Sunshine and Vitamin D. A Comprehensive Guide to the Benefits of the “Sunshine Vitamin”

The "sunshine vitamin": benefits beyond bone?

Published by Oxford University Press 2007. Although vitamin D is best known for its role in strengthening bone and preventing rickets, it is increasingly apparent that it may have beneficial health effects beyond the skeletal system, among them perhaps the prevention of a number of diseases, including cancer ( 1 ). These health effects have been the focus of two recent National Institutes of He...

Abundant sunshine and vitamin D deficiency.

In this issue of the British Journal of Nutrition, Islam et al. (1) and Woo et al. (2) present data from Bangladesh and China showing a high prevalence of poor vitamin D status in women of childbearing age combined with a concurrent elevation in plasma parathyroid hormone (PTH) concentration. These reports add to the growing evidence of a high prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency in countries ...

Vitamin D and Death by Sunshine

Exposure to sunlight is the major cause of skin cancer. Ultraviolet radiation (UV) from the sun causes damage to DNA by direct absorption and can cause skin cell death. UV also causes production of reactive oxygen species that may interact with DNA to indirectly cause oxidative DNA damage. UV increases accumulation of p53 in skin cells, which upregulates repair genes but promotes death of irrep...

Vitamin D Sufficiency through Sunshine in Infants?

Vitamin D is vital for human health, and its deficiency may result in hypocalcemic seizures and rickets in infants and children. The optimal cut-off of serum 25(OH)D levels to define vitamin D deficiency are yet to be established. While, the Endocrine Society of USA has suggested serum 25(OH)D < 20 ng/mL to define vitamin D deficiency [1], the Institute of Medicine (IOM), USA recommends a cut-o...

Sunshine and the cardiovascular benefits – a dose of sunshine!