Not
sure about where you live, but here in Central Florida the weather has been
gorgeous! It’s a great reminder of the importance of getting adequate amounts
of sunlight for its vitamin D-boosting
benefits. Recent research, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine,
shows that those with the lowest vitamin D levels have more than double the
risk of dying from heart disease and other causes over an eight-year period
compared with those with the highest vitamin D levels. The researchers cite
"decreased outdoor activity" as one reason that people may become
deficient in vitamin D. Another recent
study found an increased risk of heart attacks in those with low
vitamin D levels.
Why is Vitamin D
important?
Vitamin D is involved in a number of processes that are
essential for good health, including the following:
•
It helps improve muscle strength and immune function.
•
It helps reduce inflammation.
•
It promotes the absorption of calcium from the small intestine.
•
It helps maintain adequate blood levels of the calcium and phosphate needed for bone formation,
mineralization (incorporating minerals to increase strength and density),
growth, and repair (1–3).
What
is vitamin D and where can I get some?
Vitamin D is technically not a vitamin. It is the name given to a group of
fat-soluble prohormones . Most people get much of
the vitamin D they need through sunlight exposure. It can also be obtained
through the diet, but very few foods naturally contain
vitamin D. These foods include fatty fish, fish liver oil, and eggs. Smaller
amounts are found in meat and cheese. Most dietary vitamin D comes from
fortified foods, such as milk, juices, yogurt, bread, and breakfast cereals.
Vitamin D can also be obtained through dietary supplements. Fortified foods and
dietary supplements usually contain either vitamin D2 or vitamin D3. A person’s vitamin D
status is usually checked by measuring the level of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in
their blood serum.
In
the winter, it's impossible to produce vitamin D from the sun if you live north
of Atlanta because the sun never gets high enough in the sky for its
ultraviolet B rays to penetrate the atmosphere. But spring and summer present a
great opportunity to stock up on the
nutrient. When the sun's UV-B rays hit the skin, a reaction takes place that
enables skin cells to manufacture vitamin D. If you're fair skinned, experts
say going outside for 10 minutes in the midday sun—in shorts and a tank top
with no sunscreen—will give you enough radiation to produce about 10,000
international units of the vitamin. Dark-skinned individuals and the elderly
also produce less vitamin D, and many folks don't get enough of the nutrient
from dietary sources like fatty fish and fortified milk.
What else is good about
getting daily sun?
The
sunshine vitamin may protect against a host of diseases,
including osteoporosis, heart disease, and cancers of the breast, prostate, and
colon. What's more, sunlight has other hidden benefits—like protecting against
depression, insomnia, and an overactive immune system.
Given
all the upsides of basking at least briefly in the summer sun, many experts now
worry that public-health messages warning about skin cancer have gone overboard
in getting people to cover up and seek the shade. U.S.News got in touch with
Robyn Lucas, an epidemiologist at Australian National University who led a
study published in the February issue of the International Journal of
Epidemiology. Her finding: Far more lives are lost to diseases caused by a lack
of sunlight than to those caused by too much.
How
much sun is it safe to get without sunscreen?
It depends on how much skin is exposed
and the time of day. If you're fair skinned and sunning yourself outside in a
bathing suit at noon, you only need a few minutes without sunscreen. If you're
already tan or of Hispanic origin, you need maybe 15 to 20 minutes. Black skin
may require six times the sun exposure to make the same vitamin D levels as a
very fair-skinned person.
And so what is the
challenge for the week?
YOUR
CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK (BEGINNING MAY 2) IS TO GET YOURSELF OUTSIDE FOR AT
LEAST 10 MINUTES A DAY. You have the continueing challenge to exercise 6 days a
week but this week you also need to BE OUTSIDE FOR 10 MINUTES A DAY (And yes
although you may take the Sabbath as a day free from exercise you can still go
outside for 10 minutes on Sunday). You don’t have to do your 60 minutes
of exercise outside. Feel free to do your hour of yoga (or whatever) in the gym
and then go lay on your front lawn with the dog for 10 minutes. Or if you’d
like, you can do part or all of your exercise outside. The important thing is
that you get yourself outside in the daylight. Please enjoy, breath deeply,
enjoy the trees and bushes and flowers. Notice the squirrels and birds. Rest
your soul and soak up some vitamin D.
· I
gave this challenge last year and got a lot of complaints about how cold it
still is other places. I really hope if it’s still chilly where you live you
can dress as warmly as needed (modestly exposing as much skin as you can stand)
and still get yourself 10 minutes of outdoor time a day.
** If you consistently
cannot get real sunshine. Think carefully about taking a daily Vitamin D
supplement like http://www.amazon.com/Vitamin-1000-Liquid-Natural-Factors/dp/B003BHWXWC/ref=pd_sbs_hpc_7
