I was brought up to believe the sun is dangerous and will give me skin cancer so throughout my life I’ve made a conscious effort to stay out of it. I remember beach holidays with my family when I was young, and how my mother would never let us step out onto the beach between the hours of 9am and 4pm. And we still had to cover our entire bodies with 30+ sunblock, zinc over our nose and wear a hat.
Me at the US Open trying to avoid the sun, this was the only shady spot I could find!
But recently I’ve come across some intriguing research which claims that many of us are vitamin D deficient because the only way to get enough daily vitamin D is by standing out in the sun, without sunblock on. And I guess we’re also so deficient because we’re all so afraid of the sun.
My history with the “evil” sun
If you live in Australia like me then you’ll be familiar with the “slip, slop, slap” campaign. We’re educated in school to be sun smart, taught to slip on a shirt, slop on sunscreen and slap on a hat whenever we go outside. TV advertisements and news shows like 60 Minutes scare us by displaying horrifying images of the worst cases of extreme skin cancers and melanomas. Australia really does make the sun out to be something quite evil and dangerous.
Even just earlier this year I went for a skin cancer check-up in Brisbane and was scolded by the doctor for not wearing long trousers, long sleeves and a wide brimmed hat whenever I step outside the doors of my home during daylight hours. He told me that I should be covering myself with sunblock head to toe when I get out of the shower in the morning.
I’m a red head with pale skin so I’m already in the highest danger category. My grandmother had a melanoma, and my grandfather, mother and uncle have all had minor skin cancers removed. My mum even had a cluster of skin cancers recently on her upper lip. So it’s in my family too. However, it is important to note that they all sunbaked in their youth (something I’ve never done), with my grandma even slathering herself with oil and cooking herself each day until she was as brown as possible.
And then there’s the problem with where I live. Australia has a huge hole in the ozone layer above it, so the UV radiation is especially strong, which explains the slip, slop, slap campaign.
The history of skin cancer in my family, the doctors warnings and the hole in the ozone layer have all made me terrified of the sun. Even though I love standing out in the full sun on a cool winter day and soaking up the rays, I feel really guilty about it because I’ve been taught throughout my whole life that I shouldn’t.
But perhaps we got it all wrong. Maybe a small amount of sunlight is essential for our health and well-being.
The healing power of sunlight and Vitamin D
When I was in Canada earlier this year I was surprised at how prominent Vitamin D education and advertising was. In Australia we hear nothing about Vitamin D so this was all new to me. I was also surprised at how common it was for milk and orange juice manufacturers to top their product up with Vitamin D supplements.
At the time I thought all of this fuss in Canada over Vitamin D was due to the lack of sunlight they have over there in winter, but when a friend of mine in Brisbane recently got a blood test which came back deficient in Vitamin D, I began to wonder if this is actually a global problem after all.
So just as I was getting as confused as ever about sunglight and Vitamin D, the law of attraction did its thing and an interview with Dr Michael Holick, author of The UV Advantage literally fell into my inbox. Dr Holick is one of the world’s most respected authorities on vitamin D and the health benefits of natural sunlight, so a good person to turn to to find answers.
In his interview Dr Holick talks about how Vitamin D is made by our skin when it’s exposed to sunlight. The Vitamin then needs to be processed by the liver and kidneys to turn it into its active form - 125-dihydroxy vitamin D. So if your liver and kidneys are overloaded and not function properly, then you won’t be able to absorb as much usable Vitamin D.
Vitamin D is very important. It is most commonly know for regulating calcium metabolism and bone health, but it can also regular cell growth which means it’s good at preventing cancer.
People who live in higher latitudes that are not able to get enough sun exposure are prone to Vitamin D deficiency, and therefore more prone to developing cancers such as in the colon, prostate, breast and ovaries.
And surprisingly, a lot of us are deficient in Vitamin D. Dr Hollick conducted a study in the US and discovered that 32% of adults between the ages of 18-29 years in Boston and 48% of Caucasian girls aged 9-11 years in Maine were Vitamin D deficient at the end of winter. And 17% of those girls remained deficient during the summer months from wearing sun protection.
Can I get my Vitamin D from food or a supplement instead of sunlight?
Yes, but you need to eat a lot of the right foods. You need to eat salmon or mackerel 3-5 times a week to get enough Vitamin D into your body. And you know those milk and orange juice cartons that I saw in Canada topped up with Vitamin D supplements? You need to drink about ten full glasses of those per day to get your Vitamin D requirement!
And most supplements only give you about 40% of what you need each day in Vitamin D. So as you can see, sunlight really is the best option, and it’s free! However, you need to be very careful with how much sunlight you get for all the reasons I explained in the beginning of this article. Yes we want to prevent cancer by getting enough sunlight and Vitamin D, but we don’t want to get skin cancer by spending too much time in the sun.
How much time you should spend in the sun
I’m a freckly red head living in Australia so I don’t need much sun exposure at all. I probably just have to stand outside for a couple of seconds then go back in again. It really depends on your skin tone, and where in the world you live.
For those of you that live in the UK for example, you’ll need more sun exposure than those of us in Australia and the US. And the darker you skin tone is, the more sun you’ll need.
To make it easy for you, Dr Hollick has provided a chart in the back of his book that tells you exactly how much sun exposure you need each day according to where you live and what your skin tone is. I’ll now be making an effort to get a few seconds each day until I can check the chart and find out exactly how much I need.
It’s also very important to spend this time in the sun without sunblock, because sunblock prevents your skin from making the Vitamin D. And if you think you’re getting your exposure while driving in the car with the windows up, you’re not because sunlight exposure through glass cannot create Vitamin D.
