Tans are natural shields against the sun’s ultraviolet radiation, which can damage skin tissue in the form of a sunburn. Exposure to ultraviolet rays causes certain skin cells to produce the pigment melanin, which darkens through oxidation. Those cells will migrate closer to the skin’s surface and produce more melanin, further darkening the skin into a suntan. The pigment absorbs ultraviolet radiation and defends against further penetration of skin tissue. Tans are our body’s natural protection against sunburns, and without them we would be much more susceptible to burns and skin cancer. Tanning beds are great and easy ways to tan in a controlled atmosphere. Check out the benefits…
Body Functions:
Exposure to light has proven to lower the resting heart rate and blood pressure. It also lowers cholesterol because the body uses the liver’s cholesterol as raw material to produce vitamin D, which is necessary for calcium absorption in the body. People get between 90 – 95% of their vitamin D through sun exposure. Sunlight reduces stress and can help the immune system, as well as increase the skin’s resistance to infections. With exercise, sunlight has many beneficial results, as it heightens physical performance. Sunlight can increase cardiac output, as well as increase energy, endurance, and muscular strength. Lastly, it is proven that sunlight stimulates the thyroid gland, which boosts your metabolism.
SAD:
Seasonal Affective Disorder is also known as winter depression, an affective mood disorder that stems from lack of sunlight. Most SAD sufferers experience regular mental health throughout most of the year, but experience depression symptoms during the winter months. Tanning has been shown to release endorphins, a chemical such as serotonin that produces a happy, pleasant feeling. PMS: Exposure to bright light has been found to alleviate some symptoms of Pre Menstrual Syndrome, or PMS, such as mild depression, mood swings, physical discomfort, irritability, and social withdrawal.
Vitamin D:
Osteoporosis and cancer, however, are not the only health risks from vitamin D deficiency that we should worry about. Current research indicates vitamin D deficiency plays a role in causing seventeen varieties of cancer as well as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, muscle wasting, birth defects, and periodontal disease. Individuals with healthy vitamin D levels are much less likely to develop certain forms of cancer, such as breast cancer, ovarian cancer, colon cancer, and prostate cancer. These life-threatening cancers are much more common in those who do not receive regular sunlight
Physical Appearance:
Tanning adds a young and healthy glow. In addition, a tan makes one look more muscular and defined, and will help hide visible veins, body hair, and impurities in or on the skin. Tanning has proven to help many skin conditions, from acne to eczema, and even psoriasis (80% percent of psoriasis sufferers who tan show improvement as a direct result of their exposure to the ultraviolet light.)
Tanning is a great way to stay healthy and look good!
See our membership page to learn how to maintain your sunshine-related health affordably and conveniently.
Vitamin D deficiency linked to triple the risk of high blood pressure
Tanning News
“This study underscores a growing amount of accumulated data that low vitamin D levels are associated with high blood pressure,” Dr. John P. Forman, an associate physician in the renal division of Brigham and Women’s Hospital, told HealthDayNews. “There are a growing number of studies associating lower vitamin D levels and high blood pressure. This one probably has the longest follow-up.”Tanning News
“Two studies published yesterday showed that vitamin D produced by the action of the sun on the skin may help improve survival for patients with skin and bowel cancer,” the London Independent reported Monday. “The bizarre finding suggests that health warnings to avoid the sun have been too simplistic. Some exposure to the sun is necessary for health — it is excessive exposure leading to burning of the skin that does the damage.”Tanning News
“I share an office with another family physician. I aggressively measure and replete vitamin D. He does not. He is seeing one to 10 cases per week of influenza-like illness. In my practice: I have had zero cases. My patients are universally on 2000–5000 IU to maintain serum levels 50–80 ng/ml,” Dr. Ellie Campbell, a family physician in Georgia, wrote in a recent letter published by the independent Vitamin D Council on the group’s web site this month.
