Is Sunscreen Keeping You From Your Vitamin D?

With summer's full-strength sun overhead, people are slathering on sunscreen and ducking indoors for protection - as they should be, most dermatologists would say.

But at least one doctor says to let in the sunshine.

Spending about 15 minutes unprotected in the sun two to three times a week, while taking a vitamin D supplement daily, may ward off vitamin D deficiency, said Michael Holick, professor of medicine, physiology and biophysics at the Boston University School of Medicine.

That's important because a lack of vitamin D has been tied to an increased risk for a host of diseases, including osteoporosis, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, hypertension and cancer, he said.

A new study shows that people with a vitamin D deficiency are likely to die sooner than those without the deficiency. "Rickets," Holick told a meeting of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society in Salt Lake City last week, "is really the tip of the iceberg.

Source: Daily Breeze