Health + Wellness — vitamin d

There’s a lot of confusion surrounding sunlight and the production of Vitamin D. People commonly think that if the sun is up and they are outside in the sun, they are going to produce Vitamin D. This is not the case! There are many reasons why you won’t make Vitamin D in the sun—even during the middle of the day. But most significantly, the sun cannot stimulate your production of Vitamin D if the sun isn’t high enough in the sky. UVB Rays And Vitamin D The reason is that UVB rays—and only UVB rays—catalyze the production of Vitamin D....

If you use topical sunscreen lotions, here are some important points to understand this summer (from ABC News): The Truth About Sunscreen: Are Labels Lying? This video and accompanying article explain how much sunscreen is actually necessary to receive the purported benefits of sunscreen lotions, that the benefits of sunscreen lotions may be misleading, that many sunscreen lotions don’t actually protect you very well from UVA rays, and that sunscreen lotions aren’t actually sweatproof or waterproof. The second video (plays automatically after the first) with Diane Sawyer also mentions that the incidence rates of melanoma and nonmelanoma skin cancer are...

Check the label of your sunscreen or sunblock for both the active and inactive ingredients. It’s best if your sunscreen contains only the active ingredient zinc oxide (it may also contain titanium dioxide). But if your topical sunscreen/sunblock has any of the following toxic chemicals it could actually be doing more harm than good! Here’s a list of some of the sunscreen ingredients to avoid: Avobenzone (Parsol 1789, Eusolex 9020, Escalol 517) Oxybenzone (benzophenone-3, Eusolex 4360, Escalol 567) Dioxybenzone (benzophenone-8) Octocrylene Sulisobenzone (benzophenone-4) Phenylbenzimidazole sulfonic acid (ensulizole) Homosalate Cinoxate PABA (4-Aminobenzoic acid, para-aminobenzoic acid) Padimate O (OD-PABA, octyldimethyl PABA, Escalol...