The Sun and Vitamin D Health Article

For decades health advocates have advised us to avoid sun, cover up and slather on sunscreen to reduce risk of skin cancers and cataracts. But some have criticized this approach as overkill, arguing that the push toward complete sun avoidance has contributed to "epidemic" levels of inadequate vitamin D in the population.

Maverick vitamin D researcher Michael Holick, M.D., Ph.D., of Boston University School of Medicine, railed against the "anti-sun lobby" in his book The UV Advantage (Ibooks, 2004): "These groups have worked in concert and frightened the daylights out of people—or, to put it more accurately, frightened people out of the daylight." At the time, Holick’s manifesto was widely considered heresy; he was forced to resign from BU’s dermatology department (but still retains his other posts, which include director of the Vitamin D, Skin and Bone Research Laboratory and professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics).

Lately, though, the sands seem to be shifting as researchers weigh the benefits of moderate sun exposure against the risks. Edward Giovannucci, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, points out that the death rate from the cancers for which vitamin D appears to provide some protection (including breast, colon and possibly prostate cancers) outnumber skin-cancer deaths by 30 to 1. "Given the accumulating evidence that there is some benefit of sun on some very common cancers...recommendations to avoid sun could wind up causing more deaths than they prevent."

Even cancer advocacy groups have softened their stance in recent years. "There’s a building consensus that the old recommendation to ‘stay out of the sun’ doesn’t work," says J. Leonard Lichtenfeld at the American Cancer Society (ACS). "You don’t have to avoid the sun, but you shouldn’t seek the sun to get your vitamin D." Instead, he recommends, "make sure to get enough vitamin D in your diet by taking a supplement."

ACS still advocates practicing sun-safe behaviors, such as wearing sunscreen and covering up when the sun’s rays are strongest. Since the sun’s power changes with weather and season, Lichtenfeld recommends checking your area’s daily UV index, a measure of the sun’s intensity (www.epa.gov/sunwise/ uvindex.html). "If it’s 3 or higher, you’re in the danger zone."

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