WINTER HARBOR — Dr. Benjamin Newman believes everyone should be tested for vitamin D deficiency and he plans to open a clinic to do just that.

Once the level is determined through a simple blood test, he said he would like to bring in groups of patients with low levels of vitamin D and talk to them about wellness.

Newman said taking a walk outside in the winter isn’t enough.

Because of the low angle of the sun, people living at a latitude 42 degrees, such as Boston, or farther north, as in Maine, cannot reap the benefits of vitamin D from the sun from September through April, he said.

“Also, even during the summer months if you use sunscreen you will get no benefit from the sun,” Newman said.

He has been interested in the hormone commonly called vitamin D for more than 10 years and has studied the effects of abnormal vitamin D levels in patients all over the world and of all ages.

“While in the Navy, as the Second Fleet Surgeon, I was responsible for the health of over 5,000 sailors,” he said. “It was during this period I studied the effects of sun deprived sailors that were attached to ships and submarines.”

Newman said many of the sailors were light-deprived for days to six months at a time.

During a 1998-2000 assignment as the senior medical officer at the now closed Naval Security Activity Base in Winter Harbor he studied the consequences of vitamin D insufficiency and deficiency on elderly patients.

Among the effects he observed were mild aches and pains in muscles and bones; mild depression, particularly in the winter; fractures; multiple sclerosis; high blood pressure; chronic pain; balance problems; lack of energy; aches and pains of fibromyalgia and tumors of the parathyroid gland.

“One of the most striking observations was that vitamin D levels were more abnormal than any other lab test I ordered as a family physician,” Newman said.

He said he has even observed low levels of vitamin D among women in the sun-drenched Middle East because the women are almost entirely covered in clothing.

 See related story "Doctors Say Sunlight-starved New Englanders Are Suffering"...