Vitamin D Deficiency Linked to Depression, Pain, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, and Breast Cancer

dose of reading and vitamin d (Photo credit: jypsygen)

By Dr. Mercola

Vitamin D research continues to impress upon us the importance of appropriate sun exposure as the ideal way to optimize your vitamin D levels.

Winter limits sun exposure for many up to six months of the year. During those times, your next best bet would be a safe tanning bed, as UV ray exposure also appears to have health benefits above and beyond the production of vitamin D.

A safe tanning bed sounds like an oxymoron to many, but one of the most damaging elements of tanning beds are the magnetic ballasts (which make that loud buzzing noise you hear in many tanning salons). If an electronic ballast is used, there are far less damaging EMFs, which provide most of the danger from tanning beds.

The benefits of UVB exposure from sun or a safe tanning bed include but are not limited to the production of nitric oxide—a compound that lowers your blood pressure. Despite its name, vitamin D is not a vitamin. It’s actually a potent neuroregulatory steroidal hormone, which helps explain some of its health impacts.

It has become abundantly clear that vitamin D deficiency is a growing epidemic across the world and could be contributing to hundreds of common health problems. In fact, correcting your vitamin D deficiency may cut your risk of dying from any cause by 50 percent, according to one analysis.

If this sounds too incredible to be true, consider that vitamin D influences nearly3,000 of your 24,000 genes. This occurs via vitamin D receptors, which can be found throughout your body, and should come as no great surprise given that humans evolved in the sun.

Vitamin D Beneficially Affects Gene Activity

Just one example of an important gene that vitamin D up-regulates is your ability to fight infections and chronic inflammation. It also produces over 200 anti-microbial peptides, the most important of which is cathelicidin, a naturally-occurring broad-spectrum antibiotic.

This is one of the explanations for why vitamin D is so effective against colds and influenza.

According to a January 2013 press release by Orthomolecular Medicine,1 there are now 33,800 medical papers with vitamin D in the title or abstract, and this veritable mountain of research shows that vitamin D has far-reaching benefits to your physical and mental health. Such research has shown that vitamin D can improve:

• Pregnancy outcomes (reduced risk of Cesarean section and pre-eclampsia)
• Type 1 and 2 diabetes
• Heart disease and stroke
• Autism, Alzheimer’s, and other brain dysfunction
• Bacterial and viral infections

Some of the most recently published studies, which I’ll review here, demonstrate how boosting your vitamin D levels can improve depression and pain in diabetics, Crohn’s disease, and breast cancer.

Relevance of Vitamin D in Crohn’s Disease

While previous research has associated low vitamin D levels with an increased risk of Crohn's disease and shown that correcting your vitamin D deficiency can improve symptoms of the disease,2 one of the most recent studies3 found a "significant interaction between vitamin D levels and Crohn's disease susceptibility, as well as a significant association between vitamin D levels and genotype."

Serum vitamin D levels were found to be significantly lower in patients with Crohn’s disease. Of the seven DNA sequence variations examined for effects, two variants showed a significant association with vitamin D levels in those with Crohn’s, and four variants were associated with vitamin D levels among controls.

In short, it shows that vitamin D can affect genetic expression associated with Crohn’s disease, and make matters either better or worse, depending on whether you have enough of it or not.

Vitamin D May Reduce Depression and Pain

In related news, vitamin D supplementation has been found to reduce both depression and pain in diabetic women. As reported by PsychCentral:4

“The investigators set out to determine how vitamin D supplementation might affect women with type 2 diabetes who were also suffering from depression.

At the beginning of the study, 61 percent of women reported neuropathic pain, such as shooting or burning pain in their legs and feet, and 74 percent had sensory pain, such as numbness and tingling in their hands, fingers and legs.

During the course of the study, the participants took a 50,000 IU vitamin D2 supplement every week for 6 months. By the end of the study, the women’s depression levels had significantly improved following the supplementation.

Furthermore, participants who suffered from neuropathic and/or sensory pain at the beginning of the study reported that these symptoms decreased at 3 and 6 months following vitamin D2 supplementation.”

According to lead researcher Todd Doyle, Ph.D., vitamin D supplementation “is a promising treatment for both pain and depression in type 2 diabetes.” However, I would note that you’d probably get even better results using vitamin D3 rather than prescription D2. In fact, previous research suggests vitamin D2 might do more harm than good in the long term...

Why I Recommend Vitamin D3 Over D2

Drisdol is a synthetic form of vitamin D2—made by irradiating fungus and plant matter—and is the form of vitamin D typically prescribed by doctors. This is notthe type produced by your body in response to sun or safe tanning bed exposure, which is vitamin D3.

