This Friday starts national Don’t Fry Weekend, to get you prepared for Memorial Day. The weatherman is forecasting a great sunny weekend. We would like to remind everyone to be careful not to burn this Memorial Day weekend. While it is important to avoid burning your skin, it’s also important to get sun exposure for vitamin D and all the other good things the sun does for us!
- Ahh…just right
Let us give you some tips on safe and healthy sun exposure:
- Get the right amount for you. Every person has different skin. We all live in different places. We all need different exposure times. We recommend you expose your naked skin for half the time it takes to turn pink. This way, you won’t burn and you’ll produce vitamin D. This amount of time is going to be different for everyone.
- Sun is important for good health. Last year I golfed twice a week in shorts and a short sleeve shirt. When I got my Vitamin D tested in November, it was only 27, for good health it should be 60 and above. After 6 months I got it up to 48 taking 6000 units a day. I have had patients as low as me and went up to over 60 on the same dose. Almost everyone we test for Vitamin D is lower than 35, below 35 is disease level deficiency.
- What are some of the symptoms of Vitamin D deficiency?
- Impaired immune system
- Pain in muscles
- Chronic fatigue
- Depression
- Bone fractures
- Soft bones/osteoporosis
- Low vitamin D levels can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, asthma (severe forms of asthma); hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes (type II), MS (multiple sclerosis), glucose intolerance, certain types of cancer (the most common ones are breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men), cognitive impairment (in old people), etc.
- Did you get that, sunlight is anticancer; you never hear that, do you?
- The more skin you can expose, the more vitamin D you will produce. Don’t settle for exposing just your legs and arms. Take your shirt off or wear your bathing suit if you can! This way, you can produce much more vitamin D in a shorter amount of time. Again, don’t bake! Follow the first principal.
- Don’t use sunscreen. That’s right, no sunscreen! Sunscreen doesn’t allow your body to produce as much vitamin D as it wants to. Plus, sunscreen has not been shown to prevent all types of skin cancers.
- Cover up. Got a little sun exposure? Good. Now cover up with clothing or shade. It’s important not to burn! Got it, sun good- burn bad!
Now you’re all set to be safe and produce some vitamin D this weekend and summer!
