Healthy adults exposed to UVB from tanning beds significantly elevated their vitamin D blood levels while those given standard vitamin D supplements slipped into vitamin D deficiency, according to the results of a new Boston University study that will appear in the March 2008 issue of the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research.

“Vitamin D deficiency is common in both children and adults worldwide,” Boston University vitamin D pioneer Dr. Michael Holick told Science Daily in an article published Wednesday. “Exposure to lamps that emit UVB radiation is an excellent source for producing vitamin D3 in the skin and is especially efficacious in patients with fat malabsorption syndromes.”

Subjects with fat malabsorption syndrome have difficulty metabolizing dietary or supplementary vitamin D. Natural vitamin D, in contrast, is produced when UVB light contacts the skin.

Holick’s new study supports the results of earlier work showing that regular indoor tanning clients have 90 percent higher vitamin D blood levels compared to non-tanners as well as higher bone mineral density scores.

According to Science Daily, “45 nursing home residents who were taking a multivitamin that contained 400 IU of vitamin D2 showed a dramatic decline in their 25(OH)D levels from the end of summer to the beginning of the following summer. Forty-nine percent, 67 percent, 74 percent, and 78 percent of the nursing home residents were vitamin D deficient in August, November, February, and May respectively.”

To read the full Science Daily article click here.