According to a 2012 meta-analysis by the Cochrane Database,5 which assessed mortality rates for people who supplemented their diets with D2 versus those who did so with D3, there are significant differences in outcome between the two. The analysis of 50 randomized controlled trials, which included a total of 94,000 participants, showed:

• A six percent relative risk reduction among those who used vitamin D3
• A two percent relative risk increase among those who used D2

That said, the featured research certainly sheds light on the role vitamin D can play in the management of type 2 diabetes and associated side effects. And when you consider that an estimated 60 percent of type 2 diabetics are vitamin D deficient,6 there’s certainly plenty of room for improvement.

Additional support for the theory that vitamin D can be beneficial in the fight against type 2 diabetes was published in last year.7Here, the researchers found “a strong additive interaction between abdominal obesity and insufficient 25(OH)D in regard to insulin resistance.” They also claim 47 percent of the increased odds of insulin resistance can be explained by the interaction between insufficient vitamin D levels and a high body mass index (BMI).

Yet another study 8 published in Diabetes Care also suggests vitamin D supplements may help prevent type 2 diabetes mellitus in people with pre-diabetes. While the study is only an observational one and cannot establish causality, the researchers report that the participants who had the highest vitamin D levels were 30 percent less likely to develop diabetes during the three-year evaluation period, compared to those with the lowest levels.

Cut Your Breast Cancer Risk with Vitamin D, Cancer Surgeon Suggests

Meanwhile, a recent Science World Report9 highlighted the recommendation by British breast cancer surgeon, Professor Kefah Mokbel, who urges women to take daily vitamin D supplements to cut their risk of breast cancer. According to the featured article:

“Prof. Mokbel has also requested Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, to make [vitamin D] pills freely available as this would result in saving about a 1,000 lives annually. ‘I am calling for all women from the age of 20 to be given free vitamin D supplements on the NHS because it is effective in protecting against breast cancer,’ Prof. Mokbel said.

...[R]esearch10, 11 conducted by the Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Neb, which analyzed menopausal women from rural eastern Nebraska for over four years, revealed that taking vitamin D supplements along with calcium cut about 60 percent risk of cancer, including breast, lung and colon cancer...’It's inexpensive, it's safe, and it's easy to take. It's something that should be considered by a lot of people,’ says Joan Lappe, professor of nursing and medicine at Creighton University School of Medicine in Omaha, Neb. ‘It's low-risk with maybe a high pay-off.’"

Vitamin D Is Critical for Cancer Prevention

Indeed, an ever growing number of studies show that vitamin D has tremendous protective effects against a variety of different cancers, including pancreatic, lung, ovarian, breast, prostate, and skin cancers. Theories linking vitamin D deficiency to cancer have been tested and confirmed in more than 200 epidemiological studies, and understanding of its physiological basis stems from more than 2,500 laboratory trials.

For example, a 2007 study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine12 concluded that a serum 25(OH)D level of more than 33 ng/mL was associated with a 50 percent lower risk of colorectal cancer. And research published in theInternational Journal of Cancer two years ago13 found that a mere 10 ng/ml increase in serum vitamin D levels was associated with a 15 percent reduction in colorectal cancer incidence and 11 percent reduction in breast cancer incidence.

Another 2007 study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition14 found that after four years of follow up, cancer-free survival was 77 percent higher in women who received 1,100 IU vitamin D and 1,450 mg calcium per day, compared to those who received either a placebo or calcium by itself. According to Carole Baggerly, founder of GrassrootsHealth, as much as 90 percent of ordinary breast cancer may in fact be related to vitamin D deficiency. Breast cancer has even been described as a “vitamin D deficiency syndrome,” much like the commoncold and seasonal flu.

Most Important—Maintaining Optimal Vitamin D Serum Levels

Of utmost importance is the maintenance of a therapeutically beneficial serum level year-round. Here, studies indicate that thebare minimum for cancer prevention is around 40 ng/ml. Research suggests an ideal level might be around 60-80 ng/ml. A 2009 review article15 titled: “Vitamin D for Cancer Prevention: Global Perspective,” published in Annals of Epidemiology states that:

“Higher serum levels of the main circulating form of vitamin D, 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D), are associated with substantially lower incidence rates of colon, breast, ovarian, renal, pancreatic, aggressive prostate and other cancers.Epidemiological findings combined with newly discovered mechanisms suggest a new model of cancer etiology that accounts for these actions of 25(OH)D and calcium. Its seven phases are disjunction, initiation, natural selection, overgrowth, metastasis, involution, and transition (abbreviated DINOMIT). Vitamin D metabolites prevent disjunction of cells and are beneficial in other phases.

