2 exposed rachitic children to the sun in New York City from half an hour to several hours and reported significant improvements in their rickets 2. The connection with sunlight was made when Hess et al. He concluded that something was produced in the skin that entered the circulation causing widespread improvements in bone mineralization in children with rickets. He noted that exposure to one forearm of a child with rickets displayed the same radiologic improvements in the other arm not exposed to the mercury arc lamp 1. The beneficial role of ultraviolet radiation on bone health began in 1919 when Huldschinsky reported that children who were exposed to a mercury arc lamp showed significant radiologic improvement of their rickets several months later.

This has significant health implications for medical device development in the future that can be used for providing vitamin D supplementation to patients with fat malabsorption syndromes as well as patients with other metabolic abnormalities including patients with chronic kidney disease.

This LED was found to be 2.4 times more efficient in producing vitamin D 3 in human skin than the sun in less than 1/60 th the time. The 293 nm LED was best suited for evaluating its effectiveness for producing vitamin D in human skin due to the shorter exposure time. Ampoules containing 7-dehydrocholesterol were exposed to a LED that emitted a peak wavelength at 293, 295, 298 or 305 nm to determine their efficiency to produce previtamin D 3. Little is known about the efficiency of UVB emitting LEDs tuned to different wavelengths for producing vitamin D 3 in human skin. Light emitting diodes (LEDs) have been developed to emit ultraviolet radiation. Vitamin D 3 is generated secondary to exposure to ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation (whether from the sun or from an artificial source). Those with fat malabsorption disorders malabsorb vitamin D and thus must rely on cutaneous production of vitamin D 3. Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin is important for health.

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