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KBD D/UV Sunlamp
The "Vitamin D Lamp"
Natural Vitamin D Production with Ultraviolet Sunlamps

The D/UV Lamp is intended for individuals who may not be able to receive either needed sunlight exposures or tolerate Vitamin D supplemented foods. The KBD D/UV Sunlamp is an ultraviolet lamp that produces the UV rays, like sunlight, that helps the body generate Vitamin D within the body.

The D/UV Vitamin D Lamp has become our most popular Ultraviolet Sunlamp. Designed for those wanting to naturally increase their Vitamin D production, this well built unit is easy to use, comes full assembled, and at SummerTan.com we include a full year extended warranty on the unit free. We offer the D-UV lamp with either a table top stand, or an adjustable tripod floor stand. With the table top stand you place it on any flat surface and you can adjust the angle of the sunlamp. The tripod floor stand is height adjustable and the sunlamp head mounted at the top of the stand also adjusts to any angle you desire. We include two pair of protective eyewear free with our SummerTan.com complete D/UV package.

Powerful, yet compact, the 800 watt D/UV Vitamin D Lamp is approx. 15 inches wide and 11 inches tall, and weighs just 8 pounds. The D/UV does not use magnetic ballasts, it simply uses electric resistance ballasts which safely power the unit. If you have researched Ultraviolet sunlamps you may have read a warning about 'Magnetic Ballasts', so again, these units DO NOT USE magnetic ballasts, they are safely powered with electric resistance ballasts.

D/UV Vitamin D Lamp with Table Top Stand:  $ 239.95 (complete SummerTan.com package)

D/UV Vitamin D Lamp with Adjustable Floor Stand:  $ 299.95  (complete SummerTan.com package)

 *New: when you order the floor stand version from us at SummerTan.com we will also include the table top stand free.

The KBD D/UV Vitamin D Lamp Includes:  

• Table top unit with chrome stand ($239.95), or adjustable tripod floor stand ($299.95).

• Special 800 watt D/UV bulb included & installed.

• 5 Minute timer (adjustable) controls time of exposure.

• Multi-faceted reflector to optimize UV output.

• UL listed (Underwriter Labs Tested).

• 110V - plugs into a regular outlet.

• Protective eyewear included (we give you two pair).

• Auto turn-off when the timer expires.

• Only SummerTan.com gives you a free extended 18 month warranty on
  the unit and 6 months on the bulb.

• Made in the USA!

• Safe and undamaged delivery guaranteed.

• Low (very fair) shipping fees & options.
  
  
  FREE SHIPPING (UPS, continental USA) for a limited time.

Order Now - Click Here and you will be transported
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Always consult your physician for expert advise relating to any medical condition or treatment. Medical Disclaimer: This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Sunscreens Can Block vitamin D
"A little sunlight is necessary for healthy bones"
By Robert Bazell, Correspondent
NBC News

Tamara Smith visits a tanning parlor when she can’t be outside in the sun. “I’m always indoors. I don’t go outside," says Smith.

Many doctors say ultraviolet light from the sun or a tanning machine is dangerous because of the risks associated with skin cancer. But some health experts, such as Dr. Michael Holick of Boston University, disagree.

“I believe that Americans have gone overboard with their fear of the sun. I think that sensible exposure to sunlight is really important for your overall health and well-being,” says Holick.

The reason for the concern is vitamin D, essential for bone strength and other health needs, which our skin makes through exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays.

We need 1,000 units of vitamin D a day, but a glass of milk supplies only 100 units and a multivitamin only 400. So most people need the sun in order to avoid deficiency.

Sunscreens can reduce vitamin D production
Now, new research has found that wearing sunscreen continuously can reduce the amount of vitamin D a person is able to make.

"We looked at individuals that always wore a sunscreen before they went outside. ... And we found that, indeed at the end of the summer, they were deficient in vitamin D," says Holick. "And so we have shown over and over again that adults, even if they're on a multivitamin, and drinking milk, if they always wear sun protection, or avoid any direct sun exposure, they're at high risk of developing vitamin D deficiency."

Rooftop measurements of sunlight show that, for most people, getting enough sunlight exposure at this time of year is not easy, even for people who don't regularly wear sunscreen. In the middle of the winter on a very sunny day in a city as far north as Boston, there’s not enough sunlight for people to get sufficient quantities of vitamin D.

