Health + Wellness — vitamin d

Sunlight plays an important role in helping the body produce vitamin D, a nutrient essential for bone health, immune function, and overall wellness. When the skin is exposed to ultraviolet B (UVB) rays, it naturally begins synthesizing vitamin D. But how do you know if your sun exposure is actually producing enough vitamin D? Factors such as skin tone, location, season, sunscreen use, age, and time spent outdoors all influence how effectively your body generates this essential nutrient. Maintaining a balanced approach to sun exposure while practicing safe sun protection habits can help support healthy vitamin D levels without increasing...

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...