Consequences of Avoiding the Sun

Consequences of Avoiding the Sun

The very first action to take in addressing your chronic illness, pain or low energy is raising the vitamin D (25(OH)D) level in your blood serum to 50-100 ng/ml (125-250 nmol/L), a level typical of humans for most of history but one considered high by today's standards.

Even if your blood level is not low, consider that:

• the body prioritises its use of vitamin D for critical processes, which means there may be little vitamin D available for addressing your specific health issue; and
• you might need abnormally high amounts of vitamin D to treat an infection or other chronic illness.

The Vitamin D Problem

Humans need sunlight. Critically, humans must be exposed to UVB radiation to create vitamin D in the skin.

Yet, in what might be regarded as the worst move in the history of human health, we have avoided the sun with no regard as to how this increases disease (including cancer) through the lowering of vitamin D levels. Almost all modern humans are deficient in vitamin D, and vitamin D levels have been falling in the human population over recent decades, as people have increasingly avoided the sun and covered their skin.

The consequence of low vitamin D for the worldwide population has been severe. Low vitamin D levels are associated with almost all diseases, including heart disease, diabetes, infertility, cancers, autoimmune diseases, sepsis, obesity, mood disorders and viral infections. Indeed, lower levels of vitamin D are associated with more than 70 diseases and disorders.

This is because every cell in the body is designed to work with vitamin D and has a specific receptor for vitamin D. Thousands of our genes only function through vitamin D. These genes are responsible for important physiological functions, such as the regulation of our immune system, or the production of nerve growth factor when the brain needs to make a new connection, or the production of insulin in the pancreas, or the production of enzymes that make neurotransmitters, or the appropriate killing off of cells so that the cells do not become cancerous, or the regulation of our body fat. The low amount of vitamin D that we do have is largely used to ensure that we have sufficient calcium in the blood, which is a life-critical function, leaving insufficient vitamin D for other functions.

If our genes cannot tell our physiological systems what to do, then we inevitably see a broad range of disease.


Where are we at?

• Most experts on vitamin D recognize that a person requires a blood 25(OH)D level of at least 50 ng/ml (125 nmol/L) to be healthy. Indeed, the body does not even begin to regulate its use of vitamin D until the blood 25(OH)D level reaches 40 ng/ml. Furthermore, although the body is designed to store vitamin D, such storage is not seen in most people because their limited vitamin D supply is used up immediately. Historically, the human species has had blood 25(OH)D levels of 50 to 70 ng/ml. All-cause mortality (due to dozens of diseases) decreases as the blood 25(OH)D level increases to at least 50 ng/ml. The optimal blood 25(OH)D level is likely to be between 50 and 100 ng/ml, and possibly be higher than 100 ng/ml
• Yet more than half of a modern population has a blood 25(OH)D level below 15 ng/ml.
• We might survive with low levels of vitamin D, but our bodies cannot work as they are designed to at such low levels.

The solution to vitamin D deficiency

• Although vitamin D in food appears to be used in the body in the same way as vitamin D created by sunlight in the skin, the amount of vitamin D that can be consumed from food is typically tiny compared with the amount of vitamin D produced by sunlight on the skin (e.g., by a factor of 50).

• The solution is that we get midday sun on the skin as much as possible, without getting burnt (because malignant melanoma is a real risk, although one that reduces with more frequent exposure to the sun). However, most of us are unable to strip off and lie in the sun for a minimum of half an hour without sunscreen on a daily basis. Furthermore, many of us live at altitudes where sunlight is weak. And black people need 10 times the sun exposure required by white people to create the same amount of vitamin D. High-strength oral supplementation of vitamin D is therefore essential for most of the world's population, at least outside of summer months.
• A recommended daily dose of 1000 IU is not sufficient to raise vitamin D levels sufficiently. Most vitamin D experts recommend daily intakes on the order of 10,000 IU as maintenance doses.
• You can access our vitamin D dosing guide for information on high dosing. This guide includes information on the co-factors that you need to take during high-dose supplementation.
• If you are suffering chronic illness, pain or low energy, consider getting a vitamin D blood test. You can get it done yourself at a blood testing clinic for about NZ$70.

Best practice for getting sun

• We are not suggesting getting burnt in the sun. After you have had enough sun, cover up or move into the shade. We are designed to move in and out of sunlight.
• The trap that we have fallen into is avoiding the sun to such a degree that now even a little midday summer sun burns skin. Skin is supposed to be tanned, like it was in the 70s, in which case it does not burn as quickly because melanin has a protective effect against UV damage.
• Skin burns more today because it has less melanin, so that it can produce more vitamin D.
• The sunscreen industry has a poor reputation of using toxic chemicals in its products. Zinc oxide and titanium oxide are considered the safest options because they form physical barriers that reflect sunlight and do not absorb appreciably into the skin.

Further research

• Our vitamin D dosing guide
  
• A deep dive on exposure to the sun and vitamin D by Dr Peter Osbourne