Why you may see fewer posts for a while. The power of the sun and the interesting omission of vitamin D sources in a Huffpost article.
How mainstream news wants you to think about vitamin D and why.
Postings may be less frequent for now.
About 5 weeks ago, I started to get debilitating headaches. I am not a stranger to headaches since childhood, but with diet and lifestyle changes, I removed many of my triggers to the point that in the past several years, headaches were infrequent.
I moved about 6 months ago and started to get headaches with more frequency but shrugged it off as they were primarily mild headaches.
So when I got a horrible headache, I did not think much of it, until after it lasted for 48 hours, the same type of pain came back two days later. I went 9 days headache free, but after that, they came with greater frequency, with only 24 to 48 hours in between the head pain. These headaches have been severe, to the point that I cannot function.
Because of this, I am pretty behind in general and am currently investigating endogenous and exogenous root causes for the pain. Please bear with me while I figure this out. I will continue to write and post health information for you when possible.
What to know about vitamin D from sunlight (and other benefits of sunshine exposure).
Because warmer weather is approaching in the Western Hemisphere, I wanted to share this video of Dr. Holick, who has been researching vitamin D since 1969.
In this presentation, Holick states that obtaining your vitamin D from the sun is preferable for various reasons, such as:
Forty percent of the vitamin D from a supplement will be excreted from the body, whereas vitamin D from sunlight will last two to three times longer, and you will utilize 100% of it.
Vitamin D from sunlight has additional health benefits. For instance, when pre-vitamin D is made, it converts into other photo-products that may reduce skin cancer risk.
Additionally, when exposed to the sun, you are exposed to UVA, UVB, blue, red, and near-infrared light, all of which can be beneficial. For example, UVA rays enter the epidermis and the dermis and positively affect immune function.
The sun positively affects blood pressure in two ways. When exposed to the sun, blood pressure goes down because you release nitric oxide in skin cells and because sun exposure stimulates enzymes to make more nitric oxide.
The POMC gene, which is found in the pituitary gland and epidermis, is turned on when exposed to sunlight. When the POMC gene is turned on, it produces beta-endorphins, which is why you feel good in the sunshine versus on a gray, cloudy day.
How much sunshine do you need?
Holick mentions that there is no evidence to suggest that sensible sun exposure causes melanoma.
In that case, if you exposed your entire body to summer sunlight on a day outside, you could make 15,000 to 20,000 IUs of vitamin D. If only your arms, head, and legs were exposed, the amount would be closer to the 5,000 to 10,000 range.
Of course, how long you need to be in the sun in one day to make this amount depends upon several factors, such as weight, age, and skin color. The more melanin you make, the longer you need to be in the sun to produce adequate amounts of vitamin D. Hence, the darker your skin, the more melanin you have, and the more time you require to be exposed to sunlight.
As we age, the amount of vitamin D we can make when out in the sun cannot be compared to the amount we made in the same time frame in our youth. A 70-year-old will need more sun exposure than a 20-year-old to produce the same amount of vitamin D.
Regardless, while Holick states that it is very rare to reach toxicity with vitamin D supplementation, stating that you would have to take 100,000 IUs daily for months to reach that point, you will not get vitamin D toxicity by staying in the sun all day. Mother Nature will convert only what you need.
However, Holick believes that even in the summertime, we still need to supplement with vitamin D unless we are outside daily with much of our skin exposed. So, landscapers, farmers/ranchers, and lifeguards may not have to supplement, but many of us will.
Mainstream media and dermatologists encourage the use of sunscreen.
Sunscreen filters UVB radiation, which triggers vitamin D production in the skin. An SPF 15 sunscreen filters 93% of UVB rays. Based on that information, producing optimal vitamin D amounts with an SPF 15 sunscreen would be challenging. Still, in the article link I provided, the author reassures us that we can get plenty of vitamin D while lathered up in sunscreen. I would have to disagree. Furthermore, many people use sunscreens with ridiculously high SPFs of 30, 50, and even up to 100.