Cannell continued, “This is not rocket science. If I am wrong, and Vitamin D does not prevent influenza, what is lost? A few dollars. If they are wrong, and it does prevent influenza, what is lost? So far, the CDC says 41 kids are dead from H1N1, and the flu season has not yet started.”Tanning News
Calling the phenomena “diagnostic drift” the research team from Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital in England collected data showing that “thick” melanomas are not increasing and that melanoma mortality is not increasing, but that doctors are removing more “thin” lesions and calling them melanoma which is artificially increasing reported incidence data.Tanning News
“On June 19, 1922, The Times reported that a team led by Dr. E. V. McCollum, ‘the famous biochemist,’ had ‘captured’ a hitherto unknown vitamin, which has been labeled vitamin D, the specific purpose of which is the protection of bone growth and the prevention of the disease known as rickets,” the Times reported in its article.Tanning News
Cannell will be a guest speaker at Smart Tan Downtown — Smart Tan’s 14th Annual Convention in Downtown Nashville Oct. 10-11. Cannell will discuss how the “sun scare” message may be killing our children, sentencing them to vitamin D deficiency related disorders. He is one of a growing number of scientists who realize that all vitamin D ultimately comes from UV light, and that no natural source of vitamin D can replace what nature intended: for us all to get some sun.
Tanning News
SEPT. 9, 2009 — A research paper in the September Annals of the New York Academy of Science has added more evidence to the connection between low vitamin D levels and higher incidence of autoimmune diseases such as lupus and multiple sclerosis.
“Vitamin D (also called cholecalciferol) is important in both men and women, and at first glance it would seem that it should behave the same way in both sexes. It has no role in sex-specific hormonal regulation like some of the sex hormones, but it has recently been discovered that a special molecule, called a receptor, that binds to one of the forms of vitamin D is more abundant in women than men. The receptor to which vitamin D binds is important in the activation of the innate immune response,” Bryan Ness wrote in the Napa County Science News Examiner.
According to Ness, “The key to how vitamin D plays its part is to understand what the VDR does. When the correct form of vitamin D (a form known as 1,25-D or calcitriol) binds to VDR, VDR then directly causes the expression of over 900 genes to occur. Two of the genes that are turned on produce proteins that are directly responsible for kicking the immune response into active mode. The reason for VDR in the endometrium is that it provides protection against infection for the developing fetus.”
Tanning News
SEPT. 1, 2009 — Sixty percent of adults are lactose intolerant and should not drink milk, a USA Today article published Monday reported. “Got milk? If you do, take a moment to ponder the true oddness of being able to drink milk after you’re a baby. No other species but humans can. And most humans can’t either,” the story reported.
That makes milk a dubious substitute for Nature’s most natural and intended source of vitamin D: UVB exposure from sunshine.
“Dermatology leaders have suggested that people worried about vitamin D deficiency should just drink a glass of vitamin D-fortified milk,” Smart Tan Vice President Joseph Levy said. “Aside from the fact that milk naturally doesn’t contain vitamin D, the fact that most adults can’t drink milk might not have occurred to them.”
The ability to tolerate lactose varies by heritage, according to the USA Today article.
“If you’re American or European it’s hard to realize this, but being able to digest milk as an adult is one weird genetic adaptation. It’s not normal,” the story reported. “Somewhat less than 40% of people in the world retain the ability to digest lactose after childhood. The numbers are often given as close to 0% of Native Americans, 5% of Asians, 25% of African and Caribbean peoples, 50% of Mediterranean peoples and 90% of northern Europeans. Sweden has one of the world’s highest percentages of lactase tolerant people. Being able to digest milk is so strange that scientists say we shouldn’t really call lactose intolerance a disease, because that presumes it’s abnormal. Instead, they call it lactase persistence, indicating what’s really weird is the ability to continue to drink milk.”
To read the USA Today story click here.
Tanning News
AUG 26, 2009 — A leading medical news source has chastised the American Academy of Dermatology directly for advice the group says is contributing to skyrocketing vitamin D deficiency in the United States today.
“Telling people to get their vitamin D from just food and supplements obviously does not work,” Medical News today reported in a story published Aug. 24. “People have been told that for the last twenty years and vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency has increased significantly.”
According to the Medical News Today story, “For decades we have been told to stay out of the sun, to wear hats and cover ourselves with sun block to protect against skin cancer – and also significantly reducing our levels of vitamin D. Add to that a growingly sedentary lifestyle where we and our children spend more time indoors either watching TV or in front of a computer monitor, and it is not surprising that millions of people have excessively low levels of vitamin D in our system. Then we are told that sunlight can rapidly make up for any vitamin D shortfall, while at the same time the American Academy of Dermatology continues to recommend that the public obtain vitamin D from nutritional sources and dietary supplements, and not from unprotected exposure to ultraviolet radiation because of the skin cancer risk, and we despair.”
