Vitamin D lamps

Vitamine D

About 75% of the vitamin D which our body needs is being created by exposure to sunlight.

In our modern society we spent our time mainly inside. Especially in the northern countries with a very limited number of sun hours a lot of people suffer from a vitamin D shortage. Scientific research shows that in our society 50% to 80% of the people suffer from a moderate to serious deficit of vitamin D (1).

Symptoms of vitamin D deficiency:

• Regular cold and flu
• Weak muscles and muscle cramps
• Chronic fatigue
• More often fractures
• Overweight

Scientifically has been proven that a shortage of vitamin D may lead to some very serious diseases like:

• Diabetes (2)
• Heart and sore diseases (3)
• Cancer (4)

It's also been demonstrated that the risks on certain forms of cancer can be seriously reduced by administering sufficient vitamin D (5).

Vitamin D lamps for sunbeds

It's clear that vitamin D is extremely important to our health and that the easiest way to get enough vitamin D is exposure to sunlight. Incase of a shortage of sunlight there is a good alternative namely the sunbed.

As one of the major suppliers of tanning lamps in the Benelux and shortly in Europe we selected a program of lamps leading to an increased vitamin D production. All those lamps have a higher UVB percentage. In general it's the higher the UVB the shorter the exposure times. We selected a number of lamps with the ideal ratio between vitamin D production and UVB percentage/exposure time.

Vitamin D exposure schedule

Although it's not completely clear how long and how often exposure to sunlight is needed to get enough vitamin D it is generally accepted that around 15 minutes in a week should be sufficient. There is no risk of overdose (contrary to vitamin D supplements) because the body takes care of that perfectly.

Of course these lamps are still tanning lamps. If you buy them for that purpose you will not only get a nice tan but you will also get sufficient vitamin D. With regard to the tanning we repeat what we mention always and everywhere:

• Increase tanning times slowly
• Keep in mind your skin type and follow the exposure schedules belonging to your canopy or sunbed.
• Keep 48 hours in between the exposures ( counts for inside and outside)
• Avoid sunburn by all means since that is extremely harmful to the skin. Incase you get sunburn do not tan (not in the sun and not under the sunbed) until your skin is fully recovered.

You don't have your tanning schedule belonging to you sunbed anymore or you just want more information about choice of lamps, skin type and tanning time? Take a look at our sunbed tubes buying guide where you will find most answers to your questions.

Sources

1. Holick, 2007
2. Hypponen et al., 2002; Holick,2 004; Pittas et al., 2006
3. Zittermann, 2006
4. Holick, 2002; Lappe et al., 2007
5. Goodwinn et al., 2008; Gross et al., 1998; Helzslouer et al., 2010; Huncharek et al., 2009