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Colour Counts: Sunlight and Skin Type as Drivers of Vitamin D Deficiency at UK Latitudes

Sunlight exposure, with resulting cutaneous synthesis, is a major source of vitamin D for many, while dietary intake is low in modern diets. The constitutive pigment in skin determines skin type, observed as white, brown, or black skin. The melanin pigment absorbs ultraviolet radiation (UVR) and pro...

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Autores principales: Webb, Ann R., Kazantzidis, Andreas, Kift, Richard C., Farrar, Mark D., Wilkinson, Jack, Rhodes, Lesley E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5946242/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29642423
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu10040457
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author Webb, Ann R.
Kazantzidis, Andreas
Kift, Richard C.
Farrar, Mark D.
Wilkinson, Jack
Rhodes, Lesley E.
author_facet Webb, Ann R.
Kazantzidis, Andreas
Kift, Richard C.
Farrar, Mark D.
Wilkinson, Jack
Rhodes, Lesley E.
author_sort Webb, Ann R.
collection PubMed
description Sunlight exposure, with resulting cutaneous synthesis, is a major source of vitamin D for many, while dietary intake is low in modern diets. The constitutive pigment in skin determines skin type, observed as white, brown, or black skin. The melanin pigment absorbs ultraviolet radiation (UVR) and protects underlying skin from damage caused by UVR. It also reduces the UVR available for vitamin D synthesis in the skin. It has been shown that the white-skinned population of the UK are able to meet their vitamin D needs with short, daily lunchtime exposures to sunlight. We have followed the same methodology, based on a 10-year UK all-weather UVR climatology, observation (sun exposure, diet, vitamin D status), and UVR intervention studies with Fitzpatrick skin type V (brown) adults, to determine whether sunlight at UK latitudes could provide an adequate source of vitamin D for this section of the population. Results show that to meet vitamin D requirements, skin type V individuals in the UK need ~25 min daily sunlight at lunchtime, from March to September. This makes several assumptions, including that forearms and lower legs are exposed June–August; only exposing hands and face at this time is inadequate. For practical and cultural reasons, enhanced oral intake of vitamin D should be considered for this population.
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spelling pubmed-59462422018-05-15 Colour Counts: Sunlight and Skin Type as Drivers of Vitamin D Deficiency at UK Latitudes Webb, Ann R. Kazantzidis, Andreas Kift, Richard C. Farrar, Mark D. Wilkinson, Jack Rhodes, Lesley E. Nutrients Article Sunlight exposure, with resulting cutaneous synthesis, is a major source of vitamin D for many, while dietary intake is low in modern diets. The constitutive pigment in skin determines skin type, observed as white, brown, or black skin. The melanin pigment absorbs ultraviolet radiation (UVR) and protects underlying skin from damage caused by UVR. It also reduces the UVR available for vitamin D synthesis in the skin. It has been shown that the white-skinned population of the UK are able to meet their vitamin D needs with short, daily lunchtime exposures to sunlight. We have followed the same methodology, based on a 10-year UK all-weather UVR climatology, observation (sun exposure, diet, vitamin D status), and UVR intervention studies with Fitzpatrick skin type V (brown) adults, to determine whether sunlight at UK latitudes could provide an adequate source of vitamin D for this section of the population. Results show that to meet vitamin D requirements, skin type V individuals in the UK need ~25 min daily sunlight at lunchtime, from March to September. This makes several assumptions, including that forearms and lower legs are exposed June–August; only exposing hands and face at this time is inadequate. For practical and cultural reasons, enhanced oral intake of vitamin D should be considered for this population. MDPI 2018-04-07 /pmc/articles/PMC5946242/ /pubmed/29642423 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu10040457 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Webb, Ann R.
Kazantzidis, Andreas
Kift, Richard C.
Farrar, Mark D.
Wilkinson, Jack
Rhodes, Lesley E.
Colour Counts: Sunlight and Skin Type as Drivers of Vitamin D Deficiency at UK Latitudes
title Colour Counts: Sunlight and Skin Type as Drivers of Vitamin D Deficiency at UK Latitudes
title_full Colour Counts: Sunlight and Skin Type as Drivers of Vitamin D Deficiency at UK Latitudes
title_fullStr Colour Counts: Sunlight and Skin Type as Drivers of Vitamin D Deficiency at UK Latitudes
title_full_unstemmed Colour Counts: Sunlight and Skin Type as Drivers of Vitamin D Deficiency at UK Latitudes
title_short Colour Counts: Sunlight and Skin Type as Drivers of Vitamin D Deficiency at UK Latitudes
title_sort colour counts: sunlight and skin type as drivers of vitamin d deficiency at uk latitudes
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5946242/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29642423
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu10040457
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