This would be my 2nd post about Vitamin D. In this post, I would like to clear all confusion about sunshine exposure especially when it regards to skin cancer. Some of my colleagues, friends and relatives said, sunlight or sun exposure can gives us skin cancer. Yeah right. Everyone especially ladies are all avoiding the sun, but why breast cancer rates are increasing tremendously?
As you no doubt know, exposure to sunlight causes vitamin D to be produced in your skin. But only a portion of the solar spectrum, known as ultraviolet B or UVB, that has this effect. Other parts of the solar spectrum can have very different and even harmful effects .
First, there’s an important distinction that must be made. There are two primary forms of ultraviolet radiation from the sun, UVA, and UVB, and they have different wave lengths and impact your body in different ways.
Because the UVA has a longer wavelength, it penetrates materials more easily, such as the earth’s atmosphere and window glass. Most of us living in contemporary culture are modern day cavemen. We work inside and don’t spend much time outdoors. It really wasn’t until the industrial revolution that we had the development of mass produced windows.
The key point here is that window glass will effectively filter out the majority of UVB radiation, but it minimally filters out UVAs. You may ask, what are the significance? It’s important to realize that vitamin D3 is formed from exposure to UVB rays, whereas UVA radiation actually DESTROYS vitamin D! Yes, you read it right folks.
But, 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. This can lead to significant health problems, because in addition to destroying vitamin D3, UVA’s also increase oxidative stress. UVA is one of the primary culprits behind skin cancer, and it increases photo aging of your skin.
Normally, of course, when you get tanned from outdoor sun exposure you’re getting both UVA and UVB at the same time, so it’s not a problem. But when you are indoors and expose yourself to sunlight filtered through window glass, you are increasing your risk of a variety of conditions, primarily skin cancer, because the UVA’s are effectively destroying your vitamin D3 levels while you’re getting none of the benefits from UVB.
First, it’s important to understand that 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, you’re wrong! The truth is, it takes up to 48hrs 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 or bath lotion, 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 bath for two full days. I know what you must be thinking right now. Not properly shower for 2 days? It sounded insane right? Well, of course you have to shower within these two days, but try to avoid using bath foam, bath lotion or soaps to thoroughly wash away this potent antioxidant on the surface of your skin. 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 or Australia 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.
Malignant melanoma has been increasing at an exponential rate in indoor workers since more then 50 years ago. The reason may be indoor exposure to UVA radiation. Unlike UVB, which is blocked by glass, UVA can pass through windows.
UVA can cause cancerous mutations, and can also break down the vitamin D formed in your skin after outdoor UVB exposure. And vitamin D is a potent defense against melanoma, as new research shows that increased UVA exposures and inadequately maintained cutaneous levels of vitamin D promote melanoma.
Avoiding the shower can also benefit your health in a number of other ways, because unless you have well water, you’re showering in water from a municipal water supply that is loaded with chlorine, fluoride, disinfection by products, and pharmaceutical drugs that have made their way into the sewer system.
Chlorine, it’s best avoided as much as possible, as the biggest danger comes from the byproducts created when chlorine combines with organic material in the water. These disinfection byproducts, or know as DBPs, are EXTREMELY toxic. Some experts believe them to be over 10000 times more toxic than chlorine. They’re so dangerous, in fact, that the U.S Environmental Protection Agency sets the goal limit for some of them at zero.
DBPs have been linked to reproductive problems in both animals and humans, and human studies suggest that lifetime consumption of chlorine-treated water can more than double the risk of bladder and rectal cancers in certain individuals. So people, ensure you have a good filtration water system at home.
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 armpits and groin area, but it is in your best interest to leave the sebum that was designed to be on your skin, to stay on your skin.
Before I sign off, I got a message for you readers out there. Ladies holding umbrellas while walking under the sun along the road, this is a very important piece of information for your health, as breast cancer is the highest cancer rates for women, globally and in Malaysia as well. Ladies who put on sunblock lotion which usually contains cancer causing agents, estrogen mimickers, and other harmful chemicals in the product, are further preventing the absorption of Vitamin D from sun exposure. Vitamin D is a very potent anti-cancer steroidal vitamin. Enjoy the sun folks.
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