How The Sun Is Absolutely Crucial To Your Health
Dermatologists tell you to hide from it and modern living would lead us to believe we can do just fine by living in caves - offices, homes and automobiles. But our genetic roots tell us we should be naked and in a climate where we can be so. That is our origins - and what was the norm for 99.99999999 +% of our history. Should we believe dermatologists and modern lifestyle or our genes and history? The answer is obvious but few live by its wisdom.
This discussion of vitamin D will provide incredible and surprising proof of the Wysong philosophy and give you a fundamental ingredient for your health success.
Seeing the complexity of vitamin D, even if you don’t understand it, will make the point that our need for vitamin D is no accident and proves our inextricable link to nature. (For those not technically savvy, just let your eyes glaze over during the hard parts and move on. This is critical information for your health, so stick with it.) Please see http://www.wysong.net/images/vitamind.jpg
The Sun Vitamin
Vitamin D (actually a hormone) is manufactured in the skin by the action of ultraviolet light from the sun striking a precholesterol molecule (7-dehydrocholesterol). This converted cholesterol molecule (provitamin D) is further modified (hydroxylated) in the liver and kidney creating the active 1,25 dihydroxycholecalciferol molecule (1,25
dihydroxy vitamin D3=calcitriol). The UV-B wavelength that produces vitamin D from the sun (282 nm) does not significantly penetrate glass. So regardless of windows, when we are inside we can pretty much figure vitamin D is not being generated. Clothing of course further seals our fate as does sun screen with SPF above 8 (reduces vitamin D production by 95%). Living in the northern half of the country (even above 30 degrees latitude, the Florida panhandle) also dooms people to inadequate sun for almost nine months of the year. If you are dark-skinned you will need as much as ten times the amount of sun as a fair skinned person to produce adequate levels of vitamin D. It’s unnatural enough when fair skinned people live in latitudes requiring clothes, dark skinned people are really fish out of water there and suffer severe consequences as a result.
Food sources of the vitamin include cod liver oil, sardines, salmon, tuna, mackerel, liver, egg yolk, butter, dark green vegetables, algae, mushrooms, phytoplankton and fortified milk. (Plant source vitamin D is the D2 form known as ergocalciferol [ercalciol] and is not as active as the animal sources.) But in the main, food sources provide inadequate levels unless they are eaten raw (the triene structure in vitamin D is degraded by acid and light-catalyzed isomerization) and in sufficient quantity - most of us do not do that. Our by and large hairless bodies (forcing us to wear unnatural clothes and dwell in artificially heated environs) and the fact that there is no negative feedback shutting down production of vitamin D in the skin, strongly argues that we are intended to be in the sun, not dependent upon food scientists to fortify milk.
Older folks have decreased ability to synthesize vitamin D in the skin, have poorer digestive efficiency and decreased liver and kidney function to convert vitamin D into the active forms. There is a reason the elderly go south and feel better doing so. They might not know exactly why other than not wanting to shovel snow, but ole sol does. Also, those people with malabsorption problems, Crohn’s disease, cystic fibrosis, pancreatic, liver and kidney disease or deficiency, or who have had part of the digestive system removed are at increased risk of vitamin D deficiency. Vitamin D requires precholesterol and is fat soluble and thus “low fat” diets and “low cholesterol” diets put elderly people already deficient at even greater peril.
Some forms of artificial light can produce vitamin D in the skin. Tanning salons (not recommended because you do not - and neither does anyone else - really know what you are being exposed to) can produce vitamin D in the skin if the highest UV-B:UV-A ratio is used.
As little as 15-30 minutes of skin exposure (as much as you can bare without getting arrested) to midday sun three times per week is believed sufficient to meet vitamin D needs. The vitamin is fat soluble and is stored in the blood and adipose tissue to create some reserve, but daily sun-synthesized vitamin D is believed optimal.
Pregnant and nursing moms who do not get out in the sun, or have an improper diet, are poor sources of vitamin D for their infants. Not only will the baby’s bone health be affected but just about every other health parameter will be as well.
