According to a study published in the weekly issue of Deutsches Ärzteblatt International (the German Medical Association’s official international bilingual science journal) researchers found that most of the geriatric patients in a German rehabilitation hospital suffered vitamin D deficiency. The study measured ‘25-OH vitamin D’ in 1,578 patients after admission to the rehab hospital.¹

Of the residents, 89% were found to have insufficient high concentrations of vitamin D and 67% had severe vitamin D deficiency. According to Deutsches Ärzteblatt International, insufficient vitamin D can negatively affect muscles and increase risk for falls and fractures in elderly people.¹

The most effective way to obtain this vital nutrient is to get your vitamin D from the sun directly.  However, the elderly produce less vitamin D in their skin than younger people and they spend less time in the sun. ¹

The current RDA for vitamin D–by the National Institutes of Health–is 800 IU’s for individuals 70 years and older.³ Many experts contend that this is not an adequate amount for overall health.

Although vitamin D is conventionally known to be important for bone health, vitamin D deficiency has been associated with serious health conditions including heart disease, diabetes, and depression and many as seventeen types of cancers, including breast cancer.²

1) aerzteblatt.de
2) Vitamin D Council
3) Office of Dietary Supplements

Plaque psoriasis is a skin disease that has been long known in humans. It is categorized as an autoimmune disease, but according to Dr. Michael F. Holick, a leading authority on vitamin D and author of The Vitamin D Solution, this may not be completely accurate. His research has led him to believe that the disease begins with a defect in the skin cells that causes them to reproduce out of control, thus calling on the immune system to respond, making the problem worse.

Treating psoriasis with drugs that suppress the immune system doesn’t address the defective skin cells where the problem begins and these drugs are well known to have serious side effects.

In treating psoriasis, patients and doctors alike have long known that moderate sun exposure was useful in improving the condition, even before it was determined that vitamin D therapy would help. It is now understood that the sun exposure activates vitamin D in the skin which helps regulate the over-proliferation of skin cells.

Even though vitamin D from the sun can be a good thing, too much sun can be bad for psoriasis. If you are using sun exposure in your treatment regimen, you must be careful to gauge exposure in order to receive the optimum dose before becoming pink. SkinHealth Technology’s Natural Vitamin D UV Activation Sensors are a good way to ensure this.

Holick, Michael F. The Vitamin D Solution. New York, NY: Hudson Street Press, 2010. 109-112. Print.

According to Mercola.com:

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 studies.

Optimizing your vitamin D levels could help you to prevent at least 16 different types of cancer including pancreatic, lung, ovarian, prostate, and skin cancers. Overall, optimal vitamin D levels can cut cancer risk by as much as 60 percent, according to one large-scale, randomized, placebo-controlled study.

The most important factor is your vitamin D serum level. In order to help prevent a wide variety of diseases and health ailments, your vitamin D level needs to be between 50 and 70 ng/ml year-round.

The ideal way to optimize your vitamin D level is through sun exposure. As a very general guide, you need to expose a substantial amount of your entire body, when the sun is at its zenith.

According to recent findings from the D* Action study, adults need about 8,000 IU’s of oral vitamin D3 per day in order to get serum levels above 40 ng/ml.

Natural sunlight is the best source of vitamin D! UV sunlight is the fuel that enables the body to make vitamin D, but how long should you stay in the sun to optimize your Vitamin D without sun protection?

Skincare experts at SkinHealth Technology, LLC have developed a patented, new concept that enables you to attain vitamin D development 100% naturally–without damage to the skin. To accurately gauge the necessary length of time in the sun, simply apply one of their Natural Vitamin D UV Activation Sensors to skin or clothing. When the sensor turns red and the sun symbol disappears —it’s time to apply sunscreen or get out of the sun.

“New Year’s Day… now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”
~Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name, Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist – and cynic based on the quote above. New Year’s Resolutions don’t have to be impossible to keep, though. Once you have made the resolution, keeping it is easier if you have a plan that fits into your daily life.

With the New Year here, there is one resolution that is on almost everybody’s list – to get healthy. Help keep this resolution with an easy to follow plan that comes with a long list of benefits. This year resolve to increase your vitamin D intake from the sun.

Using Natural Vitamin D UV Activation Sensors by SkinHealth Technology is a great way to gauge the optimum time in the sun needed to develop vitamin D without going so far as to damage your skin. Vitamin D is well documented as being one of the most essential to human health and deficiency is epidemic.