It is projected that raising the minimum year-around serum 25(OH)D level to 40 to 60 ng/mL (100–150 nmol/L) would prevent approximately 58,000 new cases of breast cancer and 49,000 new cases of colorectal cancer each year, and three fourths of deaths from these diseases in the United States and Canada, based on observational studies combined with a randomized trial.

Such intakes also are expected to reduce case-fatality rates of patients who have breast, colorectal, or prostate cancer by half... The time has arrived for nationally coordinated action to substantially increase intake of vitamin D and calcium.” [Emphasis mine]

Download Interview Transcript

General Supplementation Guidelines

As a general guideline, research by GrassrootsHealth suggests that adults need about 8,000 IUs per day to achieve a serum level of 40 ng/ml. That said, I strongly recommend boosting your vitamin D levels through appropriate sun exposure whenever possible. If you do opt for a vitamin D supplement, please remember that you also need to boost your intake of vitamin K2through food and/or a supplement. If you’re getting your vitamin D from the sun, this is not as critical, although you’d be wise to make sure you’re getting sufficient amounts of vitamin K2 from your diet either way.

How do you know if your vitamin D level is in the right range? The most important factor is having your vitamin D serum leveltested every six months, as people vary widely in their response to ultraviolet exposure or oral D3 supplementation. Your goal is to reach a clinically relevant serum level of 50-70 ng/ml, and to maintain that level year-round.

Sources

How Vitamin D Performance Testing Can Help Optimize Your Health

Additionally, a robust and growing body of research clearly shows that vitamin D is absolutely critical for good health and disease prevention. Vitamin D affects your DNA through vitamin D receptors (VDRs), which bind to specific locations of the human genome. Scientists have identified nearly 3,000 genes that are influenced by vitamin D levels, and vitamin D receptors have been found throughout the human body.

Is it any wonder then that no matter what disease or condition is investigated, vitamin D appears to play a crucial role? This is why I am so excited about the D*Action Project by GrassrootsHealth. It is showing how you can take action today on known science with a consensus of experts without waiting for institutional lethargy. It has shown how by combining the science of measurement (of vitamin D levels) with the personal choice of taking action and, the value of education about individual measures that one can truly be in charge of their own health.

In order to spread this health movement to more communities, the project needs your involvement. This was an ongoing campaign during the month of February, and will become an annual event.

To participate, simply purchase the D*Action Measurement Kit and follow the registration instructions included. (Please note that 100 percent of the proceeds from the kits go to fund the research project. I do not charge a single dime as a distributor of the test kits.)

As a participant, you agree to test your vitamin D levels twice a year during a five-year study, and share your health status to demonstrate the public health impact of this nutrient. There is a $65 fee every six months for your sponsorship of this research project, which includes a test kit to be used at home, and electronic reports on your ongoing progress. You will get a follow up email every six months reminding you "it's time for your next test and health survey."

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Vitamin D—One of the Simplest Solutions to Wide-Ranging Health Problems

Adult Gummies - Vitamin D (Photo credit: LookAfterYourself)

By Dr. Mercola

Vitamin D deficiency is a pandemic in the United States, but many Americans, including physicians, are not aware that they may be lacking this important nutrient. 

Despite its name, vitamin D is not a regular vitamin. It's actually a steroid hormone that you get primarily from either sun exposure or supplementation, and its ability to influence genetic expression that produces many of its wide-ranging health benefits.

Researchers have pointed out that increasing levels of vitamin D3 among the general population could prevent chronic diseases that claim nearly one million lives throughout the world each year. Incidence of several types of cancer could also be slashed in half.

Vitamin D also fights infections, including colds and the flu, as it regulates the expression of genes that influence your immune system to attack and destroy bacteria and viruses.

In this interview, one of the leading vitamin D researchers, Dr. Michael Holick, expounds on these and many other health benefits of vitamin D. He’s both an MD and a PhD, and wrote the book, The Vitamin D Solution.

Since the early 2000’s, scientific investigations into the effects of vitamin D have ballooned. By the end of 2012, there were nearly 34,000 of them. Dr. Holick is one of those who has really helped advance our understanding of the massive importance of vitamin D—far beyond its influence on bone metabolism.

“I’ve been doing vitamin D research for more than 40 years,” he says. “As a graduate student for my master’s degree, I was responsible for identifying the major circulating form of vitamin D, 25-hydroxyvitamin D that doctors typically measure now for vitamin D status in their patients. For my Ph.D.,

I identified the active form of vitamin D [1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D] while working at Dr. DeLuca’s laboratory.”

Are You Vitamin D Deficient?

