It might be time to up the daily dose of vitamin D which protects us from cancer; however, we don't get enough of natural vitamin D because we are too shielded from the sun.
Vitamin D has long been known to help keep your bones in good shape. The May issue of Mayo Clinic Health Letter covers new research that shows vitamin D may play a much bigger role in acvieving beautiful complexion.
Skin exposed to sunlight can generate the equivalent of thousands of international units (IUs) of vitamin D.
Dermatologists have been warning the public for years that sunlight, and specifically ultraviolet A (UVA) and ultraviolet B (UVB), is implicated in the causation of melanoma, as well as other less deadly forms of skin cancer.
However, some dermatologists think that ultraviolet sunlight (particularly UVB) is not always and absolutely bad for our health. It has essential functions, too. In particular, it enables our skin to manufacture vitamin D: without sufficient exposure to sunlight we run the risk of developing the deficiency of vitamin D that protects us from many diseases.
Now the Food and Nutrition Board of the Institute of Medicine recommends that adults through age 50 take 200 IU of vitamin D daily. The recommendations go up for older adults: 400 IU for ages 51 to 70, and 600 IU for those over age 70.
These recommendations were set to prevent severe bone disease. Researchers are increasingly concerned that these standards are too low. The studies suggest that the best levels for overall health may be higher than those recommendations, perhaps in the range of 800 to 1,000 IU a day.
If you’re concerned about getting adequate vitamin D, talk to your doctor. The safest way to get vitamin D is from foods and dietary supplements.
The notion of exposing yourself to sun to increase vitamin D remains extremely controversial because of increased skin cancer risk. William B. Grant, Ph.D., who heads the Sunlight, Nutrition and Health Research Center (SUNARC) in San Francisco strongly disputes it.
"This is not particularly good advice," he told this newsletter. "There are several papers indicating that occupational exposure to sunlight reduces the risk of melanoma. "It is having fair skin, a high-fat, low fruit and vegetable diet, sunburning, etc., that are more linked to melanoma than total UV exposure."
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