The Master Hormone
Vitamin D is arguably the most important hormone in the entire body. We
are taught in grade school that vitamin D enhances the absorption of calcium and phosphorus from the intestinal tract, and that drinking fortified milk will prevent rickets. But bone health is only a small part of the story. Research has now accumulated demonstrating that our link to the sun and the vitamin D it produces touches virtually every aspect of physiology.
Vitamin D affects:
> Both autocrine and paracrine (in and out) cellular functions
> Gene expression
> Cell growth
> Immunity
> Energy metabolism
> Muscle strength and coordination
> D receptors which have now been found in the gut, bone, brain, breast, prostate and lymphocytes
> Neuronal calcium metabolism
> Neurotransmitter production
> Apoptosis (cell death) signaling neoplastic colon, breast and prostate cells to stop growing
> Inhibition of G1S cell cycle checkpoint and the increased expression of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitors p21 and p27 in cancers
> Reduction of C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukins (IL-6), markers of inflammation such as in atherosclerosis (vascular diseases) and arthritic conditions
> Brain development
In short, virtually no aspect of anatomy, physiology and biochemistry escapes the influence of vitamin D. Our link to the sun is complete and absolute!
This solves a mystery vexing me for years. When I would go south in the winter I would undergo an almost miraculous transformation in health. No sickness, great sleep, incredible energy and high spirits. I could intensify my workouts and lift more weight, and on the same day play two-on-two beach volleyball for hours (not an easy sport for sure), roller blade miles to the beach and to the grocery and back carrying 50 lbs. and still do a full day’s workload of research, reading, writing and exchange with the office. Back
home all these wonders would reverse. Was it the warmth, the oxygen-rich air coming off the ocean, the break from the normal work routine? Well now I know. I am a vitamin D-hungry guy. Give me enough vitamin D, and I am almost twice the person I am without
it. You might be too. Read on.
Choices Have Consequences
Ignore Mother Nature and pay the price. We are designed to be out-of-doors with the skin exposed to the sun. If we don’t do that, one (note, I said just one) of the possible consequences is vitamin D deficiency. Here are the health consequences of too little Vitamin D discovered so far - all documented in the clinical and scientific references that follow:
> Psoriasis
> Immune suppression/increased infection
> Thyroid dysfunction
> Blood clotting abnormalities
> Rickets
> Osteomalacia
> Osteoporosis
> Deafness
> Insomnia
> Vision loss
> Kidney disease
> Liver disease
> Muscle pain (an early signal of deficiency)
> Schizophrenia, chronic fatigue and depression
> Autism
> Colon, breast, prostate and 14 other cancers (including melanoma!), following a latitude (vitamin D deficiency) gradient
> Infertility
> Type I diabetes (insulin dependent)
> Obesity
> Lupus erythematosis
> Grave’s disease
> Ankylosing spondylitis
> Bone pain (reduced D decreases calcium absorption, which stimulates parathyroid hormone, which in turn increases phosphate excretion in the urine, resulting in decreased
calcium phosphate in collagen in the peri- and endosteum, resulting in hydration, swelling and bone pain)
> Rheumatoid arthritis
> Muscular sclerosis
> Periodontal disease
> Hypertension
> Cardiovascular disease (increases in winter and higher latitude)
> Decreased glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity
I’m sure that only begins the list. Since vitamin D affects everything, you can pretty well figure that if you are ill or not feeling well it is related to vitamin D deficiency at least in part because well over 95% of the population in the U.S. is deficient.
Toxicity
Let me preface this section as I do every topic where I address toxicity. Anything can be toxic, even water and oxygen, in sufficient dose. The dose makes the poison.
If you are worried about getting cancer from the sun, put your thinking cap on. Believe nature before you believe a dermatologist. Certainly don’t get sunburned. Evidence suggests that cancer may be related to those who get sun burned and are vitamin D deficient to begin. Don’t stay in the sun longer than you should because you have SPF 460 slathered on. Acclimatize to the sun. Wear clothes. Protect skin that cannot be covered with nontoxic sun blocks (Wysong Reflector
Tags: cod liver fish oil, degenerative diseases, skin cancer, sun, sun screen, Vitamin D