Vitamin D is great for your bones, but sunshine can harm your skin. How do you solve this vitamin D dilemma?
Some researchers hypothesize that up to 40 percent of Americans chronically lack healthful levels vitamin D. Its most renowned function is to enable calcium to do its work to build bones, which is why its intake is so vital throughout a lifetime. But it’s also essential for full-body equilibrium; a shortfall can contribute to everything from depression to chronic pain, diabetes, digestive issues and even cancer.
Vitamin D doesn’t make it easy for health conscious citizens in this modern world. If you’re a vegan or vegetarian, avoid commercially packaged foods and worship at the altar of the SPF, you have a greater vulnerability to a vitamin D deficiency than someone who chows down on junk food and slurps full fat milk.
Natural food sources for Vitamin D aren’t all that plentiful. What there are come from animals; oily fish, egg yolks, cheese, dairy and beef liver top the list.
The Sunshine Vitamin
Unlike other vitamins and minerals that are solely derived from food sources, vitamin D can get into the system another way too. In response to contact with UVB rays from the sun, the skin actually synthesizes it for itself, hence the moniker the sunshine vitamin.
But how is this supposed to work when week after week I’m urging you to cover up and wear sunblock to prevent sun exposure? Is this going to be one of those devil’s decisions where your choices are to either endure skin cancer and premature photo-aging on the one hand, or to suffer osteoporosis and an increased vulnerability to a host of cancers and other diseases on the other?
The clinical literature delivers mixed messages; some say that sunscreen use has a direct impact on Vitamin D deficiency and others say it doesn’t. What we do know, however, is that day to day most people do not apply their sun protection thoroughly or frequently enough to eliminate all the UVB bouncing around. So the upside there, I suppose, is that you’re getting some beneficial Vitamin D synthesis that way.
The Supplement Angle
When it comes to vitamin D, I make an exception to my own rule that you shouldn’t use supplements as a substitute for getting your nutrition from food. 600IU is the recommended vitamin D intake for those ages 1 to 70 years old with the upper toxic levels at 4000 IU.
So the logical thing would be to figure out the IUs your skin is making by itself (in collaboration with UVB) and then supplement the difference up to 600. Some researchers have said that just 10 minutes a day with 25 percent of your total body exposed is the equivalent to 400IU. But this figure is next to meaningless because it doesn’t factor in the most important variable of all . . . your skin’s own natural pigment.
As a by-product of geography, evolution and ethnicity, the skin of those in sun-deprived Northern climes became very efficient in harnessing the available UVB for vitamin D synthesis. In contrast, those who evolved in the solar-rich, all-year sunny skies to the South didn’t have to because there was plenty of UVB to go around. In real world terms today this means the darker your natural pigment, the more important it is to look into vitamin D supplementation. But it doesn’t end there.
The D-Deficiency List
What makes calculating IU requirements so difficult are numerous other factors in addition to natural pigmentation:
- Your work – if you’re indoors during most of daylight, you may need supplements
- The season – the colder it gets and the dimmer the sun, the more you have to supplement
- The latitude – the higher up you go, the more you have to supplement
- Pregnancy and nursing – absolutely critical to discuss with your doctor for the health of your baby
- Your weight – those with a BMI of 30 or higher require supplementation to avoid deficiencies
- Your diet – vegans and the lactose intolerant most definitely require supplementation
- Your eating habits – the less processed food you eat, the less Vitamin D fortification you get
- Your age – vitamin D skin synthesis ability decreases year by year, at 71+ you need 800 IU daily
- Your modesty – the less skin you show, the more likely you’ll need extra
If you are unaware of your IUs, and need your vitamin D levels checked, you have a couple of options. It’s easiest to go see your physician for a blood test but for convenience, there are also at-home tests that are sent to the lab to be read, either one will do the trick.
Strategic Exposure
Believe it or not, I still approve of some very limited unprotected daily exposure for everyone because I believe some air on the skin is a good thing. Here’s how: On warm enough days, in the early morning or before sunset, put on a pair of shorts and a sleeveless shirt and walk, run or bike around for about 30 minutes but cover your chest and use a strong sunscreen on your face, neck and hands. Why? Because those areas get too much UVB exposure anyway, age the fastest and develop skin cancers most frequently. But this way, you get the best of both worlds.
Life happens but it doesn’t have to show on your skin . . . or in your bones.
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