Sunlight and health

BMJ 1999;319:1066 ( 16 October )

Letters

Sunlight and health

Use of sunscreens does not risk vitamin D deficiency

Article did not help informed debate

Not all sunlight is dangerous, just ultraviolet radiation

Severity of effect depends on where you live

Exposure to sunlight may reduce cancer risk

Authors' reply

Use of sunscreens does not risk vitamin D deficiency

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Ness et al misinterpret our work in Australia by stating that we showed that use of sunscreens reduced vitamin D concentrations.¹In fact, we showed that the use of sunscreens did not preventthe normal summer rise in 25-hydroxy vitamin D concentration (thevitamin D fraction that is used to assess vitamin D deficiency).²Subjects using sunscreens compared with controls using a placebocream had an equal rise over thesummer.

As an extension of the study we also measured concentrations of 1,25-hydroxy vitamin D. This fraction of vitamin D is believedto be regulated by 25-hydroxy vitamin D concentrations via a negativefeedback mechanism. We found a rise in 1,25-hydroxy vitamin Dconcentrations over the summer in people using sunscreen, butthe rise was smaller than that among those using placebo. In asmall group there was a lower, but not significantly different,concentration of 1,25-hydroxy vitamin D . . . [Full text of this article]

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