Although the report acknowledges that dermatologists feel they are justified because of their daily exposure to skin cancer cases, “However, millions of people are and will develop other very serious diseases because their vitamin D levels are too low. Skin cancer is one factor, but there are many other factors.”
The report is the second in a month from a major organization slamming a dermatology industry group for being myopic when it comes to UV light. British doctors last month questioned the Skin Cancer Foundation for its role in encouraging behavior that leads to vitamin D deficiency.
To read the Medical News Today story click here.
Tanning News
AUG. 24, 2009 — Regular sunbathing in non-burning dosages is something Oprah Winfrey’s personal health advisor now endorses — a huge addition to the growing group of physicians now willing to publicly refute Big Dermatology and Chemical Sunscreen’s antiquated “Sun Scare” advice.
“Although we are taught to fear the sun, sunbathing in moderation — exposing but never burning the skin — is good for us,” international women’s health expert Dr. Christine Northrup wrote in a column posted on the web site www.HuffingtonPost.com this week. “This may explain why the incidence of breast cancer is higher in northern latitudes than at the equator.”
Northrup joins a growing group of experts who have come out in favor of re-evaluating sun scare, including many in the British dermatology community most recently. “There’s a paradigm shift going on in medicine as new research reveals a far greater role for vitamin D. Vitamin D is not just for kids — or the prevention of rickets. Optimal levels of Vitamin D (40-80 ng/ml) enhance the creation and functioning of healthy cells throughout the body. In addition to protecting the bones and boosting the immune system, studies show that Vitamin D helps prevent certain cancers, including breast, ovarian, prostate, and colorectal. Exciting new research shows that in the U.S. alone, thousands of new cases of breast cancer could be prevented every year if more women had optimal levels of vitamin D.”
To read Northrup’s column click here.
Tanning News
AUG. 21, 2009 — The largest group representing family physicians wants its members to know that 70 percent of American children are now considered vitamin D deficient, according to the government’s own data.
The American Academy of Family Physicians sent that message to its members this week in a newsletter detailing a new study. “Seventy percent of American children are at increased risk for bone and heart disease because of low levels of vitamin D, according to a recent study,” AAFP wrote.
The group quoted lead researcher Dr. Michal Melamed, assistant professor of medicine and epidemiology and population health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, Bronx, N.Y., in an interview posted on the university’s Web site. “In adults, there has been an increased interest in associations between low vitamin D levels and all sorts of cardiovascular risk factors, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, so we decided to look at this in children.”
The group looked at the same government data that earlier this year revealed 77 percent of American adults are vitamin D deficient, meaning their vitamin D levels are below 30 ng/ml. Vitamin D researchers today suggest vitamin D blood levels between 40-60 ng/ml, but consider any level below 30 ng/ml “deficient.”
“The researchers found that low vitamin D levels were most common in children who were older, female, non-Hispanic black, Mexican-American or obese; those who drank milk less than once a week; and those who spent more than four hours a day watching TV, playing video games or using computers,” AAFP wrote.
To read the story click here.
Tanning News
AUG. 20, 2009 — The man with the most famous tan on the planet — the incomparable George Hamilton — has spoken out once again about bogus reports slamming his life-long passion for UV exposure.
“I love it when doctors tell you, ‘You may have a pre-cancerous lesion,’ and I say, ‘Pre-cancerous, you mean like pre-dead? You’re either dead or you’re not dead.’ Hamilton told the Hollywood press this week. “I say, ‘Is it melanoma? Now we’re talking.’ Melanoma you find in countries where people have never been in the sun, where the sun doesn’t shine.”
Hamilton’s career is once again in a resurgence. The tanned actor, now in his 70s, just received a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and is the subject of a movie premiering this week, “My One and Only.” The movie is based on Hamilton’s childhood recollections of his mother’s story and stars Renee Zellweger and Kevin Bacon.
And that has once again attracted attention to his famous tan.
“We have a lot of people who believe that everything is wrong. Now we’re starting to find out that people are suffering from lack of vitamin D which can be gotten from the sun. My brother said some day they’ll find out that a cheeseburger is the best thing for you!”
Hamilton has spoken at Smart Tan conventions in 1999 and 2003 — the latter of which he hosted Smart Tan’s “TAN-ight Show” — a talk show format in which he interviewed Vitamin D guru Dr. Michael Holick, “The Sun” and performed comedy skits. Hamilton is a firm believer in the principles espoused by Smart Tan and remains in touch with the organization.
