5 Reasons You Arent Getting Enough

Vitamin D.. and What You Can Do About It

By Deane Alban
Contributing Writer for Wake Up World
Vitamin D is close to being natures cure-all. Its a fantastic immune system booster thats been
found to be protective against cancer, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, osteoporosis,
Multiple Sclerosis and Alzheimers.
Having adequate vitamin D levels has many brain benefits. It can lift your mood, banish
depression, improve memory, and increase problem-solving ability. Inadequate levels may
contribute to the depression many people feel in the winter.
Now that the warmer weather is here (in the northern hemisphere), you can soak up the sun to
replenish your much-needed stores of vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin. The usual rule of
thumb is 20 minutes of sun exposure on large surface areas of your body, such as arms or legs,
twice a week for adequate vitamin D formation. But just being outside in the sun is no guarantee
youre actually manufacturing vitamin D.
Here are five things that affect the process:

Factors Affect Vitamin D Formation

1. Sunscreen
If you are outside in the sun but wearing sunscreen, you wont manufacture much vitamin D. To
ensure adequate Vitamin D uptake, make sure you get some sun without sunscreen.

[For more information on the effects of sunscreen on Vitamin D uptake, please see BURN:
Health Impacts of Sunscreen Found to be Worse Than UV Damage!]

2. Latitude
If you live in the United States, draw a line from Los Angeles to Atlanta. If you live north of this
line, the suns rays are too weak to trigger vitamin D production most of the year, except during
the summer.
Time for some fun science!
Heres a way to tell if the suns rays are strong enough to potentially stimulate vitamin D
formation: Go outside, stand in the sun, and look at your shadow. The more direct the suns rays
are, the shorter your shadow will be. A good rule of thumb is that if your shadow is your height
or longer, the suns rays strike at too great an angle to promote vitamin D formation.

3. Skin Color
Our different skin tones evolved depending on how much sunshine our ancestors were exposed
to. Light-skinned people from very northern areas (or very southern areas, in the southern
hemisphere) evolved to utilize sunshine more efficiently. If you have dark skin, you may need
more sun exposure to get adequate exposure levels, up to one hour a day.

4. UV Index
UV index is affected by season, time of day, cloud cover, air pollution, altitude, and even your
surrounding surface. Whether youre outside in the snow, at the beach, or picnicking on a lawn
can affect how much UV radiation is reflected back at you by up to 40 fold.
It is only when the UV index is greater than 3 that the needed UVB wavelengths are present in
sufficient amounts to produce vitamin D. Check a site like Weather.com to find your current
local UV index before taking your next vitamin D sun bath. Complete cloud cover reduces UV
energy by 50%; shade reduces it by 60%. UVB radiation does not penetrate glass, so exposure to
sunshine indoors through a window does not produce vitamin D.

5. Bathing
It takes a while for your skin to fully absorb all of the vitamin D it makes in the sunshine. About
50% of the total formation occurs within the first few hours so try to hold off showering at least
until then. Otherwise your new vitamin D will literally go down the drain. Remember that the
20 minutes twice a week rule of thumb rarely holds true. Heres a link to a calculator that takes
most of the above factors latitude, skin color, altitude, sky conditions and such into account.
It estimates how many minutes of sun exposure you need to produce 25 mcg (the equivalent of
1,000 International Units) of vitamin D.

The Next Step Know Your Levels, Supplement

Accordingly
Its estimated that 80-90% of adults in North America are vitamin D deficient. Vitamin D
deficiency symptoms including muscle pain, weak bones, low energy, lowered immunity,
depression, mood swings, and sleep problems can be mistaken for many other health
problems.
There are five forms of vitamin D D1 through D5. Most experts agree the most effective form
is D3. Some foods, like milk, are fortified with the D2 form and mushrooms naturally contain
D2. But this form is not very well utilized in the body. By far the best food source of D3 is cod
liver oil. Not that most of us would call this food! Fatty fish like salmon and sardines contain
some D3.
[Click here for more suggestions on foods that contain Vitamin D].
If your level is found to be low and you cant bring it up (and keep it up year round) by
increasing your dietary and sun exposure, youll need to supplement. The only way to know for
sure if you need vitamin D supplementation is to have a blood test to check your 25-hydroxy
level. You can see your doctor to order the test or you can purchase a vitamin D test online.
Lastly, when you choose a vitamin D supplement be sure to buy from a reputable company you
can trust. Do your homework. Last year a study on 55 brands of vitamin D supplements found
they contained between 9% 146% of the amount that was listed on the label!
Updated August 2014
Previous articles by Deane:

Five Common Food Additives That Can Damage Your Brain

Food Scams and Myths: Why Quality Matters
The Alarming Truth About Supermarket Meat
18 Choices You Make Every Day That Keep You Up at Night
Cant Get the Hang of Meditation? Try This Instead
Is Your Olive Oil Lying About Its Virginity?
Stress, Telomeres, and the Secret to Prevent Aging
Zapped: Your Brain on Electromagnetic Fields (Infographic)
20 Common Medications That Can Cause Memory Loss
5 Common Food Additives That Are Toxic to Your Brain
Coconut Oil Cures Alzheimers Disease: Truth or Wishful Thinking?
6 Common Habits that Rob You of Essential Brain Vitamins
The ABCs of Vitamins for Memory and Brain Health
Eat Your Way Smart With a Brain Food Diet

About the author:

Deane Alban holds a bachelors degree in biology and has taught and written on a wide variety
of natural health topics for over 20 years. Her current focus is helping people overcome brain
fog, senior moments, and other signs of mental decline now, and preventing Alzheimers and
dementia in the future.
The human brain is designed to last a lifetime, but modern life takes a greater toll on the brain
than most people realize. Deane teaches the best ways to keep your brain healthy and stay
mentally sharp for life at her website BeBrainFit.com.

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