In northern climates, you may have to wait until early spring to produce vitamin D from the sun. In that case, the sensors will remind you that a little sun is a good thing and you are sticking to that get healthy resolution. It doesn’t take long. Short periods of sun exposure two to three times a week will fortify your body with this critical nutrient. The sensor will tell you when you have had enough. Vitamin D developed this way lasts longer and contributes to overall wellness – so you can focus on the other items on your list!

A new study released by Harvard University credits vigorous exercise, at least 3 hours per week, with stimulating production of good cholesterol and vitamin D, thereby lowering the risk for heart attacks.  The all-male study was conducted over a period of ten years and concluded a 22% reduction in the risk of heart attack in the participants.

How can exercise produce vitamin D?

Well, it turns out it is not the running or soccer playing.The researchers believe the increased vitamin D levels came from doing these activities outdoors where the sunshine stimulates the body to produce it.

This time of year in the U.S., especially in the northern latitudes, natural vitamin D production wanes. This is because the UVB rays that trigger the internal reaction to create the vitamin become less prevalent due to shorter days, the angle of the sun and cloudy skies.

The good news is that your body can store a good portion of the vitamin D it produces during the warmer months to help carry you through the winter.  Remember though, it only takes 15 to 20 minutes to produce vitamin D from the sun at its peak.

While exercising outdoors, use the Natural Vitamin D UV Activation Sensors by SkinHealth Technology. They are a great way to tell when vitamin D is optimized and sunscreen application is appropriate.

So skip the gym and do your exercise outdoors whenever possible to get a double health punch!

Study trial patients, in Ireland, with early-stage multiple sclerosis, will be given vitamin D supplements to determine if a lack of sunshine may contribute to the illness, according to the Vitamin D Council.

A previous study examined discrepancies between MS rates in Donegal, which has some of the lowest sunshine levels in Ireland and has high rates of MS, and Wexford, which is the sunniest part of the country and has lower levels of the disease. The study concluded that a lack of vitamin D from the sun may play a role, but it could be genetics.₁

International studies have indicated that the incidences of Multiple Sclerosis increase the further away from the equator people are…

Doctors are not sure whether the reasons are environmental or genetic, or a combination of both.₂

Consultant neurologist, Dr Chris McGuigan, who works in St Vincent’s Hospital, said the new study, which is scheduled to begin before the end of the year, will be carried out to see if vitamin D supplementation can stop the next “event” or seizure.₃

“There have been international studies which suggest a role for it in MS. Low vitamin D is implicated in other auto-immune conditions,” he said. ₄

1,2,3,4) McGreevy, Ronan, Irish Times,18 October 2011

“Dr. Cedric Garland of UC San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center had just published a paper saying that the risk of breast cancer could be cut by 50 percent if people had vitamin D serum levels somewhere between 40 to 50 nanograms per milliliter. I just sat there and looked at that, and I started crying, thinking this can’t be true… I’m a very skeptical scientist,” says Carole Baggerly, Founder and Director of GrassrootsHealth in an interview with Dr. Joseph Mercola.

GrassrootsHealth is a public health promotion organization which is primarily focused on creating awareness about the profound importance of vitamin D for optimal health. The group is working to develop and substantiate research to support the use of vitamin D as a prevention strategy against diseases like cancer.

Carole Baggerly’s interest in the subject began with a breast cancer diagnosis in 2005. She was treated with conventional methods—surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. Two years later she was diagnosed with osteoporosis, which—she was told–was most likely caused by a vitamin D deficiency. This led her to look into a possible link between vitamin D deficiency and cancer.

Baggerly discovered that the author, Dr. Garland, was not only well-respected, but had researched vitamin D and cancer for 30 years. In May of that year, she attended a conference focused specifically on vitamin D and cancer, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland.

“For two solid days, I listened to reports by scientists from all over the world talking about vitamin D and cancer,” said Baggerly. “Not all of them were things to jump up and down about, but there was so much there that was so positive… but the only action item they had was – “We need to do more research.”

As a result Carole and her husband, Leo (a physicist and a researcher who currently works with the kinetics of vitamin D) set off to meet with scientists across the country and Canada to devise a plan of action. She was determined to get the message out about vitamin D’s connection to cancer and other diseases, and GrassrootsHealth was created for that purpose.

Click here to view the entire interview with Carole Baggerly and Dr. Mercola.

A new animal study from Japan suggests that vitamin D may help clear the brain of amyloid beta, a toxic protein-like compound that accumulates in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, according to RealAge.com.

