For decades now, both Susan and I have been telling our patients, and anyone else who would listen, not to stay out of the sun, but to use the sun to help maintain their general health, avoid osteoporosis and auto-immune diseases. When used correctly there is little chance of causing skin cancer, but incorrect use of the Sun and therefore over-exposure to UV-rays can of course be dangerous. We've even published an article "Sunlight, Vitamin D and Your Skin" on this very topic.
Traditional naturopathic medicine has always used short-time, early morning (before 9am in Summer and 10am in Winter) exposure to the sun as part of any health regime to treat a range of diseases.
The following transcript, of a news story televised on Australia’s ABC, confirms what Natural therapists have been preaching for years; but now even the scientists confirm this – so, it must be right…(sorry about the sarcasm...)
Transcript from Catalyst: Vitamin D - ABC TV Science: http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2514231.htm (12/03/2009)
Have we taken our fear of the sun too far? We’re told to keep out of the sun – so what are you to think when your doctor tells you that you’re not getting enough of it and as a result you now have a serious vitamin D deficiency? Dr Norman Swan soaks up some rays to find out what is really going on.
NARRATION:
The sun’s ultraviolet rays produce most of the vitamin D your body needs. But it’s a double edged sword – too much sun can cause skin cancer and too little can lead to vitamin D deficiency.
Sophie:
Our summers were spent basically down the beach but now of course life is different
because of John’s melanomas we’ve had to stay out of the sun and I guess that’s what’s led to the vitamin D deficiency.
Dr Norman Swan:
Sophie and John’s story isn’t unique there are lots of Australians with vitamin D levels that seem to be too low and that has enormous potential implications
NARRATION:
GP, Dr Larry Light, routinely tests his patients for their vitamin D levels.
Dr Larry Light:
Your vitamin D levels….
NARRATION:
And almost 80% of his patients over 60 are vitamin D deficient.
Dr Larry Light:
It's almost unusual to find someone over the age of 60 with normal Vitamin D levels.
Dr Norman Swan:
Dr Lights approach to people like Sophie and John could well be on the money low vitamin D levels have been associated with an increase risk of colon cancer schizophrenia diabetes multiple sclerosis falls and bone fractures not to mention heart disease. It all seems too amazing to be true but is it? And it’s all for something that’s not even a vitamin.
NARRATION:
It’s actually a chemical messenger – a hormone. Vitamin D is produced in your skin when it’s exposed to ultraviolet radiation from the sun. It then goes through a series of chemical processes in the liver and kidney where it’s converted to it’s active form – the hormone, calcitriol.
Prof. Rebecca Mason:
Now the most important thing that calcitriol does is help calcium and phosphate absorption from the environment into the body. Particularly important for strong bones and good muscle function. What we've found out though, that there are proteins that respond to Vitamin D in just about every cell in the body. And Vitamin D has effects in most tissues in the body.
NARRATION:
In recent years low vitamin D has been associated with the development of autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes… but Dr Jenny Gunton and her colleagues have found a link with all types of diabetes.
Dr Jenny Gunton:
It looks like people with diabetes are more likely to be vitamin D deficient. It’s not clear why it covers all types of diabetes but we think that it plays an important role in the function of beta cells and they’re the cells that make all the insulin for your body. The beta cells don’t work as well if you don’t have enough vitamin D. We don't know whether or not you can use Vitamin D to treat diabetes but it's a question that we're starting to look at. We're certainly treating people who we find to be Vitamin D deficient and it looks like it's helping their diabetes.
NARRATION:
The real scientific test to see whether vitamin D is truly of benefit is to give it to people in a trial.. and a recent study is taking trials involving 57,000 people taking vitamin D supplements and what they showed was that supplementation was associated with a lower risk of dying of any cause.
Dr Jenny Gunton:
I think Vitamin D deficiency is becoming a public health issue. It's becoming incredibly common in people who are otherwise healthy.
Prof. Rebecca Mason:
The groups who are really at risk are the people who are older. People who have dark skin. The people who cover up. And anyone who's chronically ill.
Dr Jenny Gunton:
Normal levels for vitamin D are a controversial topic but its very clear if your levels are below 25 that it’s very bad for your bone density and increased risk of osteoporosis and breaking your bones; up to 50 which is the current cut off for normal you still have abnormalities in calcium handling in the body.
Dr Norman Swan:
So if you’ve got a low level of vitamin D what’s the best way to replace it? Sunlight’s pretty good, 90% of vitamin D is made by sunlight having an impact on your skin, but sunlight also causes skin cancer do we really need more sun?
NARRATION:
Rebecca Mason and her team have made some remarkable findings – getting your vitamin D levels from the sun can be safe and may also have a protective effect.
Prof. Rebecca Mason:
What we've shown is that Vitamin D compounds used topically both in human skin and in animals reduce UV induced DNA damage and in animals reduces the immuno suppression and the skin cancers. We think that this reflects a natural protection in the skin that Vitamin D is giving you.
NARRATION:
Some experts recommend exposing 15% of your body to the sun every day for six to eight minutes before 11am or after three pm; and double this time during winter, if you live in Tasmania, or if you have dark skin.
NARRATION:
How does this sit with the Cancer Council’s Slip Slop Slap campaign?
Professor Ian Olver:
It’s very important that the sun protection message during the summer remains and the vitamin D message can complement it for times when the sun is unlikely to burn you skin.
NARRATION:
But getting out into the sun at a particular hour of day for just the right length of time is not practical for everyone….
John Biggs:
I've had two melanomas and do my best to sort of keep out of the sun.
NARRATION:
So for people like John, supplements have their place. But what’s the recommended dose?
Prof. Rebecca Mason:
The only supplements that are generally available here are about a thousand international units and most of them are in the Vitamin D3 form. In the same form as we make in the skin. If you've actually got significant levels of Vitamin D deficiency. So most people now are recommending a loading dose of at least say five tablets a day for a couple of weeks and then going back onto the one thousand units a day.
Dr Light:
Your vitamin D levels have risen from the original 23 up to 82 nanomoles per litre. So taking those capsules, I think it was about four at night paid off.
NARRATION:
But what about diet? With only 10% of the vitamin D your body needs coming from food is it a realistic source?
Dr Jenny Gunton:
We don’t get enough vitamin D from the diet unless you take supplements in nearly all cases, because you only get it from oily fish or cod liver oil and I’ve never had cod liver oil but I’m told it tastes memorably awful.
NARRATION:
So if you just want the maintenance dose of vitamin D, you would have to eat the equivalent of one large fillet of oily fish, or one tablespoon of tasty cod liver oil every day.
Sophie:
I’ll be taking vitamin D now for the rest of my life one capsule a day just to make sure that my levels don’t drop and that I can get on with life
Dr Norman Swan:
So what are the main messages here - well a lot of us are low in vitamin D and we don’t even know it, you can have your levels checked but they’re expensive to do, for some of us just being out in the sun for a few extra minutes a day particularly if we’re exercising that’ll be good, 15% of your body uncovered, many people though are going to require supplements sometimes in quite significant doses so it’s probably a good idea to have a chat with your doctor first.
Story Contacts
Dr Jenny Gunton
j.gunton@garvan.org.au
Garvan Institute of Medical Research
Prof Rebecca Mason
rebecca.mason@bosch.org.au
Bosch Institute, The University of Sydney
Boy, it's nice to be vindicated.
