Daily duration of vitamin D synthesis in human skin with relation to latitude, total ozone, altitude, ground cover, aerosols and cloud thickness.
Engelsen O, Brustad M, Aksnes L, Lund E.
Photochem Photobiol. 2005 Nov-Dec;81(6):1287-90.
PMID: 16354110
Vitamin D production in human skin occurs only when incident UV radiation exceeds a certain threshold. From simulations of UV irradiances worldwide and throughout the year, we have studied the dependency of the extent and duration of cutaneous vitamin D production in terms of latitude, time, total ozone, clouds, aerosols, surface reflectivity and altitude. For clear atmospheric conditions, no cutaneous vitamin D production occurs at 51 degrees latitude and higher during some periods of the year. At 70 degrees latitude, vitamin D synthesis can be absent for 5 months. Clouds, aerosols and thick ozone events reduce the duration of vitamin D synthesis considerably, and can suppress vitamin D synthesis completely even at the equator. A web page allowing the computation of the duration of cutaneous vitamin D production worldwide throughout the year, for various atmospheric and surface conditions, is available on the Internet at http://zardoz.nilu.no/~olaeng/fastrt/VitD.html and http://zardoz.nilu.no/~olaeng/fastrt/VitD-ez.html. The computational methodology is outlined here.
Vitamin D supplement in early childhood and risk for Type I (insulin-dependent) diabetes mellitus. The EURODIAB Substudy 2 Study Group.
[No authors listed]
Diabetologia. 1999 Jan;42(1):51-4.
PMID: 10027578
DOI: 10.1007/s001250051112
In conclusion, this large multicentre trial covering many different European settings consistently showed a protective effect of vitamin D supplementation in infancy. The findings indicate that activated vitamin D might contribute to immune modulation and thereby protect or arrest an ongoing immune process initiated in susceptible people by early environmental
exposures.