This animal study further validates the results of a previous study done in human Alzheimer’s patients. In the human study, vitamin D was given along with curcumin (found in the spice turmeric) and the combination appeared to stimulate the immune system in a way that helped clear the brain of toxic amyloid beta.

The new animal study suggests that vitamin D alone may be able to clear the brain of plaques. Even more impressive–the lab animals that received vitamin D were able to remove a significant amount of amyloid beta buildup in their brains, literally overnight. It appears that vitamin D may somehow regulate production of transporter proteins that carry amyloid beta across the blood-brain barrier and out of the brain.

The most effective way to obtain this vital nutrient is directly from the sun. Natural sunlight is the best source of vitamin D!

UV sunlight is the fuel that enables the body to make vitamin D, but how long should you stay in the sun to optimize your Vitamin D without sun protection?

Skincare experts at SkinHealth Technology, LLC have developed a patented, new concept that enables you to attain vitamin D development 100% naturally–without damage to the skin. To accurately gauge the necessary length of time in the sun, simply apply one of their Natural Vitamin D UV Activation Sensors to skin or clothing. When the sensor turns red and the sun symbol disappears —it’s time to apply sunscreen or get out of the sun.

They recommend exposing uncovered arms and legs to bright, mid-day sun between the hours of 10:00 am and 4:00 pm. (Exposure of 25% or more of the body’s total skin surface is necessary and protection of sun sensitive areas, like the face, is advised.)

Why do we get a day off from work the first Monday in September?

Labor Day became an official U.S. federal holiday in 1894 when President Grover Cleveland made reconciliation with the labor movement a top political priority. Following the Pullman Strike, to divert further conflict between the government and labor, legislation making Labor Day a national holiday was rushed through Congress unanimously and signed into law just six days after the end of the strike, as explained on PBS.org.

Today, all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and the territories have made it a statutory holiday.

Traditionally, Labor Day is celebrated by most Americans as the symbolic end of the summer. The holiday is often regarded as a day of rest and parties. Forms of celebration include picnics, barbecues, water sports, and public events. Families with school-age children take it as the last chance to travel before the end of summer recess.

No doubt, if your plans include outdoor activities, careful attention will be paid to protecting your skin from the sun’s harmful rays. But did you know that allowing yourself a little sun exposure is actually very good for your health, because the best and most effective way to get your vitamin D is from the sun?

“How much sun exposure does it take to get vitamin D?”

It is true that too much sun exposure can cause skin damage and premature aging. But everybody should be getting some sun at least three times per week over 25% of the body for a determined amount of time.

SkinHealth Technology has developed postage stamp-sized sensors that aid you in getting your vitamin D from the sun. These sensors gauge the intensity of the sun’s UV rays. When the sensor changes color it’s time to get out of the sun or apply sunscreen.

So, while you’re taking a day of rest from your labors—let your body work to produce vitamin D—naturally, but sensibly.

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?!
We knew Labor Day had to be known for something besides the last summer cook-out! In the United States, Labor Day officially marks the beginning of the NFL and college football seasons.

Can we hear a hearty hip, hip hooray?!
But did you know that as the summer sun fades and the fall and winter fast approaches—vitamin D levels wane and player injuries increase?

According to an article, by Bill Gillete, in Dermatology Times E-News…

“Vitamin D deficiency may be unusually high among American football players, with black players and those with muscle injuries showing significantly lower levels, Medscape Today reports.”

Orthopedic surgeon Michael K. Shindle, M.D., led a research team that tested the vitamin D levels of 89 players from the National Football League’s New York Giants, in the spring of 2010.

Investigators found that 27 players — about 30 percent — had deficient total 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels (below 20 ng/mL) and as many as 45 players —just over half —had levels consistent with vitamin D insufficiency (between 20 and 31.9 ng/mL).

Only 17 players — about 19 percent — had vitamin D levels that were within normal limits. The percentage of players with abnormal vitamin D levels was “alarming,” according to Dr. Shindle.”

Just like the NFL players, many us are lacking in vitamin D, as well. In fact, three out of four Americans are likely to be vitamin D deficient. The best and most effective way to get vitamin D is from something we’ve been “protecting” ourselves from for decades—the sun!

To learn how to naturally and safely get vitamin D  from the sun—visit SkinhealthTech.com. They’ve developed a “sensor” that gauges the intensity of the sun’s UV rays and helps you determine when you’ve received enough sunlight to produce ample vitamin D.

So, this Labor Day fire up the grill, practice sensible sun exposure to get your vitamin D, and… get ready for some football!