Mo. Research Team Using Tanning Beds to Make Vitamin D
A University of Missouri research team is using indoor tanning equipment to bolster vitamin D production in sun-starved Missourians.
Columbia Missouri NBC-TV affiliate KOMU reported this week that the University of Missouri Department of Nutritional Sciences is testing people at MU “as part of a study linking vitamin D and inflamatory markers in the blood, which can affect bone health.”
MU Assistant Professor Catherine Peterson is leading the project, and is looking for Columbia-based indoor tanning clients to help with the study.
Peterson is using those who don’t tan and those who regularly tan for her study, since tanners get the light needed for optimal vitamin D production, KOMU reported.
A Boston University research team has already shown that indoor tanning clients have 90 percent higher vitamin D blood levels, and higher bone density readings as compared with non-tanners.
“Who is getting the benefits there? People stuck inside all day or people laying out in the sun?” Heffernan told KOMU.
