Sunshine vitamin call
Thursday January 12th, 2012
Europe needs a concerted drive to improve vitamin D levels to boost bone health and prevent a range of diseases, experts say today.
The
public should get advice on daily doses of sunshine - and vitamin supplements
should be available for those with low levels, according to the experts
from the European Menopause and Andropause Society.
The vitamin is especially important for older women, they say, because of the risk of bone loss.
They advise exposure to the sun for 15 minutes three to four times a week.
Up to 70 per cent of Europeans have low levels of vitamin D, they say.
Society spokesman Faustino Pérez-López, of the University of Zaragoza, Spain, called for the World Health Organisation to publish recommendations on vitamin D levels.
He said: "Health care professionals should be aware that this is a common problem which affects a large part of the population in Europe, even those who live in sunny places."
Writing in the journal Maturitas, the researchers say: "A healthy lifestyle should include exposure to the sun for 15 minutes three to four times per week when the weather permits since 90 per cent of vitamin D is synthesized upon the skin having contact with sunlight.
"Patients with risk factors associated with hypovitaminosis (obesity, pigmented skin, intestinal malabsorption syndromes and living in regions close to the North and South poles) should increase their intake to up to 4,000 IU per day.”
Vitamin D and postmenopausal health. Faustino R. Pérez-López, Marc Brincat, C. Tamer Erel, Florence Tremollieres, Marco Gambacciani, Irene Lambrinoudaki, Mette H. Moen, Karin Schenck-Gustafsson, Svetlana Vujovic, Serge Rozenberg, Margaret Rees.Maturitas, volumen 71, págs. 83-88, enero de 2012.
Tags: Diet & Food | Elderly Health | Europe | General Health
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