The good news is that if you get enough sun during the rest of the year, it carries you through the winter, says Holick.

Or there are machines. In Holick’s lab he put young people in tanning machines and measured their bone density.

“Tanners had higher bone density on average than non-tanners,” says Holick.

Still, he cautions against the dangers of skin cancer and warns people not to go overboard. However, it is critical, he says, to realize the sun’s rays are not always our enemy.

• Improves bone health
• Enhances mental health (SAD, PMS, depression, general mood)
• Prevents certain cancers
• Improves heart health
• Alleviates skin disorders
• Decreases risk of autoimmune disorders, including multiple sclerosis, Type 1 diabetes mellitus, and rheumatoid arthritis
• Alleviates conditions related to obesity that prevent participation in an exercise program

Dr. Michael Holick, PH.D., M.D.
Author, The UV Advantage (this is a great book - available at Amazon.com)

Vitamin D myths, facts and statistics

Fifteen facts you probably never knew about vitamin D and sunlight exposure.
(Compiled by Mike Adams, based on an interview with Dr. Michael Holick, author, The UV Advantage)

Vitamin D prevents osteoporosis, depression, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and even effects diabetes and obesity. Vitamin D is perhaps the single most underrated nutrient in the world of nutrition). That's probably because it's free: your body makes it when sunlight touches your skin. Drug companies can't sell you sunlight, so there's no promotion of its health benefits. Truth is, most people don't know the real story on vitamin D and health. So here's an overview taken from an interview between Mike Adams and Dr. Michael Holick.

1. Vitamin D is produced by your skin in response to exposure to ultraviolet radiation from natural sunlight.
2. The healing rays of natural sunlight (that generate vitamin D in your skin) cannot penetrate glass. So you don't generate vitamin D when sitting in your car or home.
3. It is nearly impossible to get adequate amounts of vitamin D from your diet. Sunlight exposure is the only reliable way to generate vitamin D in your own body.
4. A person would have to drink ten tall glasses of vitamin D fortified milk each day just to get minimum levels of vitamin D into their diet.
5. The further you live from the equator, the longer exposure you need to the sun in order to generate vitamin D. Canada, the UK and most U.S. states are far from the equator.
6. People with dark skin pigmentation may need 20 - 30 times as much exposure to sunlight as fair-skinned people to generate the same amount of vitamin D. That's why prostate cancer is epidemic among black men -- it's a simple, but widespread, sunlight deficiency.
7. Sufficient levels of vitamin D are crucial for calcium absorption in your intestines. Without sufficient vitamin D, your body cannot absorb calcium, rendering calcium supplements useless.
8. Chronic vitamin D deficiency cannot be reversed overnight: it takes months of vitamin D supplementation and sunlight exposure to rebuild the body's bones and nervous system.
9. Even weak sunscreens (SPF=8) block your body's ability to generate vitamin D by 95%. This is how sunscreen products actually cause disease -- by creating a critical vitamin deficiency in the body.
10. It is impossible to generate too much vitamin D in your body from sunlight exposure: your body will self-regulate and only generate what it needs.
11. If it hurts to press firmly on your sternum, you may be suffering from chronic vitamin D deficiency right now.
12. Vitamin D is "activated" in your body by your kidneys and liver before it can be used.
13. Having kidney disease or liver damage can greatly impair your body's ability to activate circulating vitamin D.
14. The sunscreen industry doesn't want you to know that your body actually needs sunlight exposure because that realization would mean lower sales of sunscreen products.
15. Even though vitamin D is one of the most powerful healing chemicals in your body, your body makes it absolutely free. No prescription required.

