True Health Project

The sun is one of the most maligned products of nature. It’s blamed for everything from aggrevating acne to dry skin and skin cancer.

But is it really that bad? Should you stay indoors, cover yourself up, use sunglasses and always always apply sun screen? Let’s take a look at the facts.

Here are some statistics of vitamin D (produced by your body through exposure to sunlight). Did you know that…

1. By maintaining optimum levels of vitamin D, 85,000 deaths due to breast cancer could be prevented annually? And that women who are deficient in vitamin D are 222% more likely to have breast cancer?
2. If everyone were to avoid the sun, for ever 1 death that would be avoided due to melanoma and other diseases caused by the sun, 2000 deaths would occur as a result of a lack of vitamin D?
3. Men with low vitamin D levels is 2.42 times more likely to suffer from a heart attack? That’s 242%!
4. Women with vitamin D deficiency are 253% more likely to get colon cancer?
5. Men with optimum vitamin D level is 52% less likely to get prostate cancer?
6. Vitamin D prevents more than just cancer. It also prevents you from developing stroke. A study conducted over 7 years found that for decrease in vitamin D indication level, there’s a 86% increase in the incidence of fatal strokes.
7. Optimizing acne is also a very effective acne treatment?

Bottomline?

Vitamin D seems to reduce the risk of almost every killer disease of aging. In fact, a recent study shows that humans with low vitamin D status are twice as likely to die over a seven-year time period! ~ William Faloon

So how much sunlight is enough to produce optimum vitamin D level?

Well, that depends on a variety of factors such as skin color, the strength of the sun in your hometown and so on.

Even the mermaid resurface to get some sunlight!

As a general rule, I spend about 15 minutes exposing my skin – at least the whole arm and 3 quarters of my leg -  to the gentle sunlight in the morning. During winter here in Sydney (no snow), I might need to go out twice, once in the morning and another in the afternoon because I’ll probably be wearing a jacket ( short pants).

If your skin is dark colored, then you’ll need more sunlight exposure – about 20 to 30 times according to a study.

But what if you don’t have the chance to expose yourself to sunlight? For example, during winter?

Well, there are two alternatives that I know of.

1. You might want to consume vitamin D orally. But be careful, unlike exposing yourself to sunlight, you CAN overdose if you take vitamin D orally so if you opt to supplement orally, make sure to get your blood checked once in a while. Consuming vitamin D orally has also been shown to be inferior to the one generated by your own body.
2. Use a tanning bed. This is a great way to do it, especially if you’re looking for a tan too! But needless to say, it is quite costly for some people.

So there you go. Another reason for you to hit the beach!

Here are a list of readings if you want to know more about the subject:

1. Vitamin D and Cancer
2. Can the swine flu epidemic be linked to the lack of vitamin D?
3. Did lack of vitamin D causes countless deaths ?
4. Sunlight actually prevents skin cancer (melanoma)
5. Interesting facts about vitamin D you may not know
6. Optimizing vitamin D level

Last but not least, watch this short video.

Photo by Chantrybee

Photo by Frank K

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