Vitamin D controversy: natural sunlight vs. supplements

• While relating that she had low levels of the vitamin --- and even her colleagues concede that many of us are also deficient --- she turned her speech into an analysis of where to get the vitamin's benefits without increased exposure to the sun --- through diet and taking vitamin D supplements.
• In an interview last year on ABC's Good Morning America, Holick explained his point of view.
• "I think that a little bit of safe sun exposure is good for your health.
• Vitamin D levels can be evaluated with a blood test, and Holick believes people should be tested annually.
• He also thinks that indoor tanning facilities "represent a viable alternative to natural sunshine for stimulating your production of vitamin D" but warns that the radiation exposure is the same as natural sunlight and requires the same precautions.
• Interestingly, a paper at the conference, presented by doctors from the Medical College of Georgia, advocated the use of sunless tanning products because a survey they conducted found that those using such products decreased the use of tanning bed facilities.
• Holick's position, however, led to an enormous backlash against him by colleagues and by his university employer.
• And his ties to the tanning industry have been questioned and were again questioned at the conference, where members of the audience referred to him as a tanning industry "consultant."
• Holick has denied that his research is influenced by any financial conflict and told The Scientist that the Indoor Tanning Association is "not telling me the kind of research to do."
• And while the American Academy is completely at odds with Holick --- he claims the association is too cozy with the sunscreen industry --- its advocacy of multivitamin supplements and food intake seems an impossible equation, in Holick's estimation.