Diseases and conditions caused by vitamin D deficiency:

• Osteoporosis is commonly caused by a lack of vitamin D, which greatly impairs calcium absorption.
• Sufficient vitamin D prevents prostate cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, depression, colon cancer and schizophrenia.
• "Rickets" is the name of a bone-wasting disease caused by vitamin D deficiency.
• Vitamin D deficiency may exacerbate type 2 diabetes and impair insulin production in the pancreas.
• Obesity impairs vitamin D utilization in the body, meaning obese people need twice as much vitamin D.
• Vitamin D is used around the world to treat Psoriasis.
• Vitamin D deficiency causes schizophrenia.
• Seasonal Affective Disorder is caused by a melatonin imbalance initiated by lack of exposure to sunlight.
• Chronic vitamin D deficiency is often misdiagnosed as fibromyalgia because its symptoms are so similar: muscle weakness, aches and pains.
• Your risk of developing serious diseases like diabetes and cancer is reduced 50% - 80% through simple, sensible exposure to natural sunlight 2-3 times each week.
• Infants who receive vitamin D supplementation (2000 units daily) have an 80% reduced risk of developing type 1 diabetes over the next twenty years.

Shocking Vitamin D deficiency statistics:

• 32% of doctors and med school students are vitamin D deficient.
• 40% of the U.S. population is vitamin D deficient.
• 42% of African American women of childbearing age are deficient in vitamin D.
• 48% of young girls (9-11 years old) are vitamin D deficient.
• Up to 60% of all hospital patients are vitamin D deficient.
• 76% of pregnant mothers are severely vitamin D deficient, causing widespread vitamin D deficiencies in their unborn children, which predisposes them to type 1 diabetes, arthritis, multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia later in life. 81% of the children born to these mothers were deficient.
• Up to 80% of nursing home patients are vitamin D deficient.

What you can do:

And you can get it free of charge. That's why nobody's promoting it, of course.

Vitamin D: What's Enough?
Many people may need much more
Janet Raloff

A few minutes of sun exposure on a summer day can generate huge quantities of vitamin D in a person's body. A cholesterol-like substance in the skin absorbs ultraviolet (UV) energy and creates vitamin D. Then, a cascade of chemical reactions turns vitamin D into a surprisingly versatile hormone—one that has long been recognized to help the body absorb calcium from the diet to build strong bones. Recent work, however, indicates that vitamin D also bolsters muscle strength, insulin action, immune health, and the body's natural defenses against cancer.

Inhabitants of the tropics typically have plenty of vitamin D, says Robert P. Heaney of Creighton University in Omaha, Neb. However, studies are now showing that people throughout the industrial world lag far behind. Many in temperate and colder climates don't reach the doses currently recommended to protect bone health, much less the far-higher amounts that research has been linking to additional health-promoting functions.

Some scientists are campaigning for additional vitamin-D enrichment of foods. Others advocate that people spend more time outdoors to increase vitamin D–producing sun exposure. Many hold that the boost must come largely from supplements.

What researchers who study vitamin D do agree on is that many people would benefit from more of the vitamin. At issue is only how much.

Out of the tropics

The Food and Nutrition Board of the National Academies in Washington, D.C., currently recommends that people from infancy through age 50 get 200 international units (IU) of vitamin D per day, that those ages 51 through 70 receive 400 IU daily, and that anyone over 70 get a net of 600 IU from sun, food, and supplements.

That's easy enough to do if you're, say, a white person working outdoors during the summer in New Jersey. In shorts and a T-shirt, such a person can soak up enough ultraviolet rays to produce 12,000 IU of vitamin D within 20 minutes, notes Reinhold Vieth of the University of Toronto.

That production would plummet if the person stayed indoors or slathered on UV-blocking sunscreen or covered up with clothing when out of doors, as recommended for protection against skin cancer.

Global location and skin color also affect the amount of vitamin D a person's skin manufactures. UV intensity falls as one moves from the equator toward Earth's poles, increasing latitude. Evolution compensated by selecting for increasingly unpigmented skin in northern populations, says Boston University endocrinologist Michael F. Holick.

Melanin pigment protects the skin from the damage of UV rays but also lowers the skin's production of vitamin D. In the March American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Holick quantifies this effect: Fair-skinned people who sunburn easily and rarely tan need just 2 to 10 percent as much sun exposure to produce a unit of vitamin D as do people with the darkest skin.

Season also matters. Holick has found that from the latitude of San Francisco northward—or from Buenos Aires southward—for 3 to 6 months a year, no amount of exposure will generate substantial vitamin D in even the palest skin.

