How Long Should You Bask to Get Enough Vitamin D?

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What is the function of vitamin D?
How does sunlight stimulate the body to produce vitamin D?
What affects the amount of vitamin D produced during sunbathing?
1. When exposed to sunlight
2. Skin color
3. Other factors
Who is at risk for vitamin D deficiency?

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Exposed to sun exposure was not as bad as you imagined. Perhaps many assumptions suggest that exposure to the sun's heat can cause skin cancer and various other skin diseases. But do you know that the vitamin D needed by the body comes from the sun 90%?

What is the function of vitamin D?

Vitamin D is one of the fat soluble vitamins that are needed for health, especially bone health. This vitamin, often called sun vitamin, serves to increase calcium absorption which is good for bone health, maintain calcium and phosphorus levels to remain normal, increase bone cell growth, and relieve inflammation when an infection occurs in the body.

According to Harvard University, there are an estimated 1 billion people who are deficient in vitamin D. Other studies have found that vitamin D can also prevent breast cancer, multiple sclerosis, and schizophrenia. From The Archive of Internal Medicine, it is known that people who have low levels of vitamin D have a