the whole nut

fun in the sun

June 17th, 2009

Growing up, I was very self-conscious about my lack of pigment. I would try to take matters into my own hands by lying out in the summer sun until I was a bright shade of red. I thought a sunburn fit in more than my extra-fair skin did, despite the constant peeling (which was rather unattractive). I finally learned my lesson in college when a dermatologist took a biopsy of one of my moles and deemed it precancerous. After the small surgery, I vowed to stay out of the sun forever.

Well, of course I didn’t really mean forever–I just meant I would be careful and try to avoid the sun when possible. I very quickly began to appreciate my fair complexion and started to make it a point to avoid direct sunlight on my body (and this took place in Southern California, an area that doesn’t shy away from the sun!).

New York is another story. I don’t really have to avoid the sun thanks to the plethora of tall, side-by-side concrete buildings. Now, I’ve begun to seek out the sun (but in a healthy, responsible way). A park is my favorite place to be on a sunny day, and I now know it’s a blessing to have natural sunlight in one’s apartment. But when I first moved here I continued with my skincare regimen and even kicked it up a notch: SPF 70 was just out and I was slathering it on my face every morning before work. I couldn’t take a chance, you know, for those three minutes (total) when a ray of sunlight might fall on me. Eventually I started to become sickly and my skin was acting up (maybe in reaction to all the sunscreen itself) but soon I realized what I was missing was nutrients. Our bodies need the sun!

Aside from giving us a healthy glow (even for me) the sun provides vital nutrients our bodies need in order to grow properly. Vitamin D is one of the most powerful healing chemicals in your body. It plays a role in the prevention of osteoporosis, depression, prostate cancer and breast cancer. It also helps regulate calcium and phosphorus levels, and helps the kidneys absorb calcium (which helps to build strong bones). In turn, osteoporosis is commonly caused by the lack of vitamin D, not just calcium (contrary to popular belief).

Dr. Michael Holick, a professor at Boston University and a champion of vitamin D, makes the following points in an interview with Mike Adams called “The Healing Power of Sunlight and Vitamin D.”

• It is nearly impossible to get adequate amounts of vitamin D from your diet. Sunlight exposure is the only reliable way to generate vitamin D in your own body.

• Even weak sunscreens, like SPF 8, block your body’s ability to generate vitamin D by 95%. This is how sunscreen products actually cause disease — by creating a critical vitamin deficiency in the body.

• It is impossible to generate too much vitamin D in your body from sunlight exposure: your body will self-regulate and only generate what it needs. (just be careful not to get sunburned!)

• The further you live from the equator, the longer exposure you need to the sun in order to generate vitamin D. Canada, the UK and most U.S. states are far from the equator.

• 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. That’s why prostate cancer is epidemic among black men — it’s a simple, but widespread, sunlight deficiency.

So how do you get vitamin D in your system? Sunlight is the only reliable source (but it has to be direct sunlight). Sitting in a bright, sunny room won’t help; our body produces vitamin D when it receives ultraviolet radiation from natural sunlight. Vitamin D can also be found in various foods (cod liver oil, eggs, whole milk, and fatty fishes like herring, salmon and tuna), but it would take 10 glasses of whole milk every day to get the minimum levels of vitamin D your body needs.

So try to get 5 to 15 minutes of direct sunlight at least twice a week- this should provide your body with the amount of vitamin D it needs to stay whole and healthy. Sit outside for lunch. Take a walk. Or just take a minute to appreciate your body and give it the nutrients and vitamins it needs. It’s amazing how sunshine really enhances our mood, too. And, if you’re blonde (like I am) you’ll really brighten up those locks!

Filed under: Healthy Tips

Tags: health, healthy, moles, precancerous moles, SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder, sun rays, sunlight, sunshine, vitamin D, vitamin D and calcium