone mass of elderly women who were either exposed to sunlight or were kept inside a care facility. Over twelve months, 129 women were exposed to sunlight every day, and another 129 received no sunlight exposure. The results were startling: in these sedentary women, the sunlight group increased bone mass by an average 3.1%; in the non-sunlight-exposed group, it decreased by 3.3%, a difference of 6.4%. This is important, because high bone mass prevents fractures. The risk of fracture increases two to three times for every 10 percent drop in bone density.[6] In Sato’s study, however, the women who stayed indoors had six-times as many fractures as those who sunbathed outdoors. Also interesting to note is that vitamin D levels in the sunlight-exposed group increased by 400%.

In addition, an investigation in Spain concluded that women who actively participated in sun exposure had one-eleventh the chance of a hip fracture as those who did not![7] Another in Switzerland found that only 4% of hip fracture patients had vitamin D blood levels of 30 ng/ml.[8] In other words, 96% were vitamin D-deficient.

Gwyneth, we appreciate your willingness to help spread the truth about sunlight, one of God’s greatest gifts to the world and the only natural way to obtain vitamin D. We hope that more celebs will speak out against the Powers of Darkness and help us “stop the insanity.”


[1] Dr. Wilma Bergfeld, then-president of the American Academy of Dermatology at Derm Update, the AAD’s 1996 annual media day, Nov. 13, 1996.
[2] Brown, S. Vitamin D and Fracture Reduction: An Evaluation of the Existing Research. Altern Med Rev 2008;13:21-33.
[3] Heaney RP. The vitamin D requirement in health and disease. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol 2005;97:13-19.
[4] Bischoff-Ferrari HA, Giovannucci E, Willett WC, et al. Estimation of optimal serum concentrations of 25-hydroxyvitamin D for multiple health outcomes. Am J Clin Nutr 2006;84:18-28.
[5] Sato, Y. et al. Amelioration of osteoporosis and hypovitaminosis D by sunlight exposure in stroke patients. Neurology 2003;61:338-42.
[6] Nguyen, T. et al. Prediction of osteoporotic fractures by postural instability and bone density. BMJ 1993;307:1111-15.
[7] Larrosa, M. Vitamin D deficiency and related factors in patients with osteoporotic hip fracture. Med Clin (BARC) 2008;130:6-9.
[8] Bischoff-Ferrari, H. et al. Severe vitamin D deficiency in Swiss hip-fracture patients. Bone 2008;42:597-602.

Living longer and better with Vitamin D and sunlight

Low vitamin D levels have once again proven to be a risk factor for earlier death. In a study of Asian women, low levels of vitamin D correlated to a doubling of the risk of death over 6.9 years.[1] Osteoporosis and cancer that existed when the study began were also predictive of early death, which would be expected. What intrigues me is that both osteoporosis and cancer are closely correlated to low vitamin D levels; it is therefore plausible that low levels of vitamin D were not only directly responsible for a higher death rate, but also at least partially responsible for the increased risk of the two deadly diseases that also predicted more deaths.

This is at least the third study to show that lower vitamin D levels correlate to shortened life spans. The evidence is incontrovertible: for a long life with fewer diseases, keep your vitamin D levels high.

[1] Kuroda, T et al. Contributions of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, co-morbidities and bone mass to mortality in Japanese postmenopausal women. Bone 2009;44:168–172

How soon will you lose your teeth? With vitamin D, maybe you won’t!

AOL just asked the tooth-loss question on their front page; unfortunately, the article they linked to never mentioned vitamin D as a prophylactic against dental disease and loss of teeth. I was immediately reminded of research showing that periodontal (gum) disease and cavities were both related to low levels of vitamin D deficiency. Yes, you heard that correctly. Vitamin D plays a vital role in dental health, especially the health of gums and bones.

So before you subject your teeth to $20,000 worth of cosmetic dentistry in order to display those pearly whites, be sure your gums are healthy; otherwise, those beautiful teeth may not hang around very long. Beyond vitamin D, good oral hygiene and good nutrition are also vital.

Periodontal disease (PD) attacks the gums and bone around the teeth, causing inflammation, bone loss and subsequent loss of teeth. It is the number-one cause of tooth loss.[1] When the reasons for tooth extraction are analyzed, about 51% of teeth are extracted due to PD.

