Get Your Vitamin D Here
Vitamin D
In recent years awareness of vitamin D deficiency and resulting related conditions has increased dramatically. Canadians specifically are affected by this issue with estimates of more than 97% of Canadians being deficient at some point in the year. Vitamin D – long known only as the body’s catalyst for proper calcium absorption – is now known to play a key part in cell growth regulation in the body. The health ramifications appear to be enormous with a reduced risk of breast, colon, ovarian, and prostate cancer as well as multiple sclerosis and diabetes.
In Canada we are at risk for vitamin D deficiency because of the country’s relatively weak sunshine most of the year. In fact insufficient levels of UVB found in sunshine are essentially not available October through March. Vitamin D is rare in diet, occurring naturally only in fatty fish. A synthetic form of the vitamin is supplemented into milk.
Health Canada lists tanning beds as a source of vitamin D. The JCTA believes that, given controlled nature of the UVB emitted by indoor tanning equipment, tanning beds are the most effective source of vitamin D available to Canadians. Over 90% of all tanning beds in Canada emit sufficient UVB to optimize vitamin D production.
Source: JCTA (Joint Canadian Tanning Association)
Sunshine and Your Health
If one regularly avoids sunlight exposure, research indicates a necessity to supplement with at least 5,000 units (IU) of vitamin D daily. To obtain this amount from milk one would need to consume 50 glasses. With a multivitamin more than 10 tablets would be necessary. Neither is advisable.
The skin produces approximately 20,000 IU vitamin D in response 20–30 minutes summer sun exposure—100 times more than the US government's recommendation of 200 IU per day!
There are 3 ways for adults to insure adequate levels of vitamin D:
- regularly receive midday sun exposure in the late spring, summer, and early fall, exposing as much of the skin as possible.
- regularly use a sun bed (avoiding sunburn) during the colder months.
- take 5,000 IU per day for three months, then obtain a 25-hydroxyvitamin D test. Adjust your dosage so that blood levels are between 50–80 ng/mL (or 125–200 nM/L) year around.
