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Effects Of No Vitamin D

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Effects Of No Vitamin D

10 Healthy Foods That Are Rich in Vitamin D

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Are you getting enough sun? In many parts of the world, that might prove difficult during the winter months — and it can impact more than your sunny disposition.When exposed to sunshine, our bodies produce vitamin D, something our bodies need to maintain healthy bones and teeth; support our immune and cardiovascular systems; and stave off certain diseases, like type 1 diabetes. Some reports suggest that roughly three-quarters of American teens and adults might not be getting enough vitamin D. So, how can you turn that number around?

How Much Vitamin D Do We Need and Where Can We Find It?

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) makes recommendations for what one's daily intake of vitamin D should be based on age, gender and other factors. The recommendations, in micrograms (mcg), can be summarized as follows:

Photo Courtesy: Sean Gladwell/Getty Images

Infants (up to 12 months): 10 mcg daily
Children (1 to 13 years): 15 mcg daily
Teens (14 to 18 years): 15 mcg daily
Adults (19 to 50 years): 15 mcg daily
Older adults (51 to 70 years): 15 mcg daily
Seniors (70+ years): 20 mcg daily

So, how can you supplement your vitamin D intake if all that basking in the sun isn't cutting it? Thanks to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, we've rounded up 10 healthy foods that can help you reach those daily vitamin D goals.

Salmon

Salmon comes in quite a few different varieties — canned sockeye salmon, smoked chinook salmon, canned pink salmon, cooked sockeye salmon, cooked pink salmon and even cooked wild coho salmon — and all of them are chock-full of vitamin D. All of these options will help you hit your goals. After all, a three-ounce serving of canned sockeye salmon contains 17.9 mcg of vitamin D, while a three-ounce portion of cooked sockeye salmon contains 11.1 mcg of vitamin D.

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Smoked Whitefish

Want to change up that salmon intake? Whitefish can help with that. While whitefish are a species of fish, the term also refers to a cluster of types of fish, all of which have a mild, slightly sweet flavor. Some of the most popular "whitefish" include pollock, bass, cod, halibut, grouper and haddock. On average, a standard three-ounce serving of smoked whitefish contains an impressive 10.8 mcg of vitamin D.

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Swordfish

If you're looking for a terrific source of vitamin D, and to break up all that whitefish and salmon, try swordfish. These creatures can grow to be a whopping 1,400 pounds — and nearly 15-feet in length. While you wouldn't want to tangle with one of these in the ocean, encountering it as a nice, grilled steak is a treat. Best of all, a three-ounce portion will provide you with 14.1 mcg of vitamin D.

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Tilapia

Tilapia is a cluster of fish species that aren't found in nature. That is, tilapia is a farmed fish, which makes it pretty inexpensive. This mild species is the fourth most common type of seafood eaten by Americans, in part because of its versatility. We recommend a nice herb-and-parmesan crust, but, any way you slice it (or season it), a three-ounce portion will provide you with 3.1 mcg of vitamin D.

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Canned Tuna

Not into canned food? Well, canned fish should probably be your exception. In fact, canned tuna, in addition to being readily available and inexpensive, can make an abundance of tasty meals, from tuna salad and melts to casseroles. Best of all, a three-ounce serving of light tuna canned in oil contains about 5.7 mcg of vitamin D.

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Mushrooms

The five fish options we've listed above might not have surprised you, but this one might. Many varieties of mushrooms — including portabella, cremini, morels, chanterelles, maitake, and even your basic white button mushrooms — are excellent sources of vitamin D. In fact, half a cup of grilled portabella mushrooms delivers an impressive 7.9 mcg of vitamin D.

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Eggs

Eggs — and, in particular, egg yolks — are one of the easiest, cheapest and quickest ways to nab some vitamin D. However, they may not be the food of choice for folks with high cholesterol. If your diet allows, whip up two scrambled eggs and enjoy getting 5% of your recommended daily intake of vitamin D first thing in the morning.

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Milk

Milk is more than just a great source of calcium. In fact, vitamin D is among its significant nutritional benefits. When it comes to a 16-ounce serving of cow's milk, the vitamin D content varies based on the milk's composition. For example, whole milk contains 6.3 mcg of vitamin D, while 2%, 1% and skim milk all contain 5.9 mcg. Even soy and dehydrated (powdered) milk will help you reach your goals by providing 5.8 mcg and 3.4 mcg of vitamin D respectively.

