Health Benefits of Sun

Lately the sun has been shining with the clarity that only seems to appear with the fall season. So, my children and I spent a great deal outdoors for what I laughingly called "sunshine therapy." As it turns out, sunshine is actually good for you...and for more than your mood.

One nutrient that sunshine provides is Vitamin D. Yes, Vitamin D is added to milk, to orange juice and fortifies other products as well. But studies are showing not only more benefits of Vitamin D, but that sunshine is the best provider of that nutrient.

Until recently, Vitamin D was largely thought of to protect against bone disease like rickets (a bone deficiency in children) and osteoporosis in the elderly, particularly older women. The recommended daily intake of Vitamin D has been around 400 IUs per day, and perhaps twice that for people who don't get outside often, such as the elderly.

But promising new studies are being done that show that Vitamin D deficiencies may play a much larger part in our overall health than we have thought.

A 2007 study from the University of Pittsburgh indicated that significantly lower levels of Vitamin D seemed to lead to pre-eclampsia in pregnant women. If pre-eclampsia progresses to eclampsia, it can produce fatal complications of the liver, kidneys, blood, lungs and nervous system. An estimated 15% of maternal deaths are attributed to eclampsia in the United States. Most of the women in the study were taking a prenatal vitamin, with the recommended amount of Vitamin D included.

A study released in 2008 had some indications that lower levels of Vitamin D correlated to almost double the risk of heart attack in men. Another 2008 study indicated that low Vitamin D levels led to an increased risk of diabetes. There is even some promising work done that seems to indicate an increased risk of dying from breast cancer when lower levels of Vitamin D are present.

These findings and more, like the fact that people over 50 had a significantly higher rate of periodontal disease if they had lower-than-optimal levels of Vitamin D, are leading some researchers to recommend taking 1000 IUs per day. Some experts even say that no adverse effects are reported up to 4000 IUs per day. Most researchers do not recommend more than 4000 IUs daily though.

But while supplements have their place, most researchers agree that the best way to acquire Vitamin D is from the sun. With a lifestyle spent more and more indoors, along with increasing warnings and risks of skin cancer caused by overexposure to the sun, Vitamin D deficiency is becoming a very real health care issue.

So-called Vitamin D technically isn't even a vitamin. A vitamin is something that the body does not make on its own and that must be supplied by outside sources, usually food. Vitamin D is actually more of a hormone, because it forms under the skin in response to sunlight. Sources do exist in food, like fatty fish, eggs and butter, the principal source for our bodies to make Vitamin D is ultra-violet rays of sunlight.

In many parts of the world, the optimal ultra-violet light wavelengths (between 290 and 315 nanometers) is only produced in the summer. That means the rest of the year is spent living on the Vitamin D stored during the summer months. For instance the average Caucasian can get 20,000 IUs of Vitamin D by sunbathing for 20 minutes at noon in the summer.

But that advice scares other health care researchers. The overexposure to sun at noon leads to skin damage, including melanoma. Melanoma is a virulent type of skin cancer, and is a rapidly growing segment of cancers. Our lifestyles that have us living and working mostly indoors also leads us to overindulge in sunshine when we can. And that's where the damage comes in.

For right now, we'll go outside and play while the sun lasts!

http://articles.latimes.com/2008/jun/10/science/sci-vitamin10

http://articles.latimes.com/2007/sep/08/science/sci-preeclampsia8

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/feb/08/vitamin-d-sun-health