Get Some Sun: Most People Vitamin D Deficient

Vitamin D deficiency has been linked with lots of troublesome conditions, including cancer, diabetes, and heart disease. Now comes a study conducted by researchers at the University of Denver School of Medicine suggesting that 75 percent of people in the U.S. have less-than-healthful amounts of vitamin D, which is produced by our bodies when our skin is exposed to the sun. The Scientific American reports
that between 1988 and 1994, 45 percent of 18,883 people (who were examined as part of the federal government’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey)
had 30 nanograms per milliliter or more of vitamin D, the blood level a
growing number of doctors consider sufficient for overall health; a
decade later, just 23 percent of 13,369 of those surveyed had at least
that amount.  Sciam reports that study co-author Adit Ginde, an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, blames increasing use of sunscreen and long sleeves following skin cancer-prevention
campaigns for the change. Using a sunscreen with as little as a
15-factor protection cuts the skin’s vitamin D production by 99
percent, the study notes, and there are few sources of the vitamin in
our diets. Some food sources are salmon, tuna, mackerel and vitamin
D-fortified dairy products, such as milk.
Read more in the Scientific American.
More about vitamin D from SportsGeezer.