For years we have been told the dangers of excess exposure to sunshine. What we have not be told about is the cost of our lack of exposure to sunshine. Maybe those melanoma advertisements were just too effective? Maybe fears of ozone layer destruction made us reflect more on the intensity of the sun. Those fears were overstated however. But more probably most people simply lack sunshine exposure because of livestyle decisions. Less outdoor sport & sun, more indoor sports, if not computer games and TV.
The problem is that sunshine is a major source of Vitamin D.
What difference does Vitamin D make?
Adequate Vitamin D will reduce your risk of heart and bone diseases, cancer (some 17 different cancers by 77%, including breast & ovarian cancers), fibromyalgia and diabetes (Type-1 & Type 2), as well as auto-immune disorders like M.S. and rheumatoid arthritis. Contrary to popular belief, sunshine reduce your risk of skin cancer if exposure is not excessive. Researchers have used Vitamin D to block malignant melanoma tumors from developing in human cells. Today, heart disease, cancer, hypertension, and diabetes are commonplace, while they were very rare a century ago.
Sunshine is however important for other reasons, particularly mood enhancement, who reduces a person’s vulnerability to depression and anxiety, particularly if combined with exercise. Walking in the sun will raise your spirits and it may save your life.
What are the risks?
There is a single risk of excess sun exposure – skin cancer. It is seldom a point argued in TV advertisements, but there is a single racial group whom are particularly vulnerable to skin cancer, the Celtic/Irish population, and yet the world is being scared into over-concern about skin cancer. It must be acknowledged that the amount of sun spot or solar flare activity is not constant, so neither is your exposure. Incidentally, such variabilities in solar radiation are a likely explanation for 'perceived' global warming. Regardless, sensible exposure to the sun is not dangerous under any conditions.
The role of Vitamin D
Vitamin D performs a number of roles in the body:
1. It functions as a hormone.
2. It is a vitamin
In 1990, Professor Gary Schwartz, Ph.D of Wake Forest University, made a positive correlation between the incidence of prostate cancer and a Vitamin D deficiency. Those with a Vitamin D deficiency were people who primarily live in the extreme latitudes or polar regions. Contrary to his observation, we are given warnings about the ‘summertime’ risk of solar exposure, but this fails to consider the winter deficiency. His studies in the US showed that men in the tropics (with higher sun exposure) were 20-40% less likely to develop prostate cancer than those men in northern USA. Prostate cancer patients consistently show a Vitamin D deficiency.
How Vitamin D works
Vitamin D helps your body reduce the risk of getting cancer.
1. Converts tumor cells into normal cells. Cancer cells divide rapidly in your body but don’t differentiate themselves into specific cells. Vitamin D helps this process, restoring the cancer cells to productive cells and inhibiting cancer growth.
2. Prevents cancer cells from multiplying. Cancer cells can’t reproduce and spread to new tissue when introduced to Vitamin D.7 Laboratory and animal studies show that Vitamin D prevents cancer cells from multiplying and also tells them when to die.
3. Keeps cancer from spreading. Vitamin D promotes normal cell growth. As a result, it helps prevent cancer cells from spreading.
4. Suppresses genes responsible for cell proliferation. Research shows that Vitamin D can suppress genes prone to mutation and likely to form cancerous growths.8
5. Inhibits formation of new blood vessels that feed tumors. During the creation of new blood vessels, new vessels begin to branch off existing vessels. This is bad news if they’re cancerous. For any tumor to have a chance to grow, there must be formation of new blood vessels to feed it. Vitamin D inhibits formation of these vessels naturally, starving the tumor of the nutrients it needs to grow.
How to Get Enough Vitamin D
1. Get 10 to 15 minutes a couple days a week. It’s free, and will make you feel great. Depending upon where you live, this might not be possible.
2. Eat foods with high Vitamin D. Best sources are small fish like herring, sardines, and anchovies. Stay away from the larger fish that are higher up on the food chain, as the mercury content may be too high.
3. If you can’t get enough sun because of work commitments, climate conditions, consider taking a Vitamin D supplement every day, and not just a multivitamin. Take cod liver oil, because it’s the best natural source of Vitamin D after sunshine. Just a 1,360 IU (i.e. a single teaspoon) of Vitamin D is all that is required, though you can take up to 5,000IU, particularly Vitamin D3. A multivitamin will only give you 200-400 IU of Vitamin D3.
Food Sources of Vitamin D
1 Tablespoon Cod Liver Oil 1,360IU
3-1/2 ounces of Salmon, cooked 360IU
3-1/2 ounces of Mackerel, cooked 345IU
3 ounces Tuna fish, canned in oil 200IU
1-3/4 ounces Sardines, canned in oil 250IU
8 ounces Orange juice, fortified 100IU
1 cup Milk, organic, from grass-fed cows and fortified 98IU
¾ to 1 cup of Cereal, fortified 40IU
The radicalisation of science
Note how society is full of self-righteous, uninformed people who seize upon any popular slogan with little thought of their own. i.e. You might see a person disparage a parent for allowing their children to play in the sun. The sunscreen makers clearly have an interest in misrepresenting or sensitising your risk from sun exposure. This is despite sunshine being one of the best ways of delivering Vitamin D to the body.
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Andrew Sheldon www.sheldonthinks.com
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