Before the year 2000, very few doctors ever considered the possibility that you might be vitamin D deficient. But as the technology to measure vitamin D became inexpensive and widely available, more and more studies were done, and it became increasingly clear that vitamin D deficiency was absolutely rampant. For example:

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that 32 percent of children and adults throughout the US were vitamin D deficient
• The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey found that 50 percent of children aged one to five years old, and 70 percent of children between the ages of six to 11, are deficient or insufficient in vitamin D
• Researchers such as Dr. Holick estimate that 50 percent of the general population is at risk of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency

I’ve often said that when it comes to vitamin D, you don’t want to be in the “average” or “normal” range, you want to be in the “optimal” range. The reason for this is that as the years have gone by, researchers have progressively moved that range upward.

At present, based on the evaluation of healthy populations that get plenty of natural sun exposure, the optimal range for general health appears to be somewhere between 50 and 70 ng/ml.  For treatment of chronic disease such as cancer, recommendations go even a bit higher than that.  As Dr. Holick explains:

“The Institute of Medicine, including the Endocrine Society, recommends at least 20 for bone health. But there’s this area between about 21 and 30 that we consider to be an insufficient level. Most experts agree that if you’re above 30 nanograms per milliliter, this is a healthy level.

Because of its variability in the assay, the recommendation from the Endocrine Society Clinical Practice Guidelines that looked at all the literature and made recommendations for prevention and treatment of vitamin D deficiency for doctors is 40 to 60 nanograms per milliliter...

GrassrootsHealth has also been looking at this issue and also recommends 40 to 60 nanograms per milliliter as the ideal level.”

... A study was done in Maasai warriors who are outside every day. That really gives us an insight where we should all be with our blood levels of 25-hydroxy D. They were found to be around 50 nanograms per milliliter.”

Sources

Sunshine—The Best Way to Optimize Your Vitamin D Levels

I firmly believe that appropriate sun exposure is the best way to optimize your vitamin D levels. In fact, I personally have not taken a vitamin D supplement for three or four years, yet my levels are in the 70 ng/ml range.  If you can’t get enough sunshine, then a safe tanning bed would be your next best option. What makes for a safe tanning bed? Most tanning equipment use magnetic ballasts to generate light. These magnetic ballasts are well known sources of EMF fields that can contribute to cancer. If you hear a loud buzzing noise while in a tanning bed, it has a magnetic ballast system. I strongly recommend you avoid these types of beds and restrict your use of tanning beds to those that use electronic ballasts.

Dr. Holick recommends protecting your face when using a tanning bed, and to only go in for half the time recommended for tanning. Make sure the tanning bed you’re using is putting out UVB radiation. There are some on the market that only put out UVA, as this is what creates a tan. UVA rays are also the ones responsible for skin damage, however, and they do NOT make your skin produce vitamin D. Beds tend to vary between three to 10 percent UVB, and the higher the percentage of UVB, the better. There are also beds that make UVB only. They’re not as popular since they won’t make you tan, but if you’re only doing it solely for the health benefits, then a UVB tanning bed is certainly an option.

 “I think that you’re right,” Dr. Holick says. “We had shown many years ago that during the winter time, if you live above Atlanta, Georgia, you basically cannot make any vitamin D in your skin from about November through March. Obviously, you need to either take a supplement or use a tanning bed or an ultraviolet light that will produce vitamin D...  

I typically recommend, if you’re going to go out into the sun, expose your arms, legs, abdomen and back, two to three times a week for about half the time it would take to get a mild sunburn... [W]hen you make vitamin D in your skin, it lasts two to three times longer in your body.

You also make additional photoproducts in your skin. There’s some evidence that suggests that maybe these photoproducts have some unique biologic properties in the skin. Because we do know that sensible sun exposure decreases risk for malignant melanoma, and it could be that some of these photoproducts are helping in that process. Beta-endorphin is certainly made in the skin during exposure to sunlight. That’s probably the reason why people feel better when they’re exposed to sunlight.”

Want Safer Sun Exposure? There’s an App for That!

Dr. Hollick  helped consult for a company that developed a smartphone app called DMinder, available on www.dminder.info. Based on your local weather conditions (reported from the weather service) and other individual parameters such as your skin tone and age, it tells you how much UV radiation you’re getting, and how many units of vitamin D you’re making. It will also tell you when to get out of the sun, to protect yourself from sunburn.

Beware that you CANNOT make any vitamin D when you’re exposed to sunlight through glass since glass filters out most of the UVB that stimulates vitamin D production. All you’re mostly getting are UVA rays, which penetrate deeply into your skin, causing wrinkling, and increasing your risk of skin damage and skin cancer.  Also beware that UVA radiation is harsher in the morning, and late afternoon. So, contrary to popular advice, which was more tailored to tanning than optimizing your vitamin D stores, you’ll want to avoid early morning and afternoon sun. According to Dr. Holick, you cannot make vitamin D until about 10:00 in the morning until about 3:00 in the afternoon.

