Tanning Beds, and Vitamin D Deficiency
Since normally, vitamin D is supposed to be generated by solar exposure on the skin, I wonder if the local tanning salon could be used to make up the exposure that those of us here in Rochester don't really get?
I'd be really reluctant to use that, even if it did work - I'm just a little sensitive about the idea of voluntarily seeking out radiation exposure. Well, additional radiation exposure.
Vitamin D deficiency seems to be all the rage lately. Lots of the people I know who are always "sick" are now claiming that that is their current malady. Odd. Not that I'm attributing this to the OP by any means, it just came to mind.
Either way, just drink a shitload of milk, that's what I do.
Hell, if I didn't do things just because they made me feel a bit ridiculous, I wouldn't have much of a social life. - Santo Rugger.
Well, my milk ingestion hasn't been doing it.Originally posted by Cluricaun
I recently found out that my vitamin D levels were seriously low (i.e. about 5-10% of where they should be.) and have started treatment for that. So, I've been thinking about it a bit more lately than I used to.
Well tanning beds would help for sure, just keep your exposure as low as possible, keep it on the 5 minute timeline and don't start sitting in them for a half hour at a time and looking like one of those Jersey Shore Oompa Loompas and you should be reasonably safe.
Hell, if I didn't do things just because they made me feel a bit ridiculous, I wouldn't have much of a social life. - Santo Rugger.
You're probably better off taking pills or maybe seeking out naturally vitamin D rich foods. I take 2000 IU per day because, unlike most of these other nutritional fads, this one as far as I can tell is couched in pretty hard science and vitamin D supplementation is pretty promising for preventing all sorts of diseases.
Oh, even knowing that the tanning bed would work, I'm not going to do it.
I know I've got a higher than normal skin radiation dose. We were concerned with whole body dose, and some of the hot spots we had to work on were pretty powerful - and since radiation exposure is based on one of those inverse square relationships, if I couldn't stay working on something for more than fifteen minutes because my core body would get over-exposed, you can imagine what my hands, and arms were getting from the same source.
I'll keep taking the nice green jelly beans the VA has given me, thank you. Just wondered about the possibility.
I do agree that the Vitamin D issue is something that's a realistic concern. We simply stay indoors a lot more than our ancestors (and wear sunscreen when we go outside), and evolution hasn't caught up to that.
Tanning beds emit mostly UVA light, but UVB light is needed for D synthesis. This isn't really an area I know a lot about, but I would ask whether the small amount of UVB light exposure acquired in a tanning bed would offset the risk.
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