Get Out In That Sunshine While It's Still Here

Time In The Sun Is Needed for Adequate Vitamin D Production

Heart deaths, cancers, depression, insomnia, schizophrenia, osteoporosis, rickets, muscle weakness, body aches and pains, and immune system problems have all been linked to low vitamin D levels. So, it's important to know that you are getting enough Vitamin D.

Research published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, shows that people with the lowest levels of Vitamin D are more than twice as likely to die of heart disease and other causes than are people with the highest levels of Vitamin D. One of our main sources of Vitamin D is sunshine which is one reason that people who live furthest away from the equator often have the lowest levels of Vitamin D.

Other researchers found that while skin cancer rates are higher closer to the equator, death rates from all types of cancer are lower. They wrote in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, "the benefit of moderate sun exposure seems to outweigh the risk of skin cancers."

It is also noted that people are generally spending less time outdoors than in past years and we are also wearing sunscreens when we do go outdoors. Both of these will reduce the amount of Vitamin D we can produce from sunshine. Even if you do spend alot of time outside and don't wear sunscreen, it's impossible in the winter time to produce enough vitamin D from the sun if you live north of Atlanta, Georgia.

Deborah Kotz wrote in US News and World Report:
The government's dietary recommendations are 200 IUs a day up to age 50, 400 IUs to age 70, and 600 IUs over 70. But many experts believe that these recommendations are far too low to maintain healthful vitamin D levels. They advocate for supplementation in the winter of about 2,000 IUs per day and a dose of daily sunshine in the summer. See full article.

Chronic vitamin D deficiency can be misdiagnosed as fibromyalgia because its symptoms are very similar: muscle weakness, aches and pains.

Obese people and dark skinned people need more vitamin D.

Shocking Vitamin D deficiency statistics:
32% of doctors and med school students are vitamin D deficient.
40% of the U.S. population is vitamin D deficient.
42% of African American women of childbearing age are deficient in vitamin D.
48% of young girls (9-11 years old) are vitamin D deficient.
Up to 60% of all hospital patients are vitamin D deficient.
76% of pregnant mothers are severely vitamin D deficient, causing widespread vitamin D deficiencies in their unborn children, which predisposes them to type 1 diabetes, arthritis, multiple sclerosis and schizophrenia later in life. 81% of the children born to these mothers were deficient.
Up to 80% of nursing home patients are vitamin D deficient.

(Statistics from: The UV Advantage authored by Dr. Michael Holick)

The easiest way to get Vitamin D is sunshine, so go enjoy it while it's here!