Another important nugget that many people may not appreciate is to take into account daylight saving time. When you’re in daylight saving time, the peak sun exposure is not noon – it’s 1:00 pm. So if you want to get your maximum sun exposure, go out around 1:00.

Dosing Recommendations if You Need to Take a Vitamin D Supplement

If your circumstances don’t allow you to access the sun or a safe tanning bed, then you really only have one option if you want to raise your vitamin D, and that is to take a vitamin D supplement. Here too recommendations vary, and there are no hard and fast rules. While Dr. Holick disagrees with my recommendation to regularly test your levels in order to assess proper dosage due to the cost involved, I feel this really is your best bet. You want to make sure you’re staying within the therapeutic range of 50-70 ng/ml year-round, so regardless of general guidelines, you may need to increase or decrease your dosage based on your personal requirements.

The Society Clinical Practice Guidelines Committee recommends the following dosages. Keep in mind that these guidelines are thought to allow most people to reach a vitamin D level of 30 ng/ml, which many still consider suboptimal for disease prevention.

• Neonates: 400 to 1,000 IU’s per day
• Children one year of age and above: 600 to 1,000 IU’s per day
• Adults: 1,500 to 2,000 IU’s per day

GrassrootsHealth offers a helpful chart showing the average adult dose required to reach healthy vitamin D levels based upon your measured starting point. Many experts agree that 35 IU's of vitamin D per pound of body weight could be used as an estimate for your ideal dose.

“I treat my patients, on average, with 3,000 units of vitamin D a day,” Dr. Holick says. “It’s been very effective. I’ve published a paper that over a six-year period of time, most of my patients on a 3,000-unit equivalent a day has between 40 and 60 nanograms per milliliter and there is no toxicity.

If you’re obese, you need two to three times more vitamin D... But for my patients who are at a normal weight, usually 3,000 to 4,000 units a day is adequate to maintain a healthy blood level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D. I personally take 3,000 units a day. My blood level, on average, is about 55 nanograms per milliliter.”

According to Dr. Holick, it makes no difference if you take your vitamin D daily or weekly, or even monthly. Personally, I’d recommend taking it daily. That way, if you miss a day or two, it’s not quite as bad as missing an entire week. That said, it is fat soluble, so a lot of it enters your body fat and is slowly released from there. So if you miss a day, you can take double the dose the next day.

If you Opt for Oral Vitamin D, Remember Vitamin K2

It’s important to remember that if you’re taking high dose vitamin D supplements, you also need to take vitamin K2. The biological role of vitamin K2 is to help move calcium into the proper areas in your body, such as your bones and teeth. It also helps remove calcium from areas where it shouldn’t be, such as in your arteries and soft tissues.

Vitamin K2 deficiency is actually what produces the symptoms of vitamin D toxicity, which includes inappropriate calcification that can lead to hardening of your arteries. The reason for this is because when you take vitamin D, your body creates more vitamin K2-dependent proteins that move calcium around in your body. Without vitamin K2, those proteins remain inactivated, so the benefits of those proteins remain unrealized. So remember, if you take supplemental vitamin D, you're creating an increased demand for K2. Together, these two nutrients help strengthen your bones and improve your heart health.

Vitamin D is Critical for Health, Beginning in Utero and Onward

From my perspective, vitamin D deficiency appears to have the greatest impact on cancer rates. At present, the US cancer mortality rate is equivalent to eight to 10 airplanes crashing each and every single day. Optimizing vitamin D rates across the general population could reduce that by about 50 percent. And it’s virtually free—at least if you opt for sun exposure.

As mentioned by Dr. Holick, one of the Nurses’ Health Studies showed that nurses who had the highest blood levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, averaging about 50 ng/ml, reduced their risk of developing breast cancer by as much as 50 percent. Similarly, a Canadian study done by Dr. Knight showed that women who reported having the most sun exposure as a teenager and young adult had almost a 70 percent reduced risk of developing breast cancer.  It’s just insane not to take advantage of this prevention strategy.

“I agree 100 percent,” Dr. Holick says. “I usually recommend that vitamin D is critically important from birth until death. Just to give you a couple of examples: during pregnancy, we’re now realizing that vitamin D deficiency is a major issue for the developing fetus. Pre-eclampsia, the most serious complication of pregnancy, is associated with vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D is critically important for muscle function, which, of course, is important for birthing action. We showed a 400 percent reduced risk of women requiring a C-section if they simply were vitamin D sufficient at the time they gave birth.

We’re now beginning to realize that in-utero vitamin D deficiency is more likely that the young children are going to have asthma and wheezing disorders. We’re also now realizing that children who are vitamin D deficient are more likely to develop type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis later in life, rheumatoid arthritis, and Crohn’s disease.

