Get out in the sunshine! It’s summer. You need it so that your Vitamin D levels are right.

Wait.

This study looked at how much sunshine is enough sunshine for this purpose.

People vary widely by skin types and the climates in which they live also influence any benefits of sunshine.

As you can see in this summary of a study in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, it is all but impossible to count on enough sun exposure to maintain Vitamin D levels to keep bones healthy. Vitamin D contributes to health in other ways, too.

It is all but impossible to count on food sources to help maintain the Vitamin D level you need personally.

Also, let’s note that, for excellent reasons, dermatologists are the ones who tell us to stay out of the sun, wear sun block at all times—-all in the interest of protecting ourselves against melanoma, a deadly skin cancer.

It is easy to work with your doctor to determine your Vitamin D needs, if any, which you can take orally.

Many variables affect any one person’s Vitamin D intake. Come up with a plan which is right for you. This vitamin may be even more important than has been previously thought.

Journal Watch

“Vitamin D is essential for bone mineralization and may have other health benefits. Experts disagree on the serum vitamin D level necessary to maintain health. Some recommend concentrations above 30 ng/mL and consider the range between 20 and 30 ng/mL insufficient and concentrations lower than 20 ng/mL deficient. By this reckoning, many Americans are vitamin D insufficient or deficient. Because it is difficult to obtain enough vitamin D from food intake, oral supplements and sunlight have been recommended for individuals with low serum D levels. The suggested dose for supplements is 400 to 1000 IU/day. It has been suggested that a few minutes of sunlight each day to the face, neck, hands, and arms are all that is necessary to restore vitamin D sufficiency, but the amount of sunlight required for photoconversion of 7-dehydrocholesterol to pre–vitamin D varies considerably depending on a person’s age, Fitzpatrick sun-reactive skin type, geographic location, and season. (The six Fitzpatrick skin types classify sensitivity to ultraviolet light; skin type I is fair skin that always burns, never tans; type III is darker white skin that burns and tans; type V is brown skin that rarely burns, tans easily.) Investigators employed the FastRT computational tool to predict the length of daily exposure required to obtain the sunlight equivalent of 400 and 1000 IU oral vitamin D supplementation. (Emphasis added)

“At noon in Miami, someone with Fitzpatrick skin type III would require 6 minutes to synthesize 1000 IU of vitamin D in the summer and 15 minutes in the winter. Someone with skin type V would need 15 and 29 minutes, respectively. At noon in the summer in Boston, necessary exposure times approximate those in Miami, but in winter, it would take about 1 hour for type III skin and 2 hours for type V skin to synthesize 1000 IU of D. After 2 PM in the winter in Boston, it is impossible for even someone with Fitzpatrick type I skin to receive enough sun to equal even 400 IU of vitamin D.” (Emphasis added)

Source: Journal Watch, June 4, 2010

Citation: J Am Acad Dermatol 2010 Jun; 62:935.