Holick composed a map of North America that shows the minutes of exposure each skin type needs to generate some 1,000 IU of vitamin D without risking sunburn. For instance, a dark-skinned individual living in Anchorage can get that amount in 20 to 30 minutes midday in July, Holick reports in his new book The UV Advantage (2004, with Mark Jenkins, ibooks). A pale person in Honolulu might do it in 1 minute.

Finding sufficiency

Severe vitamin D deficiency softens bones. In children, the result is rickets, characterized by malformed legs. Adults may develop a rare condition called osteomalacia, distinguished by weakened muscles as well as bones. Seventy-five years ago, when the cause of rickets and osteomalacia was first recognized, the remedy was vitamin D–rich cod liver oil. Later, the United States mandated that dairies fortify milk with 100 IU of vitamin D per 8 ounces, and rickets essentially disappeared.

However, rickets has staged a comeback in the U.S. There is no national count, but according to Laurence Grummer-Strawn of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, between 1997 and 1999, "5 per million Georgia children were hospitalized with rickets due to vitamin D deficiency." All were African American, 8 to 21 months old. Numbers could be higher in more-northern locales.

Scientists offer several explanations for rickets' reemergence. Vieth notes that breast-feeding has had a revival and that mother's milk delivers little vitamin D. And Holick points out that doctors have been discouraging parents from letting babies get sun without liberal doses of sunscreen. The Food and Nutrition Board last reviewed its vitamin D recommendations in 1997. As part of that effort, a panel of experts including Vieth, Holick, and Heaney was charged to define how the vitamin should be monitored in people. The active form wasn't deemed suitable because it's manufactured in the body on demand, so it doesn't directly correlate with vitamin D intake and production.

The panel concluded that the best way to evaluate a person's vitamin D status would be to measure concentrations of an inactive form known as 25-hydroxy-vitamin D (25-D) that circulates in the blood.

However, Heaney adds, "we didn't say how much an individual should have—because we didn't know."

In North America, a typical 25-D blood concentration is 40 nanomoles per liter (nmol/l), and scientists long assumed that amount was adequate.

Last year, in a roundtable discussion at an osteoporosis conference in Lausanne, Switzerland, Vieth, Holick, Heaney, and others agreed that an optimal 25-D blood concentration for most people is 75 to 80 nmol/l. Most panelists, therefore, recommended that people strive for 800 to 1,000 IU of Vitamin D daily to achieve it.

That conclusion rests on a variety of experiments. David Hanley of the University of Calgary in Alberta cites studies focusing on parathyroid hormone, one of the factors regulating the natural breakdown of bone that constantly occurs throughout a healthy body. When a person's 25-D concentration dips too low, parathyroid hormone concentration in the blood rises and triggers excessive bone loss. Hanley says that several studies indicate that most people need 75 to 80 nmol/l of 25-D in their blood to protect their bones.

However, people 70 years old and older may need more than 100 nmol/l of 25-D to hold parathyroid hormone at healthy concentrations. Vieth and his colleagues reported this finding, which was based on a study of 1,700 people ages 19 to 97, in the January 2003 Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Low 25-D concentrations may identify apparently healthy individuals who are at risk for type 2 diabetes as well as for bone problems. In the May 1 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Ken C. Chiu and his colleagues at the University of California, Los Angeles report that the lower the 25-D in study participants, the less likely they were to produce adequate amounts of insulin or to show sufficient sensitivity to insulin. Chiu's team found that increasing a person's blood concentration of 25-D from 25 nmol/l to about 75 nmol/l would "improve insulin sensitivity by 60 percent," which is a greater increase than many antidiabetes drugs provide.

In people over age 60, 25-D blood concentrations correlate with leg strength, according to studies by Bess Dawson-Hughes of the Agriculture Department's Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging in Boston and her colleagues. In one study, they examined data from 4,100 adults representing a cross-section of the U.S. population. People with 25-D concentrations of 40 nmol/l or less walked more slowly and had more trouble rising from a chair than did people with concentrations higher than 86 nmol/l. The results took into account differences between the groups in age, arthritis, weight, and use of a cane, according to the team's report in the Sept. 1 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

A third recent study of 25-D links low blood concentrations to colorectal cancer in women. Diane Feskanich of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and her coworkers compared blood tests from 193 cancer patients with those of age-matched women who were cancerfree. All the women were participating in the long-running Nurses' Health Study. In the September Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, the researchers report that women in the highest 25-D group—with about 100 nmol/l—had only about half the cancer risk of women in the lowest group, averaging 40 nmol/l.