Studies have shown that if you improve your vitamin D status, it reduces risk of colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, and a whole host of other deadly cancers by 30 to 50 percent. You’re correct. Cancer is a big deal. You need to realize that vitamin D is playing a very important role in helping to maintain cell growth and to help fight cancer when a cancer cell is developing in your body.”

Other Health Areas Where Optimizing Vitamin D Levels Could Save Both Lives and Dollars

In addition to the health benefits already mentioned above, optimizing your vitamin D levels can help protect against:

• Cardiovascular disease. Vitamin D is very important for reducing hypertension, atherosclerotic heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. According to Dr. Holick, one study showed that vitamin D deficiency increased the risk of heart attack by 50 percent. What’s worse, if you have a heart attack and you’re vitamin D deficient, your risk of dying from that heart attack creeps up to 100 percent!  
• Autoimmune diseases. Vitamin D is a potent immune modulator, making it very important for the prevention of autoimmune diseases, like MS and inflammatory bowel disease.  
• Infections, including influenza. It also helps you fight infections of all kinds. A study done in Japan, for example, showed that schoolchildren taking 1,200 units of vitamin D per day during the winter time reduced their risk of getting influenza A infection by about 40 percent. I believe it’s far more prudent, safer, less expensive, and most importantly, far more effective to optimize your vitamin D levels than to get vaccinated against the flu. According to Dr. Holick:

“I think you’re right. We know that the immune cells use vitamin D and that they activate vitamin D. There’s good evidence that it will help kill tuberculosis bacteria, for example, if you have adequate vitamin D on board... We think that the immune system is primed with vitamin D in order to help fight infections.”

• DNA repair and metabolic processes. One of Dr. Holick’s studies showed that healthy volunteers taking 2,000 IU’s of vitamin D per day for a few months upregulated 291 different genes that control up to 80 different metabolic processes; from improving DNA repair to having effect on autoxidation (oxidation that occurs in the presence of oxygen and /or UV radiation, which has implications for aging and cancer, for example), boosting the immune system, and many other biological processes.

Tired and Achy? You May Simply Be Vitamin D Deficient...

Feeling tired and achy is a frequent wintertime complaint. According to Dr. Holick, many who see their doctor for such signs end up being misdiagnosed as having fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome.

“Many of these symptoms are classic signs of vitamin D deficiency osteomalacia, which is different from the vitamin D deficiency that causes osteoporosis in adults,” he says. “What’s happening is that the vitamin D deficiency causes a defect in putting calcium into the collagen matrix into your skeleton. As a result, you have throbbing, aching bone pain.”

The remedy is a combination of vitamin D and calcium, which go hand in hand when it comes to bone health. Ideally, you’d want to get your calcium from your diet. If not, Dr. Holick recommends taking about 500 milligrams (mg) twice per day with your meals (for a total of 1,000 mg/day). Magnesium is another important element and should be taken in equal amounts. According to Dr. Holick, elderly muscle weakness is another classic symptom associated with vitamin D deficiency.

“Many of my patients do incredibly well by just simply correcting their calcium and vitamin D deficiency,” he says.

The Dangers of Speaking Out in Defense of Sun Exposure...

Dermatologists in particular are some of the most ardent promoters of the myth that sun exposure causes deadly skin cancer. Speaking out in a professional capacity against this idea can cost you. In 2004, Dr. Holick published the book, The UV Advantage, in which he encouraged readers to get some sensible sun exposure. At the time, he was a professor of dermatology because of the work he’d been doing with active vitamin D for the treatment of psoriasis. In fact, he’d received the American Skin Association’s Psoriasis Research Achievement Award—a rather prestigious award.

“As a result, I was in the department of dermatology, continuing to do psoriasis research,” he says. “But once I began recommending sensible sun exposure for vitamin D, which is counter to what the American Academy of Dermatology’s message was, I was asked to step down as professor of dermatology back in 2004... The American Academy of Dermatology still recommends: you should never be exposed to one direct ray of sunlight for your entire life.”

There are signs of change, however. In Australia, a study was done on dermatologists. In the summer time, 87 percent were found to be vitamin D deficient. More than 40 percent of the general population in Australia is also vitamin D deficient. As a result, the Australian College of Dermatologists, as well as the Cancer Council for Australia, modified their recommendations to include getting some sensible sun exposure to raise your vitamin D to healthier levels.

Sun Exposure is a Health Promoting Basic

The more time goes on, the more obvious it has become, to me, that reverting back to simple basic strategies that our ancestors applied is really foundational to staying healthy. When it comes to sun exposure and cancer, no one can rationally argue that our ancestors weren’t universally exposed to sunshine. They didn’t hide from the sun. They’re continuously exposed to it. Surely our genetics and our biochemistry are optimized to have that as part of improving our health!

