Vitamin D - Myths and Facts
Resoursed from Food Matters
by Dr. Frank Lipman
For
the last 30 years or so, doctors (dermatologists in particular), health
officials, beauty experts and many product companies have been
demonizing the sun. They’ve told us to avoid it because without
sunscreen, exposure to the sun’s rays will damage skin and cause cancer.
But this oversimplification distorts the facts. In the past few years,
numerous studies have shown that optimizing your Vitamin D levels may
actually help prevent as many as 16 different types of cancer including
pancreatic, lung, breast, ovarian, prostate, and colon cancers.And the best way to optimize Vitamin D levels is through safe, smart and limited sunscreen-free exposure to the sun.
For
hundreds of thousands of years, man has lived with the sun: Our
ancestors were outdoors far more often than indoors. We developed a
dependence on sunshine for health and life, so the idea that sunlight
is dangerous does not make sense. How could we have evolved and
survived as a species, if we were that vulnerable to something humans
have been constantly exposed to for their entire existence? Is it
possible that our bodies are made in such a way that the sun is really a
lethal enemy? Not in my opinion. Like all living things, we need
sunshine, and it feels good for a reason. Much as plants harness the
sun’s rays through photosynthesis, our bodies use sunlight to help the
skin produce the Vitamin D it needs to build bones, quell inflammation,
bolster the immune system and protect against cancer (including skin cancer).
“Let the sun shine in”
Western medicine has made a
practice of telling us to abstain from things that are bad for us in
extreme quantities, when in fact those same things⎯fat, salt, and
sunshine for example⎯are very good for us when consumed wisely and in
moderation. In the case of sunshine, our UV paranoia is contributing to a
silent epidemic: Vitamin D deficiency. It’s silent because most
people don’t know they are deficient. And it’s deadly, because
this deficiency can lead to cancer and a multitude of other diseases.
But we’ve demonized the sun and been brainwashed into believing that
even small amounts will harm us. We are told to slather on sunscreen
whenever we are in the sun, which blocks Vitamin D production and
exacerbates the Vitamin D deficiency induced by our modern, indoor
lives.
Studies show that as many as three out of four
Americans suffer from Vitamin D deficiency. A study published in 2009
in the Archives of Internal Medicine (a leading scientific journal),
found that 70% of Caucasians, 90% of Hispanics and 97% of African
Americans in the US have insufficient blood levels of Vitamin D.
Indeed, it’s thought to be the most common medical condition in the
world, affecting over one billion people and we now have research
showing just how essential Vitamin D is to health.
U.S. and
Norwegian researchers have found that people who live in higher
latitudes are more prone to Vitamin D deficiency and more prone to
developing common cancers and dying of them. It’s now thought that this
is due in part to the body’s inability to make enough activated
Vitamin D to help regulate cell growth and to keep cell growth in check.
Independent scientific research has shown that whether you live in a
sunny or not-so-sunny climate, exposure to the sun and its UVB
radiation will increase your production of Vitamin D and help lower the
risk of a host of debilitating and fatal diseases – including many
cancers, heart disease, high blood pressure, Type I diabetes, multiple
sclerosis, and depression.
And
now the experts are concerned that we’re passing an epidemic of Vitamin
D deficiency down to a new generation. Studies have shown that Vitamin
D deficiency may imprint on an infant for the rest of his/her life.
Infants that are deficient at birth can remain Vitamin D deficient for
the first several months after birth, which may put them at risk of
developing many chronic diseases much later in life.
What is Vitamin D and how much do you need?
Although called a vitamin, it
is not. Vitamin D is in a class by itself, behaving more like a
hormone. It is made in the skin, gets into your bloodstream and then
goes into the liver and the kidney where it becomes activated as a key
steroid hormone called Calcitriol. It then goes to the intestines,
bones and other tissues, effecting metabolic pathways and the
expression of myriad genes. Vitamin D's active form can interact with
almost every cell in the body directly or indirectly, targeting up to
two thousand genes, or about six percent of the human genome. It is
necessary for numerous cellular functions, and when the body does not
have what it needs to function optimally, it follows that we experience
a decline in health and put ourselves at risk of disease. We now know
that almost every cell and tissue in our body has Vitamin D receptors,
which raises the question: Why would those receptors be there if they
didn’t have a function?
Our Vitamin D needs vary with age, body
weight, percent of body fat, latitude, skin coloration, season of the
year, use of sun block, individual reactions to sun exposure, and our
overall health. As a general rule, older people need more
Vitamin D than younger people, large people need more that small
people, fat people need more than skinny people, northern people need
more than southern people, dark-skinned people need more than fair
skinned people, winter people need more than summer people, sun-phobes
need more than sun worshipers, and ill people may need more than well
people.