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Yogurt

Milk is not the only dairy product capable of delivering some serious vitamin D benefits. Of course, the nutritional value of yogurt changes depending upon the variety. For example, Greek-style yogurt contains more protein and less sugar than other types of yogurt. Nonetheless, you can still expect anywhere from 2 to 3 mcg of vitamin D per eight-ounce serving, regardless of the variety of yogurt.

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Pork

So far, you've seen lots of fish and dairy options. You might be wondering, Where's the meat? Well, generally speaking, beef and chicken are not great sources of vitamin D. In fact, if you're a meat lover in search of some vitamin D, pork is your best bet. The nutritional value of pork varies depending upon the cut, method of preparation and more, but you're likely to find between 0.2 to 2.2 mcg of vitamin D in a standard three-ounce serving of pork.

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Resource Links:

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Agriculture's Dietary Guidelines for Americans
The National Institutes of Health (NIH)

Vitamin D Do To Your Body

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Vitamin D Do To Your Body

Overview

Vitamin D deficiency symptoms include mood changes, bone loss, muscle cramps, joint pain and fatigue | Cleveland Clinic — Symptoms of vitamin D deficiency

What is vitamin D deficiency?

Vitamin D deficiency means that you do not have enough vitamin D in your body. Vitamin D is unique because your skin actually produces it by using sunlight. Fair-skinned individuals and those who are younger convert sunshine into vitamin D far better than those who are darker-skinned and over age 50.

Why is vitamin D so important?

Vitamin D is one of many vitamins our bodies need to stay healthy. This vitamin has many functions, including:

Keeping bones strong: Having healthy bones protects you from various conditions, including rickets. Rickets is a disorder that causes children to have bones that are weak and soft. It is caused by a lack of vitamin D in the body. You need vitamin D so that calcium and phosphorus can be used to build bones. In adults, having soft bones is a condition called osteomalacia.
Absorbing calcium: Vitamin D, along with calcium, helps build bones and keep bones strong and healthy. Weak bones can lead to osteoporosis, the loss of bone density, which can lead to fractures. Vitamin D, once either taken orally or from sunshine exposure is then converted to an active form of the vitamin. It is that active form that promotes optimal absorption of calcium from your diet.
Working with parathyroid glands: The parathyroid glands work minute to minute to balance the calcium in the blood by communicating with the kidneys, gut and skeleton. When there is sufficient calcium in the diet and sufficient active Vitamin D, dietary calcium is absorbed and put to good use throughout the body. If calcium intake is insufficient, or vitamin D is low, the parathyroid glands will 'borrow' calcium from the skeleton in order to keep the blood calcium in the normal range.

What are the health effects of vitamin D deficiency?

Getting enough vitamin D may also play a role in helping to keep you healthy by protecting against the following conditions and possibly helping to treat them. These conditions can include:

Heart disease and high blood pressure.
Diabetes.
Infections and immune system disorders.
Falls in older people.
Some types of cancer, such as colon, prostate and breast cancers.
Multiple sclerosis.

What are the sources of vitamin D?

You can get vitamin D in a variety of ways. These can include:

Being exposed to the sun. About 15-20 minutes three days per week is usually sufficient.
Through the foods you eat.
Through nutritional supplements.

What does sunlight have to do with getting enough vitamin D?

There are health benefits of sunlight. Vitamin D is produced when your skin is exposed to sunshine, or rather, the ultraviolet B (UV-B) radiation that the sun emits. The amount of vitamin D that your skin makes depends on such factors as:

The season: This factor depends a bit on where you live. In areas such as Cleveland, OH, the UV-B light does not reach the earth for six months out of the year due to the ozone layer and the zenith of the sun.
The time of day: The sun's rays are most powerful between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.
The amount of cloud cover and air pollution.
Where you live: Cities near the equator have higher ultraviolet (UV) light levels. It is the UV-B light in sunlight that causes your skin to make vitamin D.
The melanin content of your skin: Melanin is a brown-black pigment in the eyes, hair and skin. Melanin causes skin to tan. The darker your skin, the more sun exposure is needed in order to get sufficient vitamin D from the sun.

What does your diet have to do with getting enough vitamin D?

Vitamin D doesn't occur naturally in many foods. That's why certain foods have added vitamin D. In fact, newer food nutrition labels show the amount of vitamin D contained in a particular food item.

It may be difficult, especially for vegans or people who are lactose-intolerant, to get enough vitamin D from their diets, which is why some people may choose to take supplements. It is always important to eat a variety of healthy foods from all food groups. The vitamin content of various foods is shown in the following table.

Vitamin D content of various foods

Food	Vitamin D content in International Units (IUs) per serving
Cod liver oil, 1 tablespoon	1360
Swordfish, cooked, 3 ounces	566
Salmon (sockeye) cooked, 3 ounces	447
Tuna, canned in water, drained, 3 ounces	154
Orange juice fortified with vitamin D, 1 cup	137
Milk, vitamin-fortified, 1 cup	115-124
Yogurt, fortified with 20% of the daily value of vitamin D, 6 ounces	80
Sardines, canned in oil, drained, 2 sardines	46
Liver, beef, cooked, 3 ounces	42
Egg yolk, 1 large	41
Cereal, fortified with 10% of the daily value of vitamin D, 1 cup	40
Cheese, Swiss, 1 ounce	6

Source: Vitamin D. Health Professionals. Dietary Supplement Fact Sheet. National Institutes of Health. Office of Dietary Supplements. August 7, 2019.

It is important to check product labels, as the amount of added vitamin D varies when it is artificially added to products such as orange juice, yogurt and margarine.

How much vitamin D do you need?

In healthy people, the amount of vitamin D needed per day varies by age. The chart below shows the often-cited recommendations of the Institute of Medicine, now the Health and Medicine Division of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. It is important to know that these are general recommendations. If your doctor is checking your blood levels, he or she might recommend higher or lower doses based on your individual needs.

If you have osteoporosis, your doctor might suggest a blood test of your vitamin D levels. The amount of vitamin D supplement can be customized for each person, based on the results. For many older patients, a vitamin D supplement containing anywhere between 800 to 2000 IUs daily, which can be obtained without a prescription, can be both safe and beneficial. It is important to speak with your doctor about your individual needs.

People by age	Recommended dietary allowance (IU/day)	Upper level intake (IU/day)
Infants 0-6 months*	400	1,000
Infants 6-12 months*	400	1,500
Children 1-3 years old	600	2,500
Children 4-8 years old	600	3,000
People 9-70 years old	600	4,000
People over 70 years old	800	4,000
Females 14-50 years old, pregnant/lactating	600	4,000

*refers to adequate intake vs recommended dietary allowance of the other age groups.

Symptoms and Causes

What causes vitamin D deficiency?

Vitamin D deficiency can be caused by specific medical conditions, such as:

Cystic fibrosis , Crohn's disease, and celiac disease : These diseases do not allow the intestines to absorb enough vitamin D through supplements.
Weight loss surgeries. Weight loss surgeries that reduce the size of the stomach and/or bypasses part of the small intestines make it very difficult to consume sufficient quantities of certain nutrients, vitamins, and minerals. These individuals need to be carefully monitored by their doctors and need to continue to take vitamin D and other supplements throughout their lives.
Obesity : A body mass index greater than 30 is associated with lower vitamin D levels. Fat cells keep vitamin D isolated so that it is not released. Vitamin D deficiency is more likely in obese people. Obesity often makes it necessary to take larger doses of vitamin D supplements in order to reach and maintain normal D levels.
Kidney and liver diseases: These diseases reduce the amount of an enzyme needed to change vitamin D to a form that is used in the body. Lack of this enzyme leads to an inadequate level of active vitamin D in the body.

What other factors can lead to vitamin D deficiency?

Age: The skin's ability to make vitamin D lessens with age.
Mobility: People who are homebound or are rarely outside (for example, people in nursing homes and other facilities) are not able to use sun exposure as a source of vitamin D.
Skin color: Dark-colored skin is less able to make vitamin D than fair-colored skin.
Human breast milk: A woman's breast milk only contains a small amount of vitamin D. Often infant formulas also only include a small amount of D also. Therefore infants are at risk of not receiving enough vitamin D. This is especially true for infants who are only fed breast milk.

Can medications cause a vitamin D deficiency?

Yes. Vitamin D levels can be lowered by certain medications. These include:

Laxatives.
Steroids (such as prednisone).
Cholesterol-lowering drugs (such as cholestyramine and colestipol).
Seizure-control drugs (such as phenobarbital and phenytoin).
A tuberculosis drug (rifampin).
A weight-loss drug (orlistat).

Always tell your doctor about the drugs you take and any vitamin D supplements or other supplements or herbs/alternative health products that you take.

What are the signs and symptoms of vitamin D deficiency?

Severe lack of vitamin D causes rickets, which shows up in children as incorrect growth patterns, weakness in muscles, pain in bones and deformities in joints. This is very rare. However, children who are deficient in vitamin D can also have muscle weakness or sore and painful muscles.

Lack of vitamin D is not quite as obvious in adults. Signs and symptoms might include:

Fatigue.
Bone pain.
Muscle weakness, muscle aches, or muscle cramps.
Mood changes, like depression.

Diagnosis and Tests

How is a vitamin D deficiency diagnosed?

Your doctor can order a blood test to measure your levels of vitamin D. There are two types of tests that might be ordered, but the most common is the 25-hydroxyvitamin D, known as 25(OH)D for short. For the blood test, a technician will use a needle to take blood from a vein. You do not need to fast or otherwise prepare for this type of test.

What do vitamin D test results mean?

There are some differing opinions about what levels of vitamin D work the best for each person. Laboratories might use different numbers for reference. Please discuss your results with your doctor.

How often do you need to get your vitamin D levels checked?

Doctors do not usually order routine checks of vitamin D levels, but they might need to check your levels if you have certain medical conditions or risk factors for vitamin D deficiency. Sometimes vitamin D levels can be checked as a cause of symptoms such as long-lasting body aches, a history of falls or bone fractures without significant trauma.

Management and Treatment

How is vitamin D deficiency treated?

The goals of treatment and prevention are the same—to reach, and then maintain, an adequate level of vitamin D in the body. While you might consider eating more foods that contain vitamin D and getting a little bit of sunlight, you will likely be told to take vitamin D supplements.

Vitamin D comes in two forms: D2 and D3. D2, also called ergocalciferol, comes from plants. D3, also called cholecalciferol, comes from animals. You need a prescription to get D2. D3, however, is available over the counter. It is more easily absorbed than D2 and lasts longer in the body dose-for-dose. Work with your doctor to find out if you need to take a vitamin supplement and how much to take if it is needed.

Can you ever have too much vitamin D?

Yes. You can get too much vitamin D if you overdo the supplements. Interestingly, you cannot get too much vitamin D from the sun. Vitamin D toxicity is, thankfully, quite rare but can lead to hypercalcemia and together the symptoms can include:

Nausea.
Increased thirst and urination.
Poor appetite.
Constipation.
Weakness.
Confusion.
Ataxia (a neurological condition that may cause slurring of words and stumbling).

Do not take higher-than-recommended doses of vitamin D without first discussing it with your doctor. However, your doctor might recommend higher doses of vitamin D if he or she is checking your blood levels and adjusting your dose accordingly. Also, be cautious about getting large doses of vitamin A along with the D in some fish oils. Vitamin A can also reach toxic levels and can cause serious problems.

Prevention

How can I help prevent vitamin D deficiency?

The goals of treating and preventing the lack of vitamin D of treatment and prevention are the same—to reach and keep an adequate level of vitamin D in the body. Your healthcare provider will let you know if you need to take or keep taking vitamin D supplements. If so, they will also let you know how much you should take. You might also want to consider:

Eating more foods that contain vitamin D: See the vitamin D food sources table included in this article. Keep in mind that foods alone usually don't meet the daily recommended levels of vitamin D.

Getting some exposure to sunshine—but not too much: Exactly how much sun exposure is needed isn't clear. 10 to 15 minutes of sun exposure two to three times a week to the face, arms, legs or back may be all that is needed to absorb a suitable amount of vitamin D. You might need more sun exposure (especially in early spring and late fall) if:

You are older.
You have a darker skin color.
You live in northern climates.

The use of sunscreen, and standing behind a window, prevents vitamin D from being produced in the skin. However, you should remember that too much sunshine increases the risk of skin cancer and ages the skin. That is why taking an appropriately dosed D supplement is far safer than intentionally getting routine sun exposure.

Vitamin D Do To Your Body

Source: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/articles/15050-vitamin-d--vitamin-d-deficiency

What Is A Good Dose Of Vitamin D

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What Is A Good Dose Of Vitamin D

Vitamin D Facts: Everything You Need to Know

Medically Reviewed by Dr Samantha Miller, MBChB

Photo Courtesy: Justin Paget/DigitalVision/Getty Images

Vitamin D is important for maintaining a healthy body, primarily because it helps you fully maximize your body's absorption and utilization of calcium, an important mineral that we all need. When paired with calcium, vitamin D helps regulate bone remodeling and growth, ensuring healthy, strong bones. Vitamin D can also help protect older adults from osteoporosis, which occurs due to excess bone loss from aging.

Furthermore, this nutrient boosts your immune system and reduces inflammation within your body, potentially warding off future medical conditions in the process. It also plays a vital role in cell growth, neuromuscular functions and protein encoding. Studies have shown that a regular, healthy vitamin D intake can also serve as an antidepressant and make people feel generally happier. But that's not all you'll want to know about vitamin D.

Sources of Vitamin D

Vitamin D is naturally found in certain foods and now appears in many more foods that have been fortified with added nutrients. The best sources of naturally occurring vitamin D are oily fish such as salmon, tuna, cod, sardines and mackerel. Fish liver oils are another good source of vitamin D. Small amounts of the nutrient are present in beef liver, cheese, egg yolks and mushrooms.

Photo Courtesy: Alexander Spatari/Moment/Getty Images

Commonly, vitamin D-fortified foods include whole milk, orange juice, margarine and breakfast cereals. It's important to look at the label and nutrition facts to verify that vitamin D is in a particular food you're considering. Because dairy products are often fortified with vitamin D, lactose intolerant or vegan individuals should keep an eye on their diets to ensure they get enough of the vitamin.

Sun exposure is another method of naturally obtaining vitamin D, as our bodies can create their own vitamin D upon exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun. However, it's difficult to gauge exactly how much sun exposure can generate sufficient vitamin D, as overexposure can be harmful, too. UV rays are also known to trigger free radicals, which can lead to skin cancer if left unchecked.

It's been suggested that getting approximately 15 minutes of sun exposure between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. at least twice a week to your face, arms, legs or back will help your body synthesize enough vitamin D. It's important to note that you can't cover the exposed area of your body with sunscreen if you choose to get vitamin D naturally. The SPF blocks UV rays and can hinder your body's ability to create vitamin D. If you're in the shade or behind a window, the rays will not get through. If the climate where you live is primarily cloudy, it's important to get your recommended amount of vitamin D via other means.

Dietary supplements are also an excellent way of obtaining vitamin D. Supplements come in two forms: vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol), which is identical to the form your body makes when exposed to sunlight, and vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol), which differs slightly from D3 in its chemical side-chain structure. There's some evidence that vitamin D3 increases and maintains overall levels slightly better than vitamin D2.

Side Effects of a Vitamin D Deficiency

Vitamin D deficiency occurs when you don't adequately absorb the nutrient or when your kidneys can't convert the nutrient to its active form. This deficiency can result in medical conditions, two of which are called rickets and osteomalacia.

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Rickets, a disease characterized by a failure of bone tissues to get enough minerals, can result in abnormal, soft bones and skeletal deformities. It's most common in children. Fortunately, it isn't permanent, and kids can consume as few as 1 to 3 teaspoons of cod liver oil a day to reverse the condition.

With the help of fortified foods today, rickets is almost obsolete in the United States. Osteomalacia, characterized by soft and weak bones, is usually present in adults. It's commonly treated with an intense regimen of vitamin D replacement under the care of a physician.

Vitamin D and Other Health Conditions

Vitamin D deficiency has been linked to cardiovascular disease, and people with lower levels of vitamin D appear to be at an increased risk of having a heart attack or stroke. However, the exact relationship isn't clear, and there appears to be no benefit to cardiovascular risk in taking a vitamin D supplement.

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Research is also ongoing to find if there's a link between vitamin D and multiple sclerosis (MS). It appears that vitamin D deficiency is linked to the development of MS, and people with MS and higher levels of vitamin D appear to have reduced disease activity.

