Home Tanning Beds and Vitamin D Levels
Home tanning beds and vitamin D have both drawn a lot of media attention. Is using a home tanning bed a safe way to maintain vitamin D levels? The answer might surprise you.
Research recently conducted at Creighton University School of Medicine and University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine found that people need to get a much higher amount of vitamin D to protect themselves from cancer.
“We found that daily intakes of vitamin D by adults in the range of 4,000-8,000 IU are needed to maintain blood levels of vitamin D metabolites in the range needed to reduce by about half the risk of several diseases – breast cancer, colon cancer, multiple sclerosis, and type 1 diabetes.”
Healthy Vitamin D Levels Can Reduce Risk For Many Diseases
Everyone knows vitamin D deficiency in children can cause rickets. It is also well known, at least by doctors, that insufficient vitamin D can result in osteoporosis, a loss of muscular strength, and increased risk of falling.
It is less well known, that low levels of vitamin D are also linked to glucose intolerance, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, myocardial infarction, hypertension, obesity, heart failure, myopathy, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, tuberculosis, upper respiratory tract infections,and polycystic ovarian syndrome.
Are Your Vitamin D Levels High Enough?
According to estimates, worldwide 1 billion people are vitamin D deficient. The health costs of vitamin D deficiency to society are estimated at $100 to $200 billion per year.
Recently, a wide body of growing research has emerged, linking low vitamin D levels with several types of cancer and this body of evidence continues to grow.
Laboratory studies showed when vitamin D was added to cultured cancer cells it promoted differentiation and death of cancer cells and slowed their growth.
Studies say maintaining adequate vitamin D levels could reduce cases of breast cancer by 50% and cases of colorectal cancer by as much as 66% and also reduce prostate and other types of cancer.
Sunlight The Natural Way To Healthy Vitamin D Levels.
Vitamin D is made from exposure of skin to sunlight. This is how nature intended for us to get vitamin D. The body can naturally regulate and optimize vitamin D production without fear of an overdose.
So the ideal way to keep your vitamin D levels up is from limited exposure to real sunshine. But in the winter when sunlight is scarce this isn’t possible for many of us, but spending just 10 minutes a day in a home tanning bed can help maintain healthy vitamin D levels.
This coincides with the amount of time that many knowledgeable researchers recommend spending out in the sun. Even fair-skinned people can tolerate this amount of exposure without burning. If you are extremely sensitive you could cut this time back. The goal is to very gradually tan, get your vitamin D and never to burn.
It is well known over exposure to UV rays from the sun or tanning beds can increase the risk of skin cancer.
While no one is advocating overexposure some experts are now saying that brief daily exposure to UV rays is a better and safer option than taking supplements.
Lacking sunlight, the use of home tanning beds come the winter months would be the next best choice for vitamin D.
Vitamin D is lacking in most foods unless they are fortified. Vitamin D supplementation can be risky because it is a fat soluble vitamin that can build up in the body and cause toxic levels of calcium to build in the soft tissues and cause calcinosis and other serious health problems.
Like the sun, home tanning beds will not cause your body to overdose. Your body can naturally regulate its vitamin D levels. When levels reach the right amount, production automatically shuts down.
Rather than gobbling down handfuls of pills or eating every vitamin D fortified food there is, researchers say simply spending 10 minutes in the midday sun will provide the body with enough UV exposure to produce it yourself naturally.
Using Tanning Beds For Vitamin D
The problem is, unlike researchers living in San Diego, most of the northern part of the country gets very little sunlight in winter. What little there is, isn’t strong enough to make much vitamin D and exposing your skin in cold climates isn’t practical.
As a result most people in the northern latitudes are deficient in vitamin D for at least six months of the year. This is not a healthy situation considering the risks associated with low vitamin D levels.
There’s really only three options if you want to remain healthy.
Option one is to move to a sunnier climate or take extended winter vacations in one. This is not very practical for most of us.
Option two is to use supplements. This really requires caution. You need to have your levels monitored by blood tests. Yes you can buy vitamin D over the counter but that doesn’t make it safe. You can buy rat poison over the counter too.
Option three is using home tanning beds for vitamin D. You can visit a tanning salon daily, which can be inconvenient and take up a lot of time. Or you can buy your own home tanning bed and spend a few minutes a day using it in the privacy of your own home.
The home tanning beds option makes the most sense.
It is more convenient and less costly long-term. It is safe because of the limited amount of time you use it and it allows your body to make and regulate your vitamin D naturally.
Stand Up Home Tanning Beds And Vitamin D
Unfortunately the D Lite system now seems to be unavailable but you can still keep your vitamin d levels up with a stand up tanner.
There has been a new breakthrough in tanning bed technology. The D-Lite System Tanning Bed produces only UVB rays. This is the part of natural sunlight that produces vitamin D . It will not cause you to tan or burn.
The D-Lite System was designed for folks who want the benefits of the sun’s vitamin D producing rays but not tanning.
The D-Lite System also gives off red light which helps the body produce collagen and fight wrinkles. Spending just 10 minutes in front of the D-Lite tanning bed will safely maintain healthy levels of vitamin D and also help fight wrinkling.
This stand up tanning bed weighs only 35 pounds and mounts on a door or a wall, making it fit most anywhere.
Tanning beds and vitamin d levels can be used to stay healthier during the winter. Even the most sun sensitive people can safely maintain their vitamin D levels during the winter months without having to go to a tanning salon or risk sunburn.
