Catch Some Rays, Sun-Shunning Aussies Told

IOL ^ | 8-5-2002

[blam]

Catch some rays, sun-shunning Aussies told

August 05 2002 at 08:51AM

Sydney - After years of being ordered to shun the sun, Australians are now being advised to get a little more light in their lives.

New research suggests that efforts to reduce skin cancer and a growing tendency for people to stay indoors may be having an unwanted adverse effect - vitamin D deficiency, which can contribute to the brittle bone disease osteoporosis.

In a "clinical update" published in the respected Medical Journal of Australia, Professor Caryl Nowson of Deakin University reported that the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in Australia appears to be much higher than previously thought.

Her paper cited recent research that found almost 23 percent of women and 76 percent of all nursing home residents in Australia have a marginal vitamin D deficiency.

'A balance between the need for sun and the risk of skin cancer' Dark-skinned people, women who wear veils and people living in nursing homes were more at risk, Nowson wrote.

While eating more foods like fatty fish, meat, milk and eggs will help, catching some rays is an ideal way of topping up vitamin D reserves.

"We need to balance the need for sunshine against the risk of skin cancer," Nowson wrote.

For years, doctors have told Australians heading to the beach to "slip, slop, slap" - slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen and slap on a hat - to minimise exposure to the sun's harmful rays in a country that is the world's worst for skin cancer.

A spokesperson for Australia's Cancer Council said she was aware of the data, and agreed that for a small percentage of the population who are deficient in vitamin D there has to be a balance between the need for sun and the risk of skin cancer.

"But in most cases, even the most sunsmart of us will be getting enough sun for vitamin D purposes. The study isn't suggesting the important 'slip, slop, slap' message be abandoned," she said. - Sapa-AP

[blam]

A lack of vitamin-D is what caused people to be white. Australians have the highest rate of skin cancer of anyone in the world. Africans have the least. (Africans that do get skin cancer usually get it on their bottom lips and palms, where they are the lightest color)

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

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