But please, if you’re spending more time out in the sun than your recommended dose, make sure you still slip, slop, slap to prevent skin cancer!
For more information about Vitamin D and sunlight, check out Dr Hollick’s book The UV Advantage.
I was brought up to believe the sun is dangerous and will give me skin cancer so throughout my life I’ve made a conscious effort to stay out of it. I remember beach holidays with my family when I was young, and how my mother would never let us step out onto the beach between the hours of 9am and 4pm. And we still had to cover our entire bodies with 30+ sunblock, zinc over our nose and wear a hat.
Me at the US Open trying to avoid the sun, this was the only shady spot I could find!
But recently I’ve come across some intriguing research which claims that many of us are vitamin D deficient because the only way to get enough daily vitamin D is by standing out in the sun, without sunblock on. And I guess we’re also so deficient because we’re all so afraid of the sun.
My history with the “evil” sun
Even just earlier this year I went for a skin cancer check-up in Brisbane and was scolded by the doctor for not wearing long trousers, long sleeves and a wide brimmed hat whenever I step outside the doors of my home during daylight hours. He told me that I should be covering myself with sunblock head to toe when I get out of the shower in the morning.
I’m a red head with pale skin so I’m already in the highest danger category. My grandmother had a melanoma, and my grandfather, mother and uncle have all had minor skin cancers removed. My mum even had a cluster of skin cancers recently on her upper lip. So it’s in my family too. However, it is important to note that they all sunbaked in their youth (something I’ve never done), with my grandma even slathering herself with oil and cooking herself each day until she was as brown as possible.
And then there’s the problem with where I live. Australia has a huge hole in the ozone layer above it, so the UV radiation is especially strong, which explains the slip, slop, slap campaign.
The history of skin cancer in my family, the doctors warnings and the hole in the ozone layer have all made me terrified of the sun. Even though I love standing out in the full sun on a cool winter day and soaking up the rays, I feel really guilty about it because I’ve been taught throughout my whole life that I shouldn’t.
But perhaps we got it all wrong. Maybe a small amount of sunlight is essential for our health and well-being.
The healing power of sunlight and Vitamin D
At the time I thought all of this fuss in Canada over Vitamin D was due to the lack of sunlight they have over there in winter, but when a friend of mine in Brisbane recently got a blood test which came back deficient in Vitamin D, I began to wonder if this is actually a global problem after all.
So just as I was getting as confused as ever about sunglight and Vitamin D, the law of attraction did its thing and an interview with Dr Michael Holick, author of The UV Advantage literally fell into my inbox. Dr Holick is one of the world’s most respected authorities on vitamin D and the health benefits of natural sunlight, so a good person to turn to to find answers.
In his interview Dr Holick talks about how Vitamin D is made by our skin when it’s exposed to sunlight. The Vitamin then needs to be processed by the liver and kidneys to turn it into its active form - 125-dihydroxy vitamin D. So if your liver and kidneys are overloaded and not function properly, then you won’t be able to absorb as much usable Vitamin D.
Vitamin D is very important. It is most commonly know for regulating calcium metabolism and bone health, but it can also regular cell growth which means it’s good at preventing cancer.
People who live in higher latitudes that are not able to get enough sun exposure are prone to Vitamin D deficiency, and therefore more prone to developing cancers such as in the colon, prostate, breast and ovaries.
And surprisingly, a lot of us are deficient in Vitamin D. Dr Hollick conducted a study in the US and discovered that 32% of adults between the ages of 18-29 years in Boston and 48% of Caucasian girls aged 9-11 years in Maine were Vitamin D deficient at the end of winter. And 17% of those girls remained deficient during the summer months from wearing sun protection.
Can I get my Vitamin D from food or a supplement instead of sunlight?
Yes, but you need to eat a lot of the right foods. You need to eat salmon or mackerel 3-5 times a week to get enough Vitamin D into your body. And you know those milk and orange juice cartons that I saw in Canada topped up with Vitamin D supplements? You need to drink about ten full glasses of those per day to get your Vitamin D requirement!
And most supplements only give you about 40% of what you need each day in Vitamin D. So as you can see, sunlight really is the best option, and it’s free! However, you need to be very careful with how much sunlight you get for all the reasons I explained in the beginning of this article. Yes we want to prevent cancer by getting enough sunlight and Vitamin D, but we don’t want to get skin cancer by spending too much time in the sun.
How much time you should spend in the sun
I’m a freckly red head living in Australia so I don’t need much sun exposure at all. I probably just have to stand outside for a couple of seconds then go back in again. It really depends on your skin tone, and where in the world you live.
For those of you that live in the UK for example, you’ll need more sun exposure than those of us in Australia and the US. And the darker you skin tone is, the more sun you’ll need.
To make it easy for you, Dr Hollick has provided a chart in the back of his book that tells you exactly how much sun exposure you need each day according to where you live and what your skin tone is. I’ll now be making an effort to get a few seconds each day until I can check the chart and find out exactly how much I need.
It’s also very important to spend this time in the sun without sunblock, because sunblock prevents your skin from making the Vitamin D. And if you think you’re getting your exposure while driving in the car with the windows up, you’re not because sunlight exposure through glass cannot create Vitamin D.
But please, if you’re spending more time out in the sun than your recommended dose, make sure you still slip, slop, slap to prevent skin cancer!
For more information about Vitamin D and sunlight, check out Dr Hollick’s book The UV Advantage.