D3

From Mercola and Natural News:

It’s not “just a vitamin,” but rather the only known substrate for a potent, repair and maintenance seco-steroid hormone that serves multiple gene-regulatory functions in your body.

Just one example of an important gene that vitamin D up-regulates is your ability to fight infections. It produces over 200 anti microbial peptides, the most important of which is cathelicidin, a naturally occurring broad-spectrum antibiotic.

And, when you consider the fact that you only have 30,000 genes in your body, and vitamin D has been shown to influence more than 2,000 of them, the bigger picture of its true impact on your health can be easily understood.

It’s thought that 85 percent of the American public is deficient in vitamin D and over 95 percent of African American or deeply pigmented individuals. And, in the United States, the late winter average vitamin D is only about 15-18 ng/ml, which is considered a VERY SERIOUS deficiency state.

You can find out what your levels are by asking your doctor for a blood test called a 25(OH)D, also called 25-hydroxyvitamin D. (Please note, there are two types of vitamin D tests, and this one is the one you want.) There are also two primary labs in the U.S. and you ONLY want to use Lab Corp, NOT Quest, to perform this test.

The OPTIMAL value of vitamin D that you’re looking for has recently been raised to 50-65 ng/ml, with even higher recommended levels required for more serious disease prevention.

• vitamin D3 is an oil soluble steroid hormone. It’s formed when your skin is exposed to ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation from the sun (or a safe tanning bed). When UVB strikes the surface of your skin, your skin converts a cholesterol derivative in your skin into vitamin D3.

• However, the vitamin D3 that is formed is on the surface of your skin does not immediately penetrate into your bloodstream. It actually needs to be absorbed from the surface of your skin into your bloodstream.

  The critical question then is: how long does it take the vitamin D3 to penetrate your skin and reach your bloodstream?

  If you’re thinking about an hour or two, like I did until recently, you’re wrong. Because new evidence shows it takes up to 48 hours before you absorb the majority of the vitamin D that was generated by exposing your skin to the sun!

  Therefore, if you shower with soap, you will simply wash away much of the vitamin D3 your skin generated, and decrease the benefits of your sun exposure. So to optimize your vitamin D level, you need to delay washing your body with soap for about two full days after sun exposure.

  Now not many people are not going to bathe for two full days.

  However you really only need to use soap underneath your arms and your groin area. , so this is not a major hygiene issue. You’ll just want to avoid soaping up the larger areas of your body that were exposed to the sun.

Additionally you can rub vitamin D3 on your skin and it easily penetrates into your bloodstream (assuming you don't wash it off for 48 hours). This is also likely the reason why surfers in Hawaii who are in the sun and water continuously don't have vitamin D levels comparable to lifeguards that don't go in the water. The surfers typically have levels in the 70s while the lifeguards and other who are in the sun as much without going into the water will have vitamin D levels around 100.

The bottom line is that washing the sebum off of your skin is NOT good and should be avoided. You were NOT designed to use soap. It is fine to wash areas that are prone to bacterial overgrowth such as your axilla (armpits) and groin but it is in your best interest to leave the sebum that was designed to be on your skin, to stay on your skin.

UVA has a wavelength of about 320 to 400 nanometers, and UVB has a wave length of about 280 to 320 nanometers.

Because the UVA has a longer wavelength, it penetrates materials more easily, such as the earth’s atmosphere and window glass.

The key point here is that window glass will effectively filter out the majority of UVB radiation, but it minimally filters out UVAs.

It’s important to realize that vitamin D3 is formed from exposure to UVB rays, whereas UVA radiation actually destroys vitamin D.

This helps keep your body in balance; it’s one of the protective mechanisms your body has to avoid overdosing on vitamin D when you’re outside. However, when you’re exposed to sunlight through windows -- in your office, your home or your car -- you get the UVA but virtually none of the beneficial UVB.

UVA is one of the primary culprits behind skin cancer, and it increases photo aging of your skin. It’s also what causes you to tan. You can actually get vitamin D without significantly darkening your skin, because the UVB wavelength does not stimulate the melanin pigment to produce a tan.