Tanning News
AUG. 18, 2009 — Real Simple magazine published a column this summer with what Smart Tan considers the most blatant misbranding of sunscreen’s intended usage ever to appear in print.
“Sunscreen. Sunscreen. Sunscreen. By now you know that you need to wear it 365 days a year, outdoors and indoors, rain or shine. That it helps prevent melanoma, a skin cancer that kills approximately 3,000 U.S. women annually,” Real Simple writer Jolene Edgar wrote in a June column called ‘The Sun Doctor’ which went on to pitch products being advertised in the magazine.
Real stupid.
“What’s ironic is that sunscreen manufacturers themselves actually are not allowed to advertise that their product prevents melanoma, because more studies actually show that people who wear sunscreen have a greater risk of melanoma than show that those who use sunscreen have a lower risk,” Smart Tan Vice President Joseph Levy said. “For a magazine to pitch daily 365/24 usage of sunscreen — which is misbranding sunscreen’s only stated purpose, sunburn prevention, and treat it as if the product is designed to be used that way is reckless at best and potentially harmful.”
More men die of melanoma than women — and the group experiencing the largest increases is older men. “That gets buried or is not even mentioned in articles promoting sunscreen-product sales in women’s magazines,” Levy said.
Smart Tan encourages sunscreen usage only on occasions when sunburn is a possibility. “For Real Simple to pitch 365/24 sunscreen usage in an article that promotes a product brand by name is pretty transparent,” Levy said. “It’s ‘Sun Scare’ at its worst.”
Smart Tan will be discussing sunscreen usage and new information on SPF products at Smart Tan Downtown — Smart Tan’s 14th Annual Convention and Trade Show in Downtown Nashville Oct. 9-11. For more information on the event click here.
Tanning News
AUGUST 11, 2009 — “There is no compelling evidence that sun tan parlors have induced a single melanoma.” — Master Dermatologist Dr. Bernard Ackerman, who wrote two books condemning the dermatology community for failing to disclose that there still is not any data showing that tanning in a non-burning fashion is a risk factor for melanoma.
Ackerman’s comments appeared in a Dermatology Times article in which American Academy of Dermatology spokesperson Dr. James Spencer admitted that there is no direct experimental data connecting indoor tanning and melanoma and that the dermatology community is “dependent on epidemiological studies for the data.” In fact, 18 of 22 epidemiologic studies ever conducted on indoor tanning and melanoma show no statistically significant connection, including the largest and most recent study.
Ackerman’s books and how the tanning community can correctly embrace their findings will be the subject of a workshop at Smart Tan Downtown, Smart Tan’s 14th Annual Convention and Trade Show Oct. 9-11 in Downtown Nashville. Smart Tan Vice President Joseph Levy will lead the workshop. For full convention information and registration, click here or call Smart Tan at 800-652-3269 or 866-795-3755 in Canada.
Tanning News
AUGUST 4, 2009 — A virus, and not sunshine, may be the root cause for many cases of one of the most common forms of skin cancer, according to Ohio State University research published this week.
“This is indirect evidence that the virus might play a role in causing some cases of squamous cell carcinoma,” Dr. Amanda E. Toland, assistant professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics at Ohio State University told ScienceDaily.com in a story published August 1. Toland’s research was published in the most recent Journal of Investigative Dermatology.
According to the Science Daily article, “The virus was first discovered in patients with Merkel cell carcinoma, a rare, aggressive skin cancer that occurs mainly in the elderly and people with a suppressed immune system. The people in the new study all had a healthy immune system.”
Toland told Science Daily: “Originally it was thought that this virus caused only this rare skin cancer, but our findings indicate that it is a lot more prevalent than we initially thought.”
The results are preliminary, but the finding that a virus may be linked to some forms of skin cancer is similar to research linking the HPV virus to 90 percent of cervical cancer cases in women. Research in recent years has preliminarily linked the HPV virus to squamous cell carcinoma as well.
One theory is that presence of the virus makes an infected individual susceptible to sun damage in ways that those with healthy immune systems are not. Researchers believe that may be why squamous cell carcinoma is much more prevalent in those who are taking immunosuppressive drugs, such as organ transplant recipients.
Squamous cell carcinoma kills about 1,200 in the United States annually, according to the American Cancer Society. According to ACS, “The death rate has dropped about 30% in the past 30 years. Most people who die are elderly. Other people more likely to die of skin cancer are those whose immune system is suppressed, such as those who have received organ transplants.”
