The Red, White, and Green

Of sunshine, that is. Fear of skin cancer and wrinkles — combined with increasingly indoor lifestyles — has resulted in an entire generation that is woefully deficient in vitamin D, not actually a vitamin but in fact a hormone that is essential to human health. Very few foods naturally contain vitamin D; oily fish like salmon and mackerel are excellent sources, and small amounts are also found in beef liver (not on the palate of most Americans), cheese, and egg yolks. 

But the best way to obtain vitamin D is from regular sun exposure. Just as plants rely on energy from the sun to produce sugar (seventh-grade biology, anyone?), we, too, need the sun for our own type of “photosynthesis” — the creation of Vitamin D.

The ultimate irony is that those with skin cancer fears following the advice of the American Academy of Dermatology — “Get vitamin D safely through a healthy diet that may include vitamin supplements; don’t seek the sun” — may, in fact, be putting themselves at risk for developing certain types of cancers. A recent study in the American Medical Association’s Archives of Internal Medicine showed that 75 percent of Americans are deficient in vitamin D, and that low levels may actually increase cancer risk, as well as negatively affect immune function and cardiovascular health. More eye-opening evidence: The Los Angeles Times reported on a Canadian study last year that showed that women who had a vitamin D deficiency when they were diagnosed with breast cancer were 94 percent likely to have their cancer metastasize and 73 percent more likely to die within 10 years.

And this week, there was breaking news from the University of Missouri, where a nutritional sciences researcher discovered that vitamin D is associated with inflammation, a negative response of the immune system, in healthy women.

My own doctor, who recently moved her practice from Portland to Los Angeles, says she was surprised to find that even in sunny LA, most of her patients’ vitamin D levels are low. No surprise, I thought, in the vainest city in the country. It’s not uncommon here to see taut-faced women of a certain indeterminable age strolling the streets holding a parasol. And even though new reports about the vitamin D/health connection seem to surface every day, most women’s magazines I read seem to be unwilling to acknowledge that a small daily dose of sunshine might be just what the doctor ordered. One such magazine even recently did a story discussing the link between certain cancers and vitamin D deficiency, and I kid you not, a mere two pages after the article was a column in which a dermatologist advised avoiding the sun and wearing full-body SPF 30 at all times to prevent premature aging.

Now, I’m not advising lying on a beach with tin foil for hours at a time; most doctors and researchers believe that as little as 10 to 15 minutes of daily sun exposure is enough to prevent most deficiencies. But to me, it just seems like common sense, and isn’t too far off from the wisdom of my great-grandmother (who lived to be 100, by the way): eight hours of sleep a night, sensible meals, and a daily brisk walk in the fresh air and sunshine.

–Jennifer Grayson

 Like this post? Subscribe to The Red, White, and Green RSS feed