DEC. 17, 2009 — In a year that saw more than 3,000 papers published on vitamin D deficiency as a cause of most internal cancers, heart disease, multiple sclerosis and even flu, one paper putting the D deficiency epidemic in full perspective stood out as our pick for “Study of the Year.”

Dr. Ardit Ginde’s paper published March 23 in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed that:

• 77 percent of Americans are vitamin D deficient today — a 50 percent increase over D deficiency levels just one generation ago.
• 97 percent of black Americans today are vitamin D deficient — which can only be blamed on sun-avoidance and sunscreen usage amongst those whose darker skin needs the most sunlight to make adequate vitamin D.

• Severe vitamin D deficiency in blacks increased from just 9 percent a generation ago to 29 percent today.

“What Ginde’s paper did was to make it indisputable that sun avoidance is what is causing vitamin D deficiency,” Smart Tan Vice President Joseph Levy said. “Combined with the fact that we know 97 percent of Canadians are vitamin D deficient in the winter, there’s no escaping the fact that the unnatural advice of blanket UV avoidance and sunscreen usage has impacted health in a negative way. That’s why — in a year with so many research papers on vitamin D published — we think this one has the biggest impact.”

To listen to a National Public Radio story about the study click here.