The best way to determine whether or not you
are deficient is to have your Vitamin D blood levels measured and
replenish accordingly.
My Top Ten Tips for Healthy Sun Exposure and Optimizing your Vitamin D Levels
1. Have a healthy respect for the sun.
It is powerful medicine with potentially dangerous side effects on
your skin. Treat it like medication, using the lowest dose necessary,
but don’t avoid it completely. Never fall asleep in the sun without
protection.
2. Always avoid sunburn. It is
sunburn, not healthy sun exposure that causes problems. Repeated
sunburns, especially in children and very fair-skinned people, have been
linked to melanoma. Whereas there is no credible scientific evidence
that regular, moderate sun exposure causes melanoma or other skin
cancers.
3. Prepare your skin and build up tolerance gradually. Start
early in the year (spring), or early in the morning before the sun is
strongest and slowly build up the amount of time you spend in the sun.
4. Get 15-30 minutes of unprotected sun exposure 2-4 times a week.
Each of us has different needs for unprotected sun exposure to maintain
adequate levels of Vitamin D. Depending on your age, what type of skin
you have, where you live and what time of the day and year it is, your
need will vary. The farther you live from the equator, the more
exposure to the sun you need in order to generate Vitamin D. For
instance, a fair skinned person, sitting on a New York beach in June,
in the middle of the day, for about 10-15 minutes (enough to cause a
light pinkness 24 hours after), is producing the equivalent of
15,000-20,000 IU’s of Vitamin D. But the same person living further
north in the U.K, or Canada would need 20-30 minutes to get that light
pinkness, which is all one needs. Also, people with dark skin
pigmentation may need 20-30 times as much exposure to sunlight as
fair-skinned people, to generate the same amount of Vitamin D. For more
specifics, I recommend the tables in The Vitamin D Solution by Dr
Michael Holick.
5. Get frequent, short exposures.
Regular short exposures have been found to be much more effective and
safer than intermittent long ones. Note that you cannot generate
Vitamin D when sitting behind a glass window, because the UVB rays
necessary for Vitamin D production are absorbed by glass.
6. After your 15-30 minutes of sun-block free time in the sun, you must protect yourself.
If you’re going to be out in the sun for longer periods, wear a hat to
protect your face and light colored clothing that blocks the sun and
keeps you cool. When you do apply sunscreen, use one with fewer
chemicals. Check out the Environmental Working Group’s list of safer
sunscreens. Remember that even weak sunscreens block the ability of
your skin to manufacture Vitamin D, so once you have applied it, you
will not be making Vitamin D.
7. Boost your “internal sunscreen” by consuming anti-oxidants and beneficial fats.These
strengthen skin cells, helping to protect them from sun damage.
Eating lots of vegetables and fruits such as blueberries, raspberries,
goji berries and pomegranates and supplementing with green powdered mixes and fish oils are great options when going into the sun.
8. Have your Vitamin D blood levels checked regularly. The
correct blood test is 25OH vit D or 25 Hydroxy Vitamin D test. Be
aware, however, that current “normal” range for Vitamin D is 20 to 55
ng/ml. This is much too low!!! Those levels may be fine if you want to
prevent rickets or osteomalacia, but they are not adequate for optimal
health. The ideal range for optimal health is 50-80 ng/ml.
9. Don’t rely on food alone for your Vitamin D needs. It
is almost impossible to get your Vitamin D needs met by food alone.
Fatty wild fish (not farmed), like salmon and mackerel are the best
food sources, but you would have to eat huge quantities of them daily
to get anywhere near what your body needs. Although fortified milk and
orange juice do contain Vitamin D, you would have to drink at least 10
glasses of each daily and I don’t recommend doing that.
10. Take Vitamin D3 supplements if necessary.
In the winter or if you don’t get enough healthy sun exposure or if
your blood levels are low, make sure you supplement with at least 2,000
IU’s a day of Vitamin D3. Although I recommend moderate sunbathing,
Vitamin D supplements provide the same benefits as sunshine (in terms
of Vitamin D needs). But, if taken in too large a dose, they can cause
Vitamin D toxicity, whereas sun exposure does not. It is impossible to
generate too much Vitamin D in your body from the sun: Your body will
self-regulate and only generate what it needs, which just reaffirms to
me that we should get our Vitamin D from sensible sun exposure. Here
are specific guidelines for replenishing Vitamin D.
Although
irresponsible sunbathing is unquestionably harmful and precautions need
to be taken, regular, moderate, unprotected sun exposure is essential
for good health. It is free, easy to get and good for you when used
intelligently. It is the only reliable way to generate Vitamin D in
your own body, which we now know to be an essential ingredient for
optimizing health and preventing disease.
Return to Sunlight and Vitamin D
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