 “There are two pieces of information that I think are worthwhile noting,” Dr. Holick says. “Yes, most non-melanoma skin cancers occur on excessively exposed areas like your face or the top of your hands. But most [deadly] melanomas occur on the least sun-exposed areas.

Occupational sun exposure decreases your risk for melanoma. Even though everybody always talks about deadly melanoma and relates it to sun exposure, you have to really put this all into perspective... [This] is why I recommend exposing your arms, legs, abdomen, and back rather than your face, because it’s the least sun-exposed in terms of long-term. You’re less likely to develop even a non-melanoma skin cancer.”

Shielding your face from the sun will also help keep it looking youthful longer, as UVA’s do tend to cause wrinkling and other skin damage.  Your face, which is the most important cosmetic component of your body, is a relatively small surface area, so shielding it while exposing large portions of your body instead, is not going to make a big difference in terms of vitamin D production.

I personally use a cap that puts a shade around my eyes and my nose. I do that just to protect my skin, because the skin is very thin on your face and highly sensitive to the photoaging effects of UVA. I rarely ever use sun screen and virtually never get sunburnt. But I also take astaxanthin regularly which serves as an internal sunscreen. Dr. Holick agrees, saying:

“There’s no question about it. If you put a sunscreen on with a sun protection factor of 30, it reduces your ability to make vitamin D in your skin by about 95 to 98 percent. But I always recommend sun protection on your face. Often, a broad-brimmed hat is by far even a better way of doing it rather than having to put a chemical on your face. But it’s certainly important to protect your face.”

More information

Dr. Holick’s book, The Vitamin D Solution, which was published in 2010, provides a broad overview of all the health benefits of vitamin D. It also answers many common questions raised by patients, such as, “Will taking a vitamin D supplement worsen my kidney stones?” (The answer: No, it won’t.)

 http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/12/22/dr-holick-vitamin-d-benefits.aspx

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Avoid Sunshine - Get Cancer?

English: Cover of the book Take Control of Your Health by dr. Mercola. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Dr. Mercola

A growing body of research clearly shows the absolute necessity of vitamin D for good health and disease prevention. However, despite vitamin D’s role in keeping your body ticking along like a well-oiled clock, you are likely deficient in the “sunshine vitamin”—because the majority of people are.

Our vitamin D levels have dropped as a result of being scared sunless by those spreading misinformation that the sun causes melanoma, a myth that survives by mass promotion but really lacks any factual basis. It has been repeated so many times that most people believe it.

Vitamin D affects your biological function by influencing nearly 3,000 of your genes through vitamin D receptors. In fact, vitamin D receptors are found throughout your body, which should come as no surprise, given we humans evolved in the sun.

Recent research1,2 has also revealed yet another benefit of sun exposure beyond the protective benefits of producing vitamin D, namely the production of nitric oxide—a compound that lowers your blood pressure.

According to the researchers, the heart-health benefits from this may outweigh the risk of developing skin cancer. Your vitamin D level varies not only with time of day, season, and geographic location, but also with your genetics.

For example, if you have dark skin, you may need up to 10 times more sun exposure to maintain an optimal vitamin D level as a person with pale skin.Redheads have to be particularly careful, as they appear to be genetically predisposed to developing melanoma, regardless of whether or not they spend time in the sun.

 Sunshine’s gifts extend well beyond vitamin D production. As discussed in the featured article by Sayer Ji,3 five of the many noteworthy properties of sunlight include:

1. Pain-killing (analgesic) properties
2. Increased subcutaneous fat metabolism
3. Regulation of human lifespan (solar cycles appear to be able to directly affect the human genome, thereby influencing lifespan)
4. Daytime sun exposure improves evening alertness
5. Conversion to metabolic energy (i.e. we may “ingest” energy directly from the sun, like plants do)

When it comes to vitamin D production, the benefits are simply immeasurable. In fact, correcting a vitamin D deficiency may cut your risk of dying in half, according to an analysis of more than 10,000 individuals.

According to a January 2013 press release by Orthomolecular Medicine4, 3,600 medical papers with vitamin D in the title or abstract were published in 2012 alone, bringing the grand total to 33,800. Research to date shows vitamin D has far reaching benefits to your physical and mental health, with the following chart representing only the tip of the sunbeam.

