Free Medicine – Sunlight on the Skin – Vitamin D

 At Boulder Salt Company, we are committed to optimal health and wellness. To that end we just want to remind you of the abundance of natural free medicine that is available to us each and every day! Some of the best ways to ward off­ illness and maintain a healthy equilibrium come from nature and our mind. (And most of it is FREE!)

Free Medicine – Sunlight on the Skin

This first blog starts with one of the most powerful free medicines, sunlight hitting the skin.  In response to UVB light (a portion of the sunlight spectra) hitting our skin, we produce vitamin D.  Vitamin D has an incredible number of powerful, positive functions in the body, including a direct regulatory effect on our immune system.  Maintaining proper levels of vitamin D can have tremendous health benefits. 

The study in the following link does a good job of exploring many of the variables that affect how much vitamin D we produce, as well as many of the incredibly diverse health benefits.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3257661/

Sunlight on the Skin – Makes Vitamin D

 290-315nm (UVB – Ultraviolet B) – Spectra that triggers Vitamin D

Vitamin D – Need extra if you don’t get regular sun

 This UVB spectra (290-315nm) of light is required directly on the skin to produce vitamin D. If you don’t (or can’t) get regular light on skin, you should consider a vitamin D supplement. Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin, so taking it along with a fat-containing meal will help with absorption.  Vitamin D blood levels are covered by most insurance companies these days, and it’s a worthwhile number to know.  A very large portion of the population has low blood levels of vitamin D.

Sunlight on the skin – Vitamin D – How much for me?

How much sun do I need, with how much % body exposure, at my latitude?…great questions and all can be answered for you personally using this vitamin D calculator at the link below.  You plug in your longitude and latitude, skin type (pick a color out of 6 options), % of skin exposed (default is 25%), amount of cloud cover, and how much vitamin D you want to produce a day (default is 1000IU).  On the Front Range, with arms, head/face/neck exposed, its around 20 minutes of exposure to produce 1000 IU.   

 https://fastrt.nilu.no/VitD_quartMED.html

Stay tuned for more Free Medicine that Surrounds Us from Boulder Salt company!  Next time we discuss the king of all Free Medicine…Sleep.