eileen

Sunshine vitamin


Celia Milne, for Metro News
22 July 2008 01:24

Caucasians should get between five and 15 minutes in the sun daily between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., without sunscreen, while people of colour are recommended to get twice as much.

If you get a lot of vitamin D, chances are you will live longer than those who don’t get enough.

A new study conducted in Austria found that people with a deficiency in vitamin D die sooner — from many different causes — than those who have plenty of the so-called sunshine vitamin.

Researchers divided 3,200 people who were enrolled in the study into four groups. The quarter with the lowest levels of vitamin D in their blood were more likely to have died during the length of the study (eight years). The results were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

This finding adds to the exploding body of evidence that vitamin D promotes good health. Previous studies have implicated vitamin D deficiency in cancer, peripheral artery disease, tuberculosis and multiple sclerosis. Lack of vitamin D can increase an adult’s likelihood of developing osteoporosis and a child’s likelihood of developing rickets.

Does this mean we should all race outdoors to spend time in the sun? How much vitamin D you get from the sun depends on your skin colour.

“White people should get between five and 15 minutes in the sun daily between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. without sunscreen,” recommends Dr. Cedric Garland, a prominent vitamin D researcher at the University of California San Diego. “People of colour will need twice as much.”

People with dark skin colour have a decreased ability to make vitamin D when exposed to the sun, and therefore need to spend longer in the sun to receive the positive health effects. People with light-coloured skin create more vitamin D in their bloodstream when exposed to the sun, but are more susceptible to skin cancer.

The Canadian Dermatology Association warns that there were an estimated 4,500 cases of melanoma and 68,000 cases of non-melanoma skin cancers in Canada in 2006.

Other sources of vitamin D are milk (which is fortified with vitamin D), egg yolks, fatty fish such as salmon, and supplements. The Canadian Cancer Society recommends that adults take 1,000 I.U. of vitamin D daily. Ask your doctor if you should be taking a vitamin D supplement.

SOURCE LINK: http://www.metronews.ca/ArticlePrint/87332?language=en

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"under exposure to UV rays is as dangerous as overexposure....this is D life" eileen

Don Smith

15 minutes of whole body exposure PER SIDE OF THE BODY two or three times per week is what we need. Or, you can "cheat" and go 6 - 10 minutes twice a week at an indoor tanning salon.

Why can't the "experts" figure out that sunlight only can strike one side of the body at a time?