Silent epidemic

Few people have the blood concentrations of 25-D that researchers recommend. For instance, Hanley described findings from 200 Calgary adults at the Experimental Biology meeting in Washington, D.C., last April. A third of the study's population showed less than 30 nmol/l during at least part of the year. "The average level of 25-D through the four seasons was in the low 60s [nmol/l]," Hanley told Science News. If 80 nmol/l is taken as the cutoff for adequate 25-D, "virtually 100 percent of the population is vitamin D–deficient at least part of the year," he says.

In the March 2003 Nutrition Reviews, Mona Calvo of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration coauthored a review of five studies on vitamin D status in Canada and the United States. They described data indicating a high incidence of vitamin D insufficiency in almost all populations.

In one of those studies, Calvo notes, 42 percent of African American women were 25-D deficient, compared with just 4 percent of their white counterparts. That study defined deficiency as concentrations below 37.5 nmol/l. Calvo says that she prefers to use 80 nmol/l as the minimum adequate blood concentration of 25-D.

The remedy?

Some researchers propose that fortified milk and other foods can cover vitamin D shortfalls. However, the current diet offers, at most, 200 to 400 IU per day. Furthermore, Calvo has new data showing that "African Americans do not consume [vitamin-D] fortified foods." She suspects that many blacks avoid milk, the most highly enriched food, because they have difficulty digesting it.

Harold L. Newmark of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., and his colleagues propose a new food-enrichment scheme in the Aug. 1 American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. They argue that the best way to help vulnerable groups get enough vitamin D would be to mandate fortification of grain-based products, such as wheat flour, corn meal, and pasta.

Newmark and his colleagues estimate that the cost could be as low as 7 cents per person per year if U.S. foods were fortified to the maximum amount allowed by law. They calculate that this would increase vitamin D daily dietary intake by 50 to 200 IU.

Vieth and Holick are among the scientists who advocate increasing "sensible" outdoor activity so people can boost their sun exposure and thus vitamin D supply.

The amount of sun required would pose virtually no increased cancer risk, Holick says. "We evolved in sunlight, and so our whole system is dependent on some exposure to sunlight," he says. In fact, "our health depends on it," he adds.

Most researchers recommend that people get much of their vitamin D intake from supplements and recommend that they boost daily vitamin D intakes to around 1,000 IU.

Holick says that physicians could measure 25-D in blood and prescribe increasing doses of the vitamin until 80 nmol/l is reached. Such personalized prescriptions could take into account lifestyle and pigmentation. For instance, Heaney's research in Omaha indicates that elderly, dark-skinned women could require up to 2,000 IU of vitamin D to keep 25-D concentrations around 80 nmol/l.

Linda D. Meyers, director of the Food and Nutrition Board, which sets the government's recommended daily intake values for all vitamins and some minerals, agrees that "it really is time to look at those [intake standards] again for vitamin D." The standard probably needs to be higher, she acknowledges.

In December, the board will begin discussions with nutrition experts on which nutrients need to be reevaluated. Considering the wealth of data that has been coming out, "I'm thinking vitamin D might even offer a case study to help us," says Meyers.

"[Vitamin D] deserves to be in the first group reexamined," she told Science News. "It really is time to look at that one again."

To Buy or Not to Buy?

As with any purchase like this, the usual question you ask yourself is: 'Will I Actually Use It'? -The answer is: 'Yes, Why Not?'. Our Sunlamp won't be like that set of golf clubs or roller blades that just sit in your closet, because all you have to do is plug it in and turn it on. You're using it at home so you don't have to get ready to go anywhere. It doesn't take a lot of time, only 5 minute sessions, and it has a bright comfortable warmth. In summary, yes - you will use it, there is no reason why you wouldn't use it. Our sunlamp makes it easy to receive the beneficial Vitamin D that the body naturally generates with UV exposure.

These units are well built, made here in the USA! Since there are no moving parts other than the timer dial, there's not much that can break or go wrong with these units, so you can count on your unit lasting many years. On average, you won't have to replace the bulb for three years. When that time comes you can be assured replacement bulbs will be available as this unit is very popular.

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