The article promotes sunscreen due to the risk of skin cancer. Sensible and gradual sun exposure should not be feared, but blistering sunburns should be avoided.
This Dr. Yoho Substack post is a good place to start regarding skin cancer and the Mohs procedure. Dermatologists will encourage the use of sunscreens, which may be more harmful and toxic for you than sun exposure.
This leads me to this Huff Post article on nutrients you may be deficient in.
The article listed vitamin D as #3 among the most common nutrient deficiencies. I was glad to see the RD mention grass-fed beef and a few other foods as sources of vitamin D.
The RD also mentioned salmon, advising us to consume sustainable salmon. Just an FYI, sustainable salmon can include farm-raised salmon. If you live in the U.S., the salmon with the least contamination is wild-caught Alaskan salmon, which is not always easy to find and is pricey.
The RD stated that the foods she mentioned contained a “good amount” of vitamin D.
What is a “good amount” since she did not elaborate on that statement?
(Keep in mind that an RD bases a “good amount” on what is needed for the RDI (recommended daily intake) amount, which is much lower at 600 to 800 IUs daily.)
How much vitamin D is in some of the foods the RD mentioned?
When you search for the vitamin D content in grass-fed beef, the responses include zero vitamin D content to, on average, 0.56 ug (micrograms) per 3-ounce serving. This would equal 22.4 IUs of vitamin D. You would have to eat a lot of grass-fed beef daily to obtain even 1000 IUs.
Salmon is a better food-sourced vitamin D option, with 500 IUs in a 3-ounce serving of farmed salmon. Wild-caught salmon contains 1000 IUs, making it the best food for obtaining vitamin D.
What did the RD skip over as vitamin D sources and why?
Interestingly, some food sources and one obvious vitamin D source were not mentioned.
Even though egg yolks have smaller amounts of vitamin D than vitamin D-rich salmon, they contain more than grass-fed beef and should have been mentioned. One CAFO egg yolk can contain 37 IUs of vitamin D. Eggs sourced from pasture-raised chickens can have four times that amount.
If you consume 3 pasture-raised egg yolks for breakfast, you may have consumed 444 IUs of vitamin D.
These pictures were taken yesterday of my 6-day-old chicks. On day 8, I will feed them grit and fresh dandelions with roots and dirt intact. They will get some time outside when the weather warms above 70 degrees F..
Butter and vitamin D
The RD also did not mention grass-fed butter as a vitamin D source.
Interestingly, when I searched for how much vitamin D is in grass-fed butter, I found numerous sources indicating that grass-fed butter contains vitamin D and that butter is a" good source” of vitamin D, but I cannot locate an amount. When I look at the Vital Farms 90% grass-fed butter box, it lists the vitamin D content as zero %. If anyone can find me a source of how much vitamin D is in grass-fed butter, I would appreciate it.
Lastly, why did the RD skip over sun exposure as the best source of vitamin D?
Perhaps she wanted to discuss only food sources, but I was surprised that there was zero mention of sunshine as our primary vitamin D source. Could this be due to the mainstream narrative that encourages less time in the sun?
I have realized that some of the most vital ingredients for our health are not in the food we eat but in the soil beneath our feet (earthing), fresh air, nature, quality water/hydration, and sunshine.
Bottom Line:
Enjoy the warmer weather and reap many benefits from sun exposure. Still, you may need some supplementation. Add wild-caught salmon and pasture-raised eggs for natural food sources.
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I hate that you are having these headache problems and hope you find a solution quickly. Thank you so much for all the content you provide. It's always beneficial and interesting
Hope you find the cause of the headaches. Thanks for sharing your knowledge. I totally agree that the sun is the best source of vitamin D. Strangely, I just watched an interview with Dr. Michael Nehls discussing his book “The Indoctrinated Brain” and he believes that there’s a concerted effort going on to discourage the government and medical community from promotion of vitamin D. That’s pretty scary to me!