Circle “D” for “all of the above.”
Well, pretty much everything, medical researchers say. Vitamin D, which is really not a vitamin at all but a chemical that helps your body create a hormone critical to health and life, has storied history since its discovery at the turn of the 20th century.
Once identified, it was touted as almost a super-drug in the 1930s when its relationship to rickets was revealed. All but gone in the United States, Europe was plagued with the bone-softening and deforming disease in the 1700s when humans first started spending a great deal of time indoors, out of the sun. Even before the role of nutrients was well understood, it became clear that sunshine caused a physiological reaction important to health, later credited to vitamin D.
Even early research showed how integral it is to endless human maladies, including cancer and common infections. News about Vitamin D took a turn after World War II, when Vitamin D infused milk was blamed for high levels of other chemicals in some children. Research into how much is too much, or not enough, have kept vitamin D in the science and health headlines ever since.
Researches agree on this, the vitamin is indispensable to human health, and most Americans probably don’t get as much as they need. What’s unsettled, is how much that is.
University of Colorado School of Medicine at the Anschutz Medical Campus and other entities have been weighing in on the Vitamin D story for some time. It was there that researcher Adit Ginde, MD, determined that at least 3 out of 4 Americans had some kind of Vitamin D deficiency. Some researchers say the problem is much more widespread. It’s most important, because the deficiency has been associated with bone health, muscle health, cancer and the ability to fight infection.
Just last month, a University of Colorado Cancer Center study revealed new information about the connection between Vitamin D and prostate cancer, showing that the vitamin’s effect on inflammation was key to its role in preventing cancer. The study has implications for other cancers known to be fueled by inflammation as well.
Outside of how important Vitamin D is, controversy still boils about what the best way is to get it. Researchers have long understood that exposure to the ultraviolet rays of the sun on the skin naturally produce all the Vitamin D we need. The same UV rays clearly increase the incidence of skin cancer. And oral vitamin D supplements cause consternation among researchers and confusion among the rest of us.
Right now, researchers do agree that limited exposure to the sun is the most natural source of vitamin D, and that any regular, unprotected exposure to the sun’s ultraviolet rays, especially in Aurora’s relatively thin protective atmosphere, is potentially dangerous. Potentially. But some are now questioning the wisdom of blocking out all UV rays, saying the subject needs a new look.
Some researchers are insisting there needs to be a balance between having people protect themselves from UV rays, and getting some exposure to ensure good health. “Cutaneous vitamin D synthesis versus skin cancer development” published in 2009 by German researchers Jörg Reichrath and Bernd Nürnberg made a case for limited sun exposure.
“…it is time for a paradigm shift and recommendations of health campaigns on sun protection should be moderated, representing a more balanced view of positive and negative effects of solar UV-exposure.”
They proposed that an average person with no propensity to skin cancer could “safely” spend about 5 minutes, three days a week in the mid-day sun, exposing their face, hands and arms, and ensure their bodies produced enough vitamin D to keep them healthy. Any further exposure should be guided by current best practices for avoiding UV-related skin cancers, such as covering up or wearing heavy sunscreens. The “safe” exposure assumes there is risk in these brief exposure episodes, which are outweighed by the benefits of naturally produced vitamin D. One of the body’s greatest paradoxes is that vitamin D is known to play an important role in preventing and treating skin cancer as well.
So here’s the kicker: Vitamin D is even more important in winter, when colds and influenza abound. Some research shows that the very reason for the “flu season” has to do with limited exposure to the sun by the masses, creating widespread reduction to resistance to cold and flu viruses, and more cases to spread the flu faster and wider — to people with lowered resistance. Brief doses of sun in the winter are harder to come by when you’re cold and unmotivated, but it could be a critical part of staying well when everyone around you is getting sick.
We’re lucky here in Aurora, health and city planning officials say. As your doctor about brief forays into the sun. And even if you’re getting outside for sunshine, realize that relatively infrequent snows are soon gone in the area. City and regional water crews religiously clear bike and walking paths along waterways and greenbelts. Even in the dead of winter, the Aurora Reservoir is a haven for outdoor recreation with world-class ice fishing, ice skating and a bike trail that stays pretty clear of ice and snow.
So in or out his winter? Ask your doctor, and know Aurora’s outside is ready when you are all year long.