Sunscreens

[April 2008] Toxic Chemical in Sunscreens Contaminate 97% of Americans

The Healing Power of Sunlight and Vitamin D: an exclusive interview with Dr. Michael Holick
What’s really remarkable is that vitamin D deficiency is epidemic throughout the entire United States, through all age groups. And I’ll give you some examples. It’s well known that elders throughout the United States are at high risk. And upwards of 40-60% are at risk for vitamin D deficiency. But we also now realize that even younger adults that are otherwise active and who may be always wearing sunscreen before they go outdoors, or they never see the light of day because they’re working all the time. When we did a study in Boston, we found that students and doctors 18-29 years of age, at the end of the winter, 32% were vitamin D deficient.  More shocking, though, was that we also looked at young girls (working with Dr Sullivan and Dr Rosen in Maine) -- and these are Caucasian girls ages 9-11 - and we found that 48% were vitamin D deficient at the end of the winter. And 17% remained vitamin D deficient at the end of the summer because of wearing all the sun protection.
    So we did a study at our hospital, and we looked at women coming in and giving birth, and we measured their vitamin D levels -- their 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels, and the infants’ 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels at birth. 49 infant-mother pairs were looked at, mostly African-American and Hispanic but some Caucasian as well. 76% of mothers were severely vitamin D deficient. 81% of infants were severely vitamin D deficient.
.............Even though I was unfortunately fired from my position in dermatology because my views on some sensible sun exposure were counter to the American Academy of Dermatology and some of the so-called leaders in the dermatology field, .....I think that there’s no question that the American Academy of Dermatology is well-funded by the sunscreen industry, and I’m sure that that plays a role in this (the idea that sun should be avoided.)
..............There was a study done in Minnesota by Dr Plotnikoff and what he showed was that, he looked at over 150 individuals. And we’re talking about children ages 10+ and adults up to the age of 65, presenting at a Minnesota hospital in the wintertime, complaining of muscle aches and pains and bone pain. Many of these, especially young women in their 20s, were given Motrin or some type of over the counter drug, or even a prescription strength anti-inflammatory drug (NSAIDs) because the doctors couldn’t figure out what was going on. 93% of that entire group of children and adults complaining of bone pain or muscle pain were vitamin D deficient.