To read the ScienceDaily report click here.
Tanning News
AUGUST 6, 2009 — Smart Tan responded to a Connecticut Post article Wednesday whose headline blared inaccurately, “Using a tanning bed is a cancer risk” — pointing out that the story mis-states what can and cannot be said about UV light from any source.
Smart Tan responded as follows:
Imagine if a story had the headline, “Drinking water isn’t safe because water causes drowning.”
Sound ridiculous? Of course it is. And yet that exact line of thinking is what was spoon-fed to North American news outlets last week which led to inaccurate stories everywhere suggesting that getting a suntan is as dangerous as being exposed to arsenic, plutonium, mustard gas or smoking cigarettes.
Get real! Smokers have 14-22 times the risk of lung cancer compared to non-smokers, according to the American Cancer Society. In contrast, suntanners have no statistically different risk of melanoma as compared to non-tanners, according to the sum of research on this topic. In fact, indoor workers get melanoma more often than outdoor workers!
So what should the stories have said? Repeated sunburns could be harmful, and that’s why UV light from any source is classified as a carcinogen. But don’t lose sight of the fact that humans, like everything on the planet, need sunlight and UV to live, that most Americans are at risk for vitamin D deficiency because we don’t get enough sun and that no study EVER has isolated suntanning in a non-burning fashion as a risk factor for anything.
Vitamin D experts now say we need 2,000 IU of vitamin D daily from all sources. One minute of sunshine to the face, arms and legs for a fair-skinned person in summertime would make approximately 30-60 IU of vitamin D depending on your location, assuming you aren’t wearing sunscreen, which almost completely blocks vitamin D production. And a dark-skinned person would need 4-10 times that much sun to make the same amount of vitamin D.
This might explain why an independent Australian study just showed that 87 percent of Australian dermatologists are vitamin D deficient at the end of summer. They don’t get it!
Bottom line: Being sun smart means sunburn prevention. But don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.
To read the Connecticut Post article with Smart Tan’s response click here.
Tanning News
JULY 15, 2009 — Fully 5 of 6 indoor tanning operators believe that their tanning clients sunburned less often during the early July North American holidays than did non-tanners, according to the results of a SmartTan.com poll conducted in the week following the holidays.
“Every poll ever conducted on this topic — of tanners and non-tanners and of tanning facility operators — shows that tanners sunburn less often than do non-tanners,” Smart Tan Vice President Joseph Levy said. “This result re-affirms that belief.”
According to the poll, 83 percent felt tanners sunburned less often during the July holidays, while only 6 percent felt that tanners sunburned more often outdoors. Another 11 percent felt there was no difference between the two groups.
Having a suntan is the body’s natural protection against sunburn, as melanin serves to protect skin cells from sunburn by natural design. People with tans who use sunscreen outdoors actually multiply the effectiveness of the sunscreen in preventing sunburn as compared to non-tanners who use sunscreen.
“Those who contend that base tans aren’t protective against sunburn are denying biology and are ignoring what is really happening outside,” Levy said. “Base tans make sunscreen 3-4 times more effective at preventing sunburn. Base tans work.”
Tanning News
JULY 9, 2009 — Health officials in the Canadian Atlantic province of Newfoundland & Labrador say they are so overwhelmed with demand for vitamin D testing that they can no longer process the blood tests, the Canadian Broadcast Company reported on Tuesday.
“Newfoundland and Labrador’s largest health authority said Monday it won’t do any more general testing for vitamin D because its lab is being overwhelmed,” CBC reported. “In the last two years, Eastern Health authority has seen a 10-fold increase in people wanting to be tested for vitamin D deficiency. The request for tests has steadily climbed since July 2007, and peaked in January at 5,000 tests a month.”
According to CBC, “Eastern Health’s laboratory medicine director Lynn Wade said at $25 per test, it was costing a fortune to tell people that everyone in the province who isn’t taking a vitamin D supplement should be taking one.”
Newfoundland, in extreme Northeaster Canada, has a population at risk for vitamin D deficiency because of the weak sunlight most of the year. The network acknowledged that “Scientific studies have suggested vitamin D, also known as the sunshine vitamin, could protect against a number of illnesses including cancer and depression.”
The professional tanning community in Newfoundland can be a part of the solution to this problem – informing communities that affordable Vitamin D home testing is available for $40 per test for those who want to get a D test done and who want to be involved in a revolutionary vitamin D testing program. Visit www.Daction.org for more information.
To read the CBC story click here.
Tanning News
JULY 7, 2009 — The New York Times on Monday published an article acknowledging that sunscreen chemicals themselves are being investigated as actually increasing users’ risk of melanoma skin cancer — ironically the opposite of what proponents of chemical sunscreens have always alleged.
Although the U.S. government prohibits chemical sunscreen manufacturers from claiming that their product reduces skin cancer risk — they may only claim directly that chemical sunscreens prevent sunburn — the inference that chemical sunscreens reduce cancer risk has been made for some time.
“Is it possible that a product meant to protect against skin cancer might actually cause it?” New York Times columnist Anahad O’Connor wrote in his “Really” column this week. “Several intriguing studies have investigated claims that zinc oxide and other compounds in some sunscreens might have harmful effects. Some laboratory studies, for example, have shown that zinc oxide and titanium oxide — intended to block ultraviolet rays — can create free radicals in the presence of sunlight, leading to cell damage. Others point to research showing a general rise in melanoma cases over the years, particularly in people who use sunscreen.”
It all comes down to whether or not you believe that sunscreen chemicals, meant to remain on the skin’s dead surface without absorbing into living skin cells, do in fact absorb into the skin. The chemical sunscreen industry contends that they don’t, but several studies do suggest that once sunscreen’s active ingredients do absorb into the skin that they can create a high amount of free radicals, which may be linked to skin cancer development.
Ironically melanin — produced by your skin when it tans — is a free-radical scavenger, ridding the skin naturally of free radicals.
O’Connor concludes that “studies suggest zinc oxide and other compounds in sunscreen do not damage cells or increase melanoma risk” but did not examine the research showing that some sunscreen chemicals, such as oxybenzone, actually are showing up in people’s bloodstream. One Centers for Disease Control study showed that 97 percent of people have traces of oxybenzone in their urine.
Smart Tan advocates the usage of chemical sunscreens only in situations where sunburn is a possibility and believes that over-use of the product is an unwarranted usage of unnatural chemicals and may potentially be dangerous.
To read O’Connor’s article click here.
Tanning News
JULY 6, 2009 — A British doctor has taken on the Skin Cancer Foundation’s myopic advice about sun exposure in a column that has gotten global attention — including being picked up by some in the North American media.
Dr. John Briffa, a London-based physician and health writer who publishes the nutrition and natural web site DrBriffa.com, applauded the Skin Cancer Foundation’s recommendation that adults increase their daily vitamin D intake from 400 IU/daily to 1,000 IU, but also said the Foundation’s entire message — to avoid sunlight and wear chemical sunscreen every day — is short-sighted.
“While there is some justification for this advice, it is obviously skin-focused. And what this sort of advice can neglect are the profound benefits sunlight exposure can have on general health,” Briffa wrote in his column. “While The Skin Cancer Foundation is clearly aware of the fact that vitamin D is important, it recommends that we get this through diet and supplements. The likelihood is that these recommendations will still leave many individuals short on vitamin D, especially in the winter.
“While I am not against supplementation (I am currently taking 3,000 IU of vitamin D again myself), I suspect that shying away from the sun and slavering ourselves in sunscreen will almost certainly jeopardize our chances of enjoying optimal levels of vitamin D.”
The Skin Cancer Foundation is supported almost entirely by the manufacturers of chemical sunscreen companies.
“The Skin Cancer Foundation has made a useful recommendation, but some could argue that this organization is, to some degree, responsible for the fact that vitamin deficiency is so common,” Briffa wrote. “Overall, while I welcome The Skin Cancer Foundation’s call for increased vitamin D intake, I also believe that the advice it gives regarding sun exposure is likely to be doing more harm than good.”
To read Briffa’s column click here.
Tanning News
JUNE 29, 2009 — “Vitamin D is a fat soluble hormone that is made by our skin. In the early 20th century, it was incorrectly identified as a vitamin but still retains the name. The main source of cholecalciferol or vitamin D3 is from the exposure of our skin to the sun.”
— Baltimore physician Dr. Chimene Liburd in a column for The Health Examiner. A great deal of the recent publicity about vitamin D has lumped it in with other vitamins, which can only be ingested in diet or supplements. But “The Sunshine Vitamin” is the only one that your body gets naturally without ingesting anything. Sunshine is the natural and intended source.
To read Liburd’s entire column click here.
