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Epidemic of Vitamin D deficiency - some important advice!
The sun is a very important source of energy; not only for all life on earth via photosynthesis but also because it provides us with 90% of our annual Vitamin D.
According to a report by the Health Research Forum in the UK; current government policy is not helpful in advising the public correctly about sunlight exposure. The government has been telling people to cover-up as much as possible and apply suncream. However, research from this report shows that people at high latitudes (greater than 45 degrees north) are starved of the vital UVB rays for 6 months of the year when the sun is lower. During this time; their skin can not make vitamin D from sunlight and they are at risk of several illnesses and disease. A lot of the problem is that during spring, summer and early autumn people do not expose themselves to the sun for long enough or frequently enough at the crucial hours when the sun is strongest to maximise vitamin D synthesis. The fact that people work during the week most of the time throughout the warmer months is not helpful; and for fair-skinned people about 40 minutes of maximum bodily exposure to the sun is needed at latitudes greater than 51 degrees north. For latitudes of 41 to 45; about 20 minutes three times a week at noon to 2pm is needed for optimum vitamin D synthesis. Fairer skin will synthesize vitamin D quicker; and thus darker skinned people will need to take supplements if living at these latitudes or consume a lot more oily fish. Once sufficient vitamin D has been synthesized over the spring, summer and early autumn - the reserves can then be stored in both liver and body fats and will last for two to three months to help prevent vitamin D defficiency during the winter. Although darker skinned people or those living in coastal locations and higher latitudes; are strongly advised to supplement with a diet of oily fish and also cod liver oil twice a week.
It is also important to note that conventional suncreams (even weak-factor creams) stop 95% of vitamin D generation from sunlight so the 20 to 40 minute exposure MUST be done without suncream. Please do this while taking care not to burn; i.e. if you have very light skin, then you can make up your 20 to 40 minute full-body exposure in small intervals with periods of cooling. The report also states that simple hands and face exposure are not enough to obtain optimum vitamin D synthesis from sunlight at higher altitudes.
Read the report here: -
http://www.healthresearchforum.org.uk/sunlight.html
According to a report by the Health Research Forum in the UK; current government policy is not helpful in advising the public correctly about sunlight exposure. The government has been telling people to cover-up as much as possible and apply suncream. However, research from this report shows that people at high latitudes (greater than 45 degrees north) are starved of the vital UVB rays for 6 months of the year when the sun is lower. During this time; their skin can not make vitamin D from sunlight and they are at risk of several illnesses and disease. A lot of the problem is that during spring, summer and early autumn people do not expose themselves to the sun for long enough or frequently enough at the crucial hours when the sun is strongest to maximise vitamin D synthesis. The fact that people work during the week most of the time throughout the warmer months is not helpful; and for fair-skinned people about 40 minutes of maximum bodily exposure to the sun is needed at latitudes greater than 51 degrees north. For latitudes of 41 to 45; about 20 minutes three times a week at noon to 2pm is needed for optimum vitamin D synthesis. Fairer skin will synthesize vitamin D quicker; and thus darker skinned people will need to take supplements if living at these latitudes or consume a lot more oily fish. Once sufficient vitamin D has been synthesized over the spring, summer and early autumn - the reserves can then be stored in both liver and body fats and will last for two to three months to help prevent vitamin D defficiency during the winter. Although darker skinned people or those living in coastal locations and higher latitudes; are strongly advised to supplement with a diet of oily fish and also cod liver oil twice a week.
It is also important to note that conventional suncreams (even weak-factor creams) stop 95% of vitamin D generation from sunlight so the 20 to 40 minute exposure MUST be done without suncream. Please do this while taking care not to burn; i.e. if you have very light skin, then you can make up your 20 to 40 minute full-body exposure in small intervals with periods of cooling. The report also states that simple hands and face exposure are not enough to obtain optimum vitamin D synthesis from sunlight at higher altitudes.
Read the report here: -
http://www.healthresearchforum.org.uk/sunlight.html
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Dan on -
Skin cancer, yet another racket by the Medical industry, their misinformation drives me crazy. I'm from a long line of farmers, and as you know farming years ago was a lot more harder labor then it is now with all the fancy equipment. When I was a kid, my Mom, dad, uncles, and all the other farmers I knew were out in the spring and all summer long farming with our shirts off, many times we had severe sunburn, there was nothing like "blockers" back then. NONE of us, nor anybody we ever knew contracted skin cancer from exposure to the sun. Then in the 80's I had a neighbor that spent the whole summer out in the back yard in a bikini 'tanning', she did that for the whole 19 years we lived there....never any skin cancer...nothing.
If a persons heredity or blood line makes one susceptible to skin cancer, then maybe, just 'maybe' the sun could somehow trigger it. But for the sun to 'cause' skin cancer, I don't buy it for a minute, because my personal experiences demonstrate otherwise. You have to remember the medical industry wants your money, come in for checkups every 3 months $$$, got a pimple, come in for a checkup $$$, look at how they throw all this stuff in your face in ads on TV every 10 minutes about all the "disorders" out there, it's so people will run in and get checked $$$, why do you suppose the medical industry and health care costs so much? Its taken over everyones life. There is lot of propaganda they push out. Someone can please explain why there are so many healthy natives in equator nations that basically run around naked year around, they should ALL be dead from skin cancer.
As far as Vitamin D deficiency goes, that is a fact. Vitamin D is associated with Serotonin, the "feel good" substance the body generates. A condensed medical overview HERE.
Dan J5
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Permalink Reply by Persian Paladin on -
Well; prolonged exposure to the sun can cause other types of skin cancers for light-skinned people and will be serious if not treated rapidly. This is because of the ozone hole extending with varying thickness around the world; as well as the fact that people do not have a healthy regular exposure to the sun. For example; if you have light-skin and only choose to go sunbathing (for prolonged periods) on certain hot days of the year then your chance of skin cancer (non-melanoma skin cancer particularly) is a lot higher. However, a regular daily exposure to the sun from spring to early autumn from childhood to adulthood can help build a resistance to not only melanoma; but other types of skin cancers albeit it will not leave you competely immune these days. Sun-ageing and damage of the skin as well as cancer are still very real risk factors from even this group of people especially these days when the ozone-hole is more of a problem. As a result of this; the recommendation by the Health Research Forum in the UK is to have frequent, but brief sun-exposure to obtain Vitamin D without burning or damaging the skin from prolonged exposure. Farm workers, for example...should cover up in bright loose clothing and wear a hat. Zinc oxide sun-cream on parts of the face may be useful atfer obtaining the reccommended 20-40 mnute midday (depending strongly on latitude and skin-type as stated in the first post) sunshine without suncream. Suncream blocks 95% of vitamin D synthesis.
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Permalink Reply by Dan on
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"Ozone hole". Yet more liberal propaganda. Good subject for another discussion. I have read a great deal about this so called "phenomena" and listened first hand to interviews from renowned scientists who debunk this. Its all about money...again...
Dan
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Permalink Reply by Persian Paladin on
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Define "liberal propaganda".
Are you a conservative perchance? Do you realise that this is not about political ideology? The left-right paradigm is irrelevant these days when the world is run by globalist bankers (of both neo-liberal and neo-conservative persuasions) and corporations that have lobbying power over Congress et al.
Please give me some sources that "debunk" the proof of the ozone hole.
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Permalink Reply by Kitty on -
Well, I take supplements. I have melanoma, so the sun and I are not on good terms.
And Dan, it is a problem for some of us. Skin cancer is usually benign for 5 years, and after that point, when it becomes active, it spreads quickly downwards like a root, then out into connective tissue. It's very real.
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