Are You Undermining Your Vitamin D? - Health Tips

 

Today, we’ll talk about some things you may be
doing that might actually be undermining your vitamin D
levels.

It’s not easy to get enough vitamin D in your food.

It’s found in fatty fish, fish liver oil, beef liver,
and egg yolks, along with some fortified foods like
milk products and cereals.

Your skin makes vitamin D in the presence of sunlight,
so you might be able to make adequate amounts by
getting enough fresh air and sunshine.

Your liver and kidneys also help in this process.

Here are some surprising things that might be
undermining your vitamin D levels:

Living at higher latitudes:

Vitamin D is produced by UVB light from the sun.

At higher latitudes on the planet, the amount of this
useful light goes down during the winter because of the
low angle of the sun’s rays.

For example, in Boston, Massachusetts, little (if any)
useful vitamin D is made in people’s skin from November
through February. Short days and thick clothing that
covers your arms and legs also limit UVB exposure and
vitamin D levels.

Living in an area with air pollution:

Burning fossil fuels, wood, and other materials creates
carbon particulates that hang in the air and scatter
and absorb valuable UVB rays.

Ozone also absorbs UVB, oddly enough, so holes in
the ozone layer might be one effect of pollution
that enhances your vitamin D levels.

Using a lot of sunscreen (theoretically):

Sunscreen does its job of preventing sunburn by
blocking the UVB light that burns your skin.

Therefore, theoretically, using sunscreen might
hinder vitamin D production in your skin.

However, practically speaking, few people use
sunscreen properly. They either don’t apply
enough, or they apply it too irregularly to work right.

Therefore, it doesn’t totally block the UVB light
and its effects on your vitamin D levels might be
negligible.

One Australian study showed no difference in
vitamin D between adults who were randomly
assigned either a sunscreen or a placebo cream
one summer.

Having dark-skinned ancestors:

The substance in your skin that makes it darker
in color is called melanin.

Melanin competes with the substance in your skin
that starts up the vitamin D production line.

Both use UVB light, so if you have a lot of
melanin in your skin, you’ll probably need more
UVB light in order to make the same amount of
vitamin D that a lighter-skinned person would need.

Discover how to boost levels of Vitamin D quickly -
and it involves more than just spending time under the sun! Click Here !