Normally I just post letters I get, but had to jump up on the soap box this afternoon. Found a rather interesting article while reading Slashdot (News For Nerds) today. It concerns how a lack of vitamin D may be the single largest contributor of cancer in the USA. Of course, the best source of vitamin D is TANNING, which the media have been preaching against for years.

Many doctors have already known that getting too little sun will result in higher incidence of cancers, including skin cancer. This is why northern European countries (which get very little sun) have the highest incidence of skin and other cancers. Common sense wins again, and yes, light to moderate sun or tanning bed exposure seems to be just what the doctor ordered, even if he didn’t order it.

My favorite quote was “Only brief full-body exposures to bright summer sunshine — of 10 or 15 minutes a day — are needed to make high amounts of the vitamin.” which is the exact average exposure in a tanning bed. The study showed that people who do not get enough vitamin D (which is normally from sun exposure) are 60% more likely to get cancer. That means lack of sun is more dangerous than smoking, which is mind boggling but clearly documented.

The main article can be read here.