Benefactors Information

SUNARC is incorporated in California as a non-profit corporation dedicated to research and education on the primary prevention of chronic disease through diet, lifestyle, and solar ultraviolet radiation.

Research conducted by William Grant, Ph.D. in the past has included ecologic studies of dietary links to Alzheimer's disease, breast, colon and prostate cancer, ischemic heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis. His current interests are more in the direction of the health benefits of solar ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation through the production of vitamin D in reducing the risk of cancer and diseases associated with maternal vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy, but dietary factors and smoking are still of interest. In addition, he is examining the risks of excess UV radiation and putting them in the context of total health outcome from UV exposure, both natural and artificial as in tanning booths.

A short discussion of the ecologic approach is in order here. In the ecologic approach, populations are defined geographically, and population average values for disease outcome and possible influencing factors are obtained, and processed using multiple linear regression analysis to find risk and risk reduction factors. While the approach was largely dismissed after publication of an influential paper in 1981, when applied carefully and skillfully, it continues to yield the first results identifying important disease risk or risk reduction factors, beating the costly, lengthy, and sometimes inaccurate cohort studies. Since the ecologic approach generally uses publicly available data, the approach is generally quick and inexpensive. Some reasons that the ecologic approach is so powerful include:
1 - data for the entire population are employed, enabling the study of low-frequency diseases;
2 - the values of the important factors generally have a larger range than those available in cohort studies since data from different cultures/countries can be used;
3 - data are often available by sex and age range, permitting examination of possible changes in risk and risk reduction factors by sex and age.

The educational efforts of SUNARC include such things as maintaining the sunarc.org web site, presenting his research findings at scientific health conferences, local health group meetings, and indoor tanning expos, writing essays that are published in e-letters such as those maintained by Dr. Joseph Mercola and Dr. Ralph Moss, and writing letters to the editor of medical/health journals and the popular media seeking to correct misunderstandings in either the scientific or popular literature.

Funding for research and educational efforts is sought from individuals, corporations, and government agencies. The funding would support the ongoing activities. Funding could also be earmarked for specific research and/or educational projects. Dr. Grant has a list of possible research projects that would likely result in manuscripts with original findings that could be submitted for publication to various peer-reviewed medical journals. (Dr. Grant has over 30 publications in peer-reviewed medical journals, including original findings, reviews, and letters to the editor.) Some of the possible projects are additional ecologic studies that would likely make the first link between vitamin D as protection against various diseases. Other possible projects would involve studying the health benefits of indoor tanning. In addition, Dr. Grant would be interested in considering conducting research on projects suggested by potential sponsors.

SUNARC is incorporated under California law. The federal 501(c)3 form has been submitted, and SUNARC is being operated in accordance with the guidelines for nonprofit public interest corporations.

Individuals, corporations, and/or government agencies interested in contributing funds is encouraged to contact William Grant at wbgrant@infionline.net to discuss what could be sponsored with the funds. Information about Dr. Grant's research to date can be found at www.sunarc.org and PubMed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi)

William Grant receives support from the UV Foundation, McLean, Virginia http://www.uvfoundation.org, The Vitamin D Society http://www.vitamindsociety.org, BioTech Pharmacal http://www.biotechpharmacal.com/, and the Vitamin D Council http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/ to conduct studies of the health benefits of increased vitamin D and ultraviolet B irradiance.
He received support previously from the European Sunlight Association http://www.europeansunlight.eu