Pregnancy outcomes (reduced risk of Cesarean section and pre-eclampsia)	Autism
Childhood language impairment	Cardiovascular disease
Type 1 diabetes	Alzheimer’s disease
Type 2 diabetes	Bacterial and viral infections
Falls and bone fractures	16 different types of cancer
Stroke	All-cause mortality

Another Way Sun Exposure Protects Your Heart Health

UVB exposure also improves your mood and energy level, helps regulate melatonin, and, as mentioned earlier, increases nitric oxide production5, which benefits your cardiovascular system. With regards to the latter:

“Richard Weller, Senior Lecturer in Dermatology, and colleagues, say the effect is such that overall, sun exposure could improve health and even prolong life, because the benefits of reducing blood pressure, cutting heart attacks and strokes, far outweigh the risk of getting skin cancer,” Medical News Today reports6.

Weller and colleagues found that the body's production of nitric oxide is separate from production of vitamin D... Human skin contains large stores of nitrite (NO2) and nitrate (NO3). The researchers note that while nitrate is "biologically inert", the action of sunlight can reduce it to active nitrite and nitric oxide (NO).They found that circulatory nitrate fell and nitrite rose during UV and heat exposure, but not during exposure to heat only. There was no difference in vitamin D levels.

Weller says in a statement that: 'We suspect that the benefits to heart health of sunlight will outweigh the risk of skin cancer. The work we have done provides a mechanism that might account for this, and also explains why dietary vitamin D supplements alone will not be able to compensate for lack of sunlight... If this confirms that sunlight reduces the death rate from all causes, we will need to reconsider our advice on sun exposure.'"

Skin Cancer, in Brief

Before we discuss melanoma, you need a basic understanding of the three most common types of skin cancer, each named for the type of cells affected:

1. Basal cell carcinoma (BCC): Begins in the basal cell layer of the skin, typically on the face; the most common form of skin cancer and the most common type of cancer in humans; least likely skin cancer to spread.7
2. Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC): Begins in the squamous cells, typically on the face, neck, ears, lips, and backs of hands; tends to grow and spread a bit more than BCC.
3. Melanoma: Begins in the melanocytes (the cells that produce the pigment melanin, responsible for your tan); melanin protects the deeper layers of your skin from excess radiation. Melanoma is more likely than other types of skin cancer to spread to other parts of your body and causes more deaths than any other type of skin cancer.8

Don’t Fall for the Melanoma Myth

If you believe the lure of the sun is equivalent to the siren’s call for melanoma, you’ll be relieved to learn melanoma is not actually caused by sun exposure, unlike the other two types of skin cancer, BCC and SCC. Although the reported number of new cases of melanoma in the US has been reportedly increasing for more than 30 years,9 a landmark study in the British Journal of Dermatology10 suggests this apparent increase is a result of non-cancerous lesions being misclassified as “stage 1 melanoma.” In other words, people are being diagnosed with melanoma even when they have only a minimal, non-cancerous lesion, and these diagnoses are significantly skewing cancer statistics.11 The sun is nothing more than a scapegoat in this phenomenon of “increased melanoma.”

But this misdiagnosis is doing more than just skewing statistics—it’s causing a mountain of unnecessary melanoma surgeries. A study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology12 found that 90 percent of melanoma excisions end up NOT being melanoma at all. But if the sun doesn’t cause melanoma, then what does?

The REAL Role of the Sun in Melanoma

As with all serious diseases, there are multiple interacting factors that cause your immune system to go awry, such as nutrition, environmental toxins, stress, inadequate sleep, etc. But for melanoma, the sun does appear to have a significant role—melanoma may signify too little of it!

Studies show melanoma mortality actually decreases after UV exposure. Additionally, melanoma lesions do not predominate sun-exposed skin, which is why sunscreens have proven ineffective in preventing it. Exposure to sunlight, particularly UVB, is protective against melanoma—or rather, the vitamin D your body produces in response to UVB radiation is protective. The following passage comes from The Lancet:13

"Paradoxically, outdoor workers have a decreased risk of melanoma compared with indoor workers, suggesting that chronic sunlight exposure can have a protective effect."

And this from the British Medical Journal:14

“There is solid descriptive, quantitative, and mechanistic proof that ultraviolet rays cause the main skin cancers (basal and squamous). They develop in pale, sun exposed skin, are related to degree of exposure and latitude, are fewer with avoidance and protection, are readily produced experimentally, and are the overwhelmingly predominant tumor in xeroderma pigmentosum, where DNA repair of ultraviolet light damage is impaired. None of these is found with melanoma.”

The bottom line is, by avoiding the sun, your risk for vitamin D deficiency skyrockets, which increases your odds of developing melanoma and a multitude of other diseases. The risks associated with insufficient vitamin D are far greater than those posed by basal cell or squamous cell carcinomas, which are fairly benign by comparison, as you’ll see by reading on.

Read the rest of this article as well as check out the videos over at mercola.com here.   http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2013/07/01/vitamin-d-benefits.aspx

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