Fifteen Facts You Probably Never Knew About Vitamin D and Sunlight Exposure:
(Compiled by Mike Adams, based on an interview with Dr. Michael Holick, author, The UV Advantage)
Vitamin D prevents osteoporosis, depression, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and even effects diabetes and
obesity. Vitamin D is perhaps the single most underrated nutrient in the world of nutrition. That’s probably
because it’s free: your body makes it when sunlight touches your skin. Drug companies can’t sell you
sunlight, so there’s no promotion of its health benefits. Truth is, most people don’t know the real story on
vitamin D and health. So here’s an overview taken from an interview between Mike Adams and Dr. Michael
Holick.
1. Vitamin D is produced by your skin in response to exposure to ultraviolet radiation from natural
sunlight.
2. The healing rays of natural sunlight (that generate vitamin D in your skin) cannot penetrate glass.
So you don’t generate vitamin D when sitting in your car or home.
3. It is nearly impossible to get adequate amounts of vitamin D from your diet. Sunlight exposure is
the only reliable way to generate vitamin D in your own body.
4. A person would have to drink ten tall glasses of vitamin D fortified milk each day just to get minimum
levels of vitamin D into their diet.
5. The further you live from the equator, the longer exposure you need to the sun in order to generate
vitamin D. Canada, the UK and most U.S. states are far from the equator.
6. People with dark skin pigmentation may need 20 - 30 times as much exposure to sunlight as fairskinned people to generate the same amount of vitamin D. That’s why prostate cancer is epidemic
among black men -- it’s a simple, but widespread, sunlight deficiency.
7. Sufficient levels of vitamin D are crucial for calcium absorption in your intestines. Without sufficient
vitamin D, your body cannot absorb calcium, rendering calcium supplements useless.
8. Chronic vitamin D deficiency cannot be reversed overnight: it takes months of vitamin D
supplementation and sunlight exposure to rebuild the body’s bones and nervous system.
9. Even weak sunscreens (SPF=8) block your body’s ability to generate vitamin D by 95%. This is how
sunscreen products actually cause disease -- by creating a critical vitamin deficiency in the body.
10. It is impossible to generate too much vitamin D in your body from sunlight exposure: your body will
self-regulate and only generate what it needs.
11. If it hurts to press firmly on your sternum, you may be suffering from chronic vitamin D deficiency
right now.
12. Vitamin D is “activated” in your body by your kidneys and liver before it can be used.
13. Having kidney disease or liver damage can greatly impair your body’s ability to activate circulating
vitamin D.
14. The sunscreen industry doesn’t want you to know that your body actually needs sunlight exposure
because that realization would mean lower sales of sunscreen products.
15. Even though vitamin D is one of the most powerful healing chemicals in your body, your body
makes it absolutely free. No prescription required.