I previously wrote about the close relationship of inflammation to cardiovascular disease (CVD). In that article I established that vitamin D was anti-inflammatory, and that high vitamin D levels related to a 60% reduction in heart attacks. There is also a close relationship between CVD and PD. Men with PD who are under 50 years of age have a 72% greater risk of CVD.[2]

In the case of PD, bacteria that live in dental plaque cause an immune cell response that releases inflammatory chemicals—the body’s way of trying to destroy the bacteria. Unfortunately, these chemicals cause inflammation of the gum and bone tissue, leading to PD.[3] It is not surprising, then, that the anti-inflammatory properties of vitamin D would reduce both CVD and PD.

Vitamin D and sunlight are also known to dramatically prevent or even reverse osteoporosis. (See my earlier blogs). The bone that holds the teeth is called the alveolar ridge, and if it degenerates, tooth loss is increased. Research has shown that that osteoporosis is closely related to alveolar ridge bone loss and loss of teeth.[4] So does vitamin D reduce the risk of alveolar bone and thereby prevent tooth loss? One study showed that subjects who were supplemented with both calcium and vitamin D had a rate of tooth loss that was 60% lower than those not supplemented![5]

It might seem that using an osteoporosis drug might be the answer to maintaining the alveolar ridge, but don't even think about going there. One of the most popular anti-osteoporosis drugs, Fosomax, may cause bone death in the jaw, resulting in pain, swelling, gum infections, poor healing of gums and loose teeth. Not the result we want to maintain our dental health![6]

http://www.druginjurylaw.com/FosamaxSideEffect.html

The message: maintain optimal vitamin D levels; it will help protect agains teeth loss with none of the side effects of noxious osteoporosis drugs.

[1] dental insurance.com 2006.
[2] DeStefano, F. et al. BMJ 1993;306:688-9.
[3] Page, R Compend Contin Educ Dent 2002;23:11-14.
[4] Tezal, M. J Periodontol 2000;71:1492-8.
[5] Krall, E. et al. Am J Med 2001;111:452-56
[6] druginjurylaw.com/FosamaxSideEffect.html

Heart failure predicts an increased bone fracture rate. Is vitamin D deficiency the reason for the correlation?

A recent and interesting medical paper says that researchers have “discovered” that persons diagnosed with heart failure in hospital emergency departments have a dramatically increased risk of bone fractures. [1] The researchers stated that after one year, those diagnosed with heart failure (HF) had four times the risk of any fracture and more than six times the risk of hip fracture when compared to those who came to emergency departments for non-HF reasons.

One of the authors stated that it is not known how heart failure promotes bone fractures. My answer, of course, is that heart failure does not promote fractures; the risk of each of these terrible diseases is profoundly increased by vitamin D deficiency. We know, for instance, that lack of vitamin D in the blood can cause rickets, osteoporosis and osteomalacia. The earliest known value of vitamin D was in the prevention of rickets, the horrible, deforming bone disease of D-deficient children. Osteoporosis (brittle bones that are susceptible to fractures) also develops if there is insufficient vitamin D in the blood.

One of the most compelling studies on fracture risk was done by Dr. Sato and his colleagues in Japan.[2] They studied the effects of sunlight—or the lack thereof—on the bone mass of elderly women who were either exposed to sunlight or were kept inside a care facility. Over twelve months, 129 women were exposed to sunlight every day, and another 129 received no sunlight exposure. The results were startling: in these sedentary women, the sunlight group increased bone mass by an average 3.1%; in the non-sunlight-exposed group, it decreased by 3.3%, a difference of 6.4%. This is important, because high bone mass prevents fractures. The risk of fracture increases two to three times for every 10 percent drop in bone density.[3] In Sato’s study, however, the women who stayed indoors out of the sunlight had six times as many fractures as those who sunbathed outdoors. Also interesting to note is that vitamin D levels in the sunlight-exposed group increased by 400%.

An investigation in Spain concluded that women who actively participated in sun exposure had one-eleventh the chance of a hip fracture as those who did not![4] Another in Switzerland found that only 4% of hip fracture patients had vitamin D blood levels of 30 ng/ml.[5] In other words, 96% were vitamin D-deficient.

