The benefits of vitamin D
Uncover your skin, sunbathe, Bascuñana tells us. Worse still, she tells us that it is in our best interest to expose as much of the surface of the skin as possible and not to abuse sunscreens. Depending on the skin, but ten or fifteen minutes in the sun without sunscreen allows us to synthesize supervitamin D, the lack of which is related to autoimmune, allergic, infectious, cardiovascular, neurological, bone, inflammatory, digestive, cancer and even depressive disorders: “ Underlying any state of depression is chronic inflammation. Vitamin D reduces inflammation and thus prevents depressive states; and if the patient has already developed major depression, it has been seen that combining vitamin D with the antidepressant drug improves treatment”. He tells it in VitaminaDos (He encourages). “The message of not exposing ourselves to the sun is absurd” .
Let him sunbathe, he says!
Our skin is a factory of vitamin D, if we do not sunbathe we do not manufacture it.
Skin cancer is one of the worst.
If we expose ourselves to the sun in an intelligent way, we know that vitamin D is photoprotective and prevents melanoma.
Does sunbathing protect us from cancer?
Yes, because the presence of vitamin D acts on our immune system, defending us from agents that can damage our cells and generate mutations.
We have been protecting ourselves from the sun for years.
That is why most of the world’s population suffers from vitamin D deficiency. It is becoming a public health problem.
What if you lack vitamin D?
We are unprotected against immune processes that defend us, for example, against viruses and pathogens.
She is a great ally, then.
It protects us from the development of tumors and prevents us when we are in the womb from developing an allergic genotype, or developing autoimmune diseases.
We are like plants, we need the sun to function.
We need it to synthesize vitamin D, the lack of which causes autoimmune, infectious, allergic, cardiovascular, neurological, bone, inflammatory, digestive disorders, cancers, depression, schizophrenia and even autism.
What symptoms warn us of this lack of vitamin D?
They are not exclusive to a lack of vitamin D, but its deficiency causes fatigue, muscle weakness, lack of mental agility, memory loss, decreased mood, bone pain…
Well, most of us didn’t know.
All those symptoms that we usually attribute to age can be due to a lack of vitamin D; and as soon as we replenish the serum levels of vitamin D, the person improves.
So vitamin D is essential.
Definitely. The same happens with menstrual pain or osteoporosis in menopause, constipation, sleep problems, all these discomforts that we have normalized, endless situations in which vitamin D is involved.
We feed on animals that have lived indoors, does that affect us?
In the same way that we are always indoors or go outside with sunscreen and we cannot manufacture vitamin D, neither do animals and vegetables that are not exposed to the sun.
So, factory farms…?
If we feed on eggs from hens that are not exposed to the sun, these eggs do not have vitamin D. If we drink cow’s milk that is stabled, it is milk without vitamin D.
Pollution doesn’t help either, does it?
It is like putting a filter in the sky that subtracts from 30% to 54% of the radiation we need to manufacture vitamin D. In all the countries of the world, the maximum established by the WHO has been exceeded.
We have been told that we should go outside with sun protection.
According to recent studies, insufficient sun exposure may be responsible for some 480,000 deaths a year in Europe alone.
How should I sunbathe?
The more body surface we expose to the sun, the better. As for the exposure time, it will depend on the color of the skin, the time in which you expose yourself and the latitude.
What do you recommend in Spain?
A good time is around 11, and there is another important thing: we cannot be covered all year round and when the summer holidays arrive, we expose ourselves in excess. We have to train our tolerance to the sun in spring and in autumn.
I’m worried about the sunscreen.
Some dermatologists are already changing their message, it’s better to apply sunscreen when you’re already at the beach and after about ten minutes, and I recommend a mineral sunscreen without nanoparticles.
How then to avoid premature aging of the skin?
Too much sun ages us, but taken in moderation has more benefits than risks. We know that the people who are indoors the most are the ones with the highest incidence of melanoma.
So, do the stains live?
We must sunbathe without getting burned, as soon as we feel the skin tight we must protect ourselves, it is about being pink but not burned.
Should we supplement with vitamin D preparations?
It is better to look for the natural way to obtain it by taking a little sun and food that has been exposed to the sun. But with age our ability to make vitamin D decreases. We need to check our levels with a test.