Hypothesis – China air conditioning disease is the result of less vitamin D

Hypothesis: People living in sunny climates who can afford air conditioning get less vitamin D

• Air Conditioning probably has decreased vitamin D

• Depression in UAE peaks in the summer – probably due to sun avoidance – Feb 2011

“Air Conditioning Disease”?

By Dr. Richard Saint Cyr, on August 15th, 2010

Boy, was this summer a scorcher. Even as I write this, hundreds of people in Russia are still dying from heat stroke and the peat-fire pollution. Here in China, with the temperatures raging a couple weeks ago, most newspapers were filled with health advice stories. Discussing how to avoid heat stroke, of course? Uh, not really — many talked about that uniquely Chinese malady, “air conditioning disease“.

Needless to say, air conditioning disease is not a Western, allopathic medicine diagnosis. There is no ICD-10 billing code for this. But here in China, everyone I talk with is completely convinced that many summer colds and illnesses are caused by air conditioning, or at least inappropriate use of it. It’s deeply ingrained with traditional Chinese medicine views of hot and cold winds bearing disease. And my TCM book mentions, “attack by cold and wind in summer will cause headache; fever; no sweating; aversion to cold; pain of limbs; abdominal pain; vomiting and diarrhea.” But is there any actual data out there that air conditioning use causes infections or disease?

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See also VitaminDWiki - lack of vitamin D in sunny climates, etc

• Perhaps Italians have air conditioning too: lower latitudes have less vitamin D – July 2013

• Red Alert – one in three pre-teens in Tehran had less than 5 ng of vitamin D – Feb 2011

• 23 ng of vitamin D in sunny Israel – Dec 2010

• 27% of Turkish mothers has less than 11 ng of vitamin D

• High Prevalence of Vitamin D Insufficiency in Athletes and Dancers in Israel

• Arab pre-term infants often have less than 10 ng of vitamin D - 2010 a very sunny climate

• Even in Sunny Areas, Vitamin D Intake Often Too Low - May 2010

• Teens increasingly indoors - especially if dark skin - July 2010

• Air Conditioning probably has decreased vitamin D

Notice that one of the reasons for spending less time outdoors is the availability of Air Conditioning

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MS increased in the Southern portion of the US during the 20th century as AC became available

Very fast rise in urban Chinese Air Conditioners - more than 1 per household in 2010