Low vitamin D has been linked to an increased risk of contracting respiratory illnesses such as influenza A. It appears that people with low vitamin D levels are at greater risk of severe novel coronavirus (COVID-19) infection. It's not clear yet if routine vitamin D supplementation would reduce this risk.

Because vitamin D is a fat-soluble substance, it can stay in your body for several days. Thus, vitamin D poisoning is possible if you supplement too much vitamin D over a period of a few months. Symptoms of vitamin D overdose include dehydration, vomiting, decreased appetite, irritability, constipation and fatigue. If left unaddressed, vitamin D poisoning can lead to anorexia, over-calcification of the bones and internal organs, kidney stones and hypertension (high blood pressure). It's important to note that vitamin D poisoning usually only occurs with excessive intake of dietary supplements. It's highly unlikely to occur as a result of normal dietary intake and sun exposure.

Daily Dosage Recommendations

The recommended dietary allowances for vitamin D vary depending on your age and other health and life circumstances, such as pregnancy. For infants under 12 months, the recommended intake is 400 international units (IU) or 10 micrograms (mcg). For individuals under 70 years old, the recommended intake is 600IU (15mcg). For individuals over 70 years old, the intake increases to 800IU (20mcg).

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Safe Levels Of Vitamin D

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Safe Levels Of Vitamin D

Just as many people won't leave home without applying sunscreen, others actively shun it over worries about what's in the bottle.

Ingredients that protect skin from ultraviolet rays have raised concerns about their impact on human health and the environment. Some fear the chemicals are getting into the body and could disrupt the hormone system, affecting how reproductive and thyroid hormones act. Then, there's uneasiness about people not getting enough vitamin D.

Some communities are also banning certain sunscreens that could be harmful to coral reefs.

So what's a person to do?

Medical societies are clear: Keep wearing sunscreen.

Claims that sunscreen ingredients are toxic or a hazard to human health have not been proven, the American Academy of Dermatology noted.

The potential risk of not using sunscreen far outweighs the risks of using it, advised Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society.

But concern about the products continues to come up when dermatologist Dr. Adam Friedman sees patients, so he said his approach is to focus on the facts.

"The fact is ultraviolet radiation causes skin cancer. There's no disputing this… everybody should be using sunscreen from a skin cancer perspective," Friedman, professor and interim chair of dermatology at the George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, told TODAY.

"The safety issues that have been raised are mostly based on cell line data and animal data, not actually human data. Personally, I'm offended if I'm compared to a cell itself, because there's a very big gap between going from a petri dish to the human system."

There are two types of sunscreen:

chemical — which absorbs into the skin and then absorbs the sun's rays.
physical or mineral — which sits on top of the skin and deflects the sun's rays.

In February, the Food and Drug Administration said the two main active ingredients used in mineral formulations — zinc oxide and titanium dioxide — should be declared as "generally recognized as safe and effective" for use in sunscreens.

It also asked the industry for additional information about 12 other active sunscreen ingredients currently available in the U.S. — including those widely-used in chemical formulations such as oxybenzone and avobenzone. The agency said it needed more safety data before it could declare them "generally recognized as safe and effective."

"This request for additional data does not mean that the FDA has concluded that these 12 ingredients are unsafe," Dr. Theresa Michele, director of the FDA's division of nonprescription drug products, told Consumer Reports. "The goal here is to get the data and validate the safety and effectiveness of all these ingredients."

The agency also proposed declaring two ingredients — PABA and trolamine salicylate — as not meeting the "safe and effective standard" because of safety issues.

The Environmental Working Group, a non-profit watchdog that's been warning about sunscreen chemicals, called the FDA's proposals "a big step toward cleaning up a largely unregulated industry."

What to know about sunscreen chemicals:

EWG has been particularly concerned about oxybenzone, recommending that people avoid formulations with this active ingredient. That may be hard to do since almost two-thirds of non-mineral sunscreens contain the chemical, according to the group's database. Oxybenzone has been detected in much of the U.S. population and in breast milk, EWG warns.

The American Academy of Pediatrics advises parents that they "may want to" choose a sunscreen without oxybenzone because the ingredient may have hormonal properties.

Friedman noted that has never been proven in humans. Rats that were fed oxybenzone showed changes in uterine size, but a 2011 study found that to get the equivalent levels the animals were exposed to, a woman would have to apply sunscreen every day to a quarter of her body for 277 years.

"A lot of these concerns, while I'm not trying to discount them, in order to say this is real, you need scientific evidence and we just don't have that," Friedman said. "Let's say you measure some oxybenzone in blood, breast milk and urine — how does that translate to actual disease? That's the part that's missing. Just because it's there doesn't mean that amount has any negative consequences."

What to know about getting enough vitamin D:

The body needs vitamin D and can manufacture it when the skin is exposed to the sun. So there's concern products that block the sun's rays are interfering with an important health mechanism.

Still, Friedman advised against intentionally going out into the sun even briefly without sunscreen, noting it takes minutes of unprotected sun exposure between 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. to elicit damage to cellular DNA, which could lead to skin cancer.

"If you had someone put vitamin C in a cigarette, would you smoke to get your vitamin C?" he asked, citing his favorite analogy. "It's just not worth the risk."

It's better to get vitamin D from dietary sources, Friedman advised.

What to know about environmental damage:

In February, Key West officials banned the sale of sunscreens with oxybenzone and octinoxate after researchers said the chemicals can harm coral reefs. The industry fought the ban, noting more studies were needed to prove the link.

Hawaii passed a similar law last year. Both bans go into effect on Jan. 1, 2021.

There's no question sunscreens are getting into the water, but Friedman wondered whether that translates to having a biological effect.

"In labs, it's been shown that these ingredients can bleach coral," he said. "But the amounts used in the lab are much, much, much higher than what's actually out there in the real world. And it doesn't account for all the other horrible things going on in our environment that could be bleaching the coral."

Bottom line:

Use sunscreen, Friedman said. The best type is the one you'll use again and again, according to the American Academy of Dermatology.

Just make sure it offers broad-spectrum (UVA and UVB) protection, has an SPF of 30 or higher and is water-resistant. Friedman recommended sunscreens that use both chemical and mineral blockers for the best protection.

Safe Levels Of Vitamin D

Source: https://www.today.com/health/sunscreen-safe-what-know-about-ingredients-impact-vitamin-d-t151886

Sun Vitamin C Or D

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Sun Vitamin C Or D

Live | Does Sunlight Through Glass Provide Vitamin D?

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/08/well/live/does-sunlight-through-glass-provide-vitamin-d.html

Ask Well

Does Sunlight Through Glass Provide Vitamin D?

You can't get adequate UVB exposure sitting indoors or in a car.

Credit... Getty Images

Feb. 8, 2019

Q. Does sunlight through window glass provide vitamin D?

A. Sunlight doesn't actually "provide" you with vitamin D. Rather, your body produces vitamin D when skin is exposed to the sun's ultraviolet rays, which trigger vitamin D synthesis. The liver and kidneys convert this biologically inert form of vitamin D into biologically active forms the body can use to promote calcium absorption and bone health.

But sunlight consists of both ultraviolet A, or UVA, which penetrates deep within the skin layers and can cause premature aging; and ultraviolet B, or UVB, which causes the redness of sunburn. It's the UVB rays that trigger the synthesis of vitamin D.

Many people can derive the vitamin D that their bodies need through direct exposure to sunlight during the summer months. As little as 10 minutes a day of sun exposure is typically adequate. But for many, particularly those living in northern climes, production of vitamin D will be inadequate during the winter months.

And you can't get adequate UVB exposure sitting indoors or in a car. Virtually all commercial and automobile glass blocks UVB rays. As a result, you will not be able to increase your vitamin D levels by sitting in front of a sunny window, though much of the UVA radiation will penetrate the glass and may be harmful.

"It doesn't matter if it's winter or summer, you will make no vitamin D sitting in front of a window — zip," said Dr. Michael Holick, a professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics at Boston University School of Medicine.

Those concerned about low vitamin D levels can get more of the vitamin through foods. The best dietary source for vitamin D is old-fashioned cod liver oil. Other dietary sources include swordfish and salmon and, to a lesser extent, fortified milk, orange juice and yogurt, as well as sardines canned in oil, egg yolks and fortified cereals. Dietary supplements are also available.

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Sun Vitamin C Or D

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/08/well/live/does-sunlight-through-glass-provide-vitamin-d.html

Why Is Vitamin D Important To Our Health

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Why Is Vitamin D Important To Our Health