Study Excerpt: “Since excessive UV irradiance
is not required to achieve adequate vitamin D levels, increasing the guidelines
for vitamin D intake and destigmatizing UVB exposure would be a very cost-effective
way to improve the quality of life and reduce medical costs.”
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Dr. William B. Grant PhD, Chairman of SUNARC (Sunlight, Nutrition and Health Research Center, see: www.sunarc.org) in San Francisco, CA, has seemingly dropped yet another proverbial bomb on the U.S. medical community, with the recent publication of his new paper entitled, “Comparisons of estimated economic burdens due to insufficient solar ultraviolet irradiance and vitamin D, and excess solar UV irradiance for the United States”, which appears in the April 2005 issue of the Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology . In the paper, Dr. Grant compares statistical data on mortality rates from internal cancers, multiple sclerosis and other maladies caused by insufficient vitamin D against those of skin cancers, and places an “economic burden number” on each. The result shows a substantial disparity between the two figures, and has ignited yet another heated debate between dermatologists who still maintain that the sky is falling – and everyone else.
Working with research provided by Dr. Cedric F. Garland, Professor of Medicine at the University of California, and Boston University’s Dr. Michael F. Holick, Dr. Grant was able to show that between 50,000-63,000 Americans die prematurely from internal cancers annually due to insufficient vitamin D levels, with an even higher per capita ratio in the United Kingdom. The impact to the U.S. economy, taking Medicare, lost wages and savings into account, was estimated to be between $40-$56 billion annually, whereas overexposure to UV and subsequent deaths related to various forms of skin cancer barely reached the $6 billion level; a 9-to-1 difference.
From a public health regulatory perspective, this is a noteworthy divergence. Federal agencies, such as the FDA, EPA, OSHA, and NIH rate health risks according to percentile prevalence within populations based on race, gender, and econographics. According to most of those we spoke to, preventative measures against what is commonly being referred to as the “Grant Aggregate” (the plethora of internal cancers, MS and other maladies caused by insufficient vitamin D) are given a far higher priority, both economically and in terms of medical care, than is skin cancer. As an example, Dr. Grant placed a particular emphasis on osteoporotic fractures, which account for a large percentage of Medicare costs among underprivileged senior citizens in this country.
One of the more striking finds gleaned from the mountain of logarithms and algorithms that only such minds as Dr. Grant can process, was a statistical prevalence of MS at the time of entry by men into the armed forces during the period of 1941-1955 from high latitudes – four times that for those from lower latitudes. Having recognized this very glaring “Red Flag”, Dr. Grant surmised, “If it is assumed that all cases above the 30° North (latitudinal) line could have been prevented in the United States from UVB alone, that is 55% of the cases. At 18° North, the prevalence is 13%. Assuming that this value represents the maximum effect of vitamin D, another 8% of the cases could have been prevented.”
The paper’s summary statement is clear enough. “Public health advisories to minimize solar UVB irradiance, especially when given without any additional guidelines for the importance of vitamin D, could be more harmful than beneficial to public health, especially since the primary vitamin D source for most people on Earth is solar UVB irradiance. It is hoped that this work will lead to additional research to confirm the findings and to revised guidelines for vitamin D and UVB irradiance.”
This, and other of Dr. Grant’s works can be read at the SUNARC website.
He will also present the paper to a group of international scientists
who are planned to gather at the Royal Medical Society in London this
month.
Yet again, the tide continues to turn...
