Lupus And Sun Exposure

Dynamic vitamin D can help prevent a host of ills

By: Patrick Springer , INFORUM

FARGO – Vitamin D is something of a wonder drug, but bad things can happen if your body isn’t getting enough. Those who get adequate levels of vitamin D are better able to ward off everything from cancer to heart disease to autoimmune disease.

But here’s the problem: Studies show that many, many people – especially in northern latitudes – don’t get enough of the vital nutrient, which acts in the body like a hormone.

In fact, it’s very difficult and practically impossible to get enough vitamin D from your diet. Very few foods, except cod-liver oil, naturally contain vitamin D.

Since the late 1940s, milk has been fortified with vitamin D. More recently, other dairy foods, including yogurt, and some orange juice contain the vitamin as an additive as well.

But Cathy Breedon, a clinical and metabolic nutrition specialist at Sanford Medical Center in Fargo, says people would have to drink quarts a day to get enough vitamin D.

Although sunshine enables the body to produce vitamin D, few people get enough safe exposure to the sun.

So that means taking multivitamins with vitamin D and often supplements.

The question therefore becomes: How much vitamin D do I need to take?

The short answer: More than was recommended until recently, and many experts would argue that still more is needed than is officially recommended.

D helps immune system

A little history about how vitamin D came to be added to our milk helps to explain how the old recommendations came to be.

For years people knew that the way to prevent rickets, a softening of the bones in children, was to take cod-liver oil. Once it was discovered that vitamin D was the preventive ingredient, vitamin D was added to milk, starting in the late 1940s – one of the United States’ first public health interventions.

Since then, as health science has advanced, researchers have come to understand the vital role vitamin D plays in helping prevent a raft of diseases and conditions.

Inadequate vitamin D is associated with increased risk of diabetes, lupus, scleroderma, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, cancer of the breast, colon, prostate, endometrium and pancreas, heart disease, muscle pain, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, obesity and muscle weakness, according to studies.

Lupus Symptoms In Women - How To Identify Cutaneous Lupus Rashes

Approximately 9 out of 10 lupus patients are women. Lupus symptoms in women are wide-ranging and can affect nearly every part of the human body including the skin, joints, and internal organs. Approximately 85% of lupus patients will experience changes to their skin. One of the most common skin symptoms characteristic of most forms of the disease is a lupus rash.

Cutaneous or discoid lupus, which only affects the skin, is often associated with several different kinds of skin rashes and lesions, but these are also commonly present in people with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Most rashes are extremely photosensitive, meaning they are made worse by exposure to ultraviolet light like that from the sun.

Other lupus symptoms in women may include ulcers inside the nose and/or mouth, extreme fatigue, headaches, fever, dizziness, chest pain, hair loss, sleep disturbances, and internal damage to areas of the body such as the brain, kidneys, heart, lungs, and blood vessels.

The poster-child rash of lupus disease is the butterfly rash. This rash occurs on the face and gets its name from the characteristic "butterfly" shape it usually forms in. The body of the butterfly is made by the bridge of the nose and the wings are created by light pink and/or bright red markings that extend across the cheeks underneath each eye.

The areas of red may be large and solid or they may be blotchy. A lupus butterfly rash may also be scaly in texture, and itching is a common complaint from lupus patients with this type of rash.

A second common lupus rash is the discoid rash. The term "discoid" refers to the shape of this rash which is often oval or disk-like. Discoid rashes commonly occur on the scalp, face, and neck along with other areas of the body exposed to sunlight. They are extremely photosensitive and may become very itchy.

Discoid lesions, discoid sores, and subacute cutaneous lesions are also common and may leave scars as they heal. These lesions are generally coin shaped and can cover large areas of the body if the skin becomes exposed to sunlight. Some discoid lesions start out looking like red pimples whereas others start out as flat lesions and get bigger by expanding outward.

Approximately 20% of SLE patients will experience what are known as chronic discoid lupus lesions. With these lesions, the central area becomes depressed and forms a scar which can be very disfiguring.

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