So what does this have to do with heart failure (HF)? Much more than you might imagine! Vitamin D deficiency appears to dramatically increase the risk of HF, just as it increases the risk of osteoporosis and fractures. Inflammation is common with HF, and is often caused by proteins called cytokines that are either pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory elements of the immune system. Vitamin D has an amazing ability to inhibit pro-inflammatory cytokine production[6],[7]while stimulating the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines[7]and is particularly useful in improving the cytokine profiles in patients with congestive heart failure.[7]

In France, deaths from HF are 20% higher than average in January and 15% lower in August—a swing of 355 [8] Similarly, in Spain HF hospital admissions are 25% higher than average in January and 33% lower in August.[9] That is a 58% seasonal swing! We know that vitamin D levels are much higher in summer than winter, so it is highly likely that the higher HF rate in January is due to lower vitamin D levels.

Further corroborating the idea that vitamin D deficiency leads to or exacerbates heart failure is the fact that the incidence of heart failure in black Americans, compared to white Americans, is 40% higher in men and 100% higher in women.[10] Remember that dark-skinned people living at high latitudes have lower vitamin D levels—an easily-remedied situation. Not surprisingly, heart failure is related to low vitamin D in all races, and most sufferers have serum levels below 20 ng/ml, which is quite deficient. Adults with this condition also show a history of sedentary, indoor living.[11]

Tragically, newborns also suffer heart failure, and until lately studies had not considered vitamin D deficiency as a possible cause. However, in a study conducted in southeast England, sixteen infants were identified that had suffered HF between 2000 and 2006.[12] Six were of Indian and ten of African ethnicity. Six of them suffered cardiac arrest, three died, eight were placed on lung machines, and two were referred for heart transplants. The average serum vitamin D level of these children was only 7.4 ng/ml, and some of the infants had undetectable levels. Obviously, a few dollars worth of vitamin D could have prevented this catastrophe.

So there you have the answer. Both heart failure and fractures have a common underlying cause, and although there may be other factors that lead to heart failure and fractures, vitamin D deficiency is the certainly the most easily remedied. When will the world wake up to the crying need to optimize vitamin D levels?

References:

[1] van Diepen, S et al. Heart failure is a risk factor for orthopedic fracture. A population-based analysis of 16 294 patients. Circulation 2008; Available at: http://circ.ahajournals.org.
[2] Sato, Y. et al. Amelioration of osteoporosis and hypovitaminosis D by sunlight exposure in stroke patients. Neurology 2003;61:338-42.
[3] Nguyen, T. et al. Prediction of osteoporotic fractures by postural instability and bone density. BMJ 1993;307:1111-15.
[4] Larrosa, M. Vitamin D deficiency and related factors in patients with osteoporotic hip fracture. Med Clin (BARC) 2008;130:6-9.
[5] Bischoff-Ferrari, H. et al. Severe vitamin D deficiency in Swiss hip-fracture patients. Bone 2007 Nov 28 [Epub ahead of print]
[6] Muller, K. et al. 1,25-Dihydroxyvitamin D3 inhibits cytokine production by human blood monocytes at the post-transcriptional level. Cytokine 1992;4:506-12.
[7] Schleithoff, S. et al. Vitamin d supplementation improves cytokine profiles in patients with congestive heart failure: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Am J Clin Nutr 2006;83:731-2.
[8] Boulay, F. et al. Seasonal variation in chronic heart failure hospitalizations and mortality in France. Circulation. 1999;100:280-86.
[9] Martinez-Selles, M. et al. Annual rates of admission and seasonal variations in hospitalizations for heart failure. Eur J Heart Fail 2002;:779-86.
[10] American Heart Association. Heart and stroke statistics – 2004 update.
[11] Zitterman, A. et al. Vitamin D insufficiency in congestive heart failure: Why and what to do about it? Heart Fail Rev 2006;11:25-33.
[12] Maiya, S. et al. Hypocalcaemia and vitamin D deficiency: an important, but preventable cause of life-threatening heart failure. Heart 2008;94:581-84