Vitamin D Deficiency Leaves Millions of Children and Adults at Risk For Numerous Diseases and Disorders

This position is founded on the following tenets:

• Ultraviolet light exposure from the sun or from an indoor tanning unit is essential for human health, and getting it in a non-burning fashion is the smartest way the Sun-Smart way.

• The professional indoor tanning industry promotes and teaches what we refer to as The Golden Rule of Smart Tanning: Don’t ever sunburn use the new UV SAFETY pod.

• For the past decade, the indoor tanning industry has been more effective at teaching sunburn prevention than those who promote complete sun avoidance. Since the mid-1990s, tanning industry research has supported what millions of indoor tanners have known all along: that non-tanners sunburn outdoors more often than people who tan indoors. The professional indoor tanning salon industry is part of the solution in the ongoing battle against sunburn and in teaching people how to identify a proper and practical life-long skin care regimen.

• A tan is the body’s natural protection against sunburn. Your skin is designed to tan as a natural body function.

• Every year, millions of indoor tanners successfully develop “base tans” before embarking on sunny vacations – tans that, combined with the proper use of our poolside sunscreen spray booths, help them prevent sunburn.

• There are known physiological and psychological benefits associated with sunlight exposure and there are many other potential benefits that appear linked to sun exposure, but need further research. The potential upside of these benefits is considerable and deserves further consideration. Because sunlight is free and vitamin D is a relatively cheap pharmaceutical product, research into the many benefits of vitamin D has not been funded to its natural conclusion.

In a review article published in The New England Journal of Medicine July 18th, Dr. Holick explores the nature of vitamin D deficiency and concludes it to be one of the most commonly unrecognized medical conditions, a condition that leaves millions at risk of developing not only osteoporosis and fractures but also numerous serious and often fatal diseases, including several common cancers, autoimmune diseases, infectious diseases and heart disease.

The mechanism by which vitamin D is able to have such prolific and important health benefits is now better understood.  We now know that vitamin D once made in the skin from exposure to sunlight requires activation in the liver and kidney to its active form 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D.  1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D not only is responsible for regulating calcium and bone metabolism, but also is one of the most potent hormones for regulating cell growth.  It is now recognized that 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D will inhibit cancer cell growth and induce cancer cells to mature into normally functioning cells.  It has been suggested that vitamin D acts as a sentinel to regulate cell growth and help prevent cells from becoming cancerous. 

1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D controls the production of one of the most important hormones that regulates blood pressure, i.e. the kidney's production of renin.  This may be the explanation for why vitamin D deficiency is related to hypertension and coronary artery disease. 

It is known that the β-islet cells in the pancreas that make insulin have the vitamin D receptor and respond to 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D.  1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 can increase the production of insulin.  1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 also influences the immune system.  A study conducted in Finland showed that children who received 2,000 IU of vitamin D from the age of 1 year throughout their childhood resulted in them reducing their risk of developing the most severe form of diabetes, i.e. type 1 diabetes by 80%.

All of these revelations about the health benefits of vitamin D have gone unnoticed both by the health community as well as the lay public.  My goal is to help raise the level of consciousness about the importance of having sensible exposure to sunlight and making sure that both children and adults are always vitamin D sufficient. This is why I wrote the book "The UV Advantage".  It not only documents with sound science the remarkable benefits of sunlight and vitamin D on human health, but also provides a sensible approach for how to get vitamin D from sun exposure without causing significant damage or increasing risk of skin cancer.

Dr. Michael Holick

Professor of Medicine, 
Physiology and Biophysics
Director of the 
General Clinical Research Center
Director of the Bone Health Care Clinic
BOSTON UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER