Dr.’s Note Script

Most of what you hear about sunshine is “Be careful not to get too much. It can cause skin cancer.” While it is true that excess sun exposure is a primary cause of skin cancer, if taken to extremes, these guidelines may actually cause more harm than good.

Some sunshine daily is necessary for the skin to produce vitamin D, which we are finding is more important to our health than was realized in previous years. Some of the health problems of inadequate sunshine and vitamin D:

• Increased risk of developing osteoporosis,

• Increased risk for 16 cancers including breast, ovary, prostate cancers

• Increased risk for chronic diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease,

A recent medical journal estimated that a lack of adequate vitamin D is responsible for 7% of all cancer deaths in men and 9% of all cancer deaths in women in the United States.

Since we live in a northern latitude and mainly indoors during our long winter we are at higher risk of not getting adequate sunshine to make adequate vitamin D.

The bottom line: Get some sunshine daily if you can. Don’t get too much (most of the vitamin D is made in the first 10+ minutes of exposure). If you can’t get adequate sunshine daily, taking a vitamin D supplement could have significant health benefits. How much vitamin D should you take? Many researchers are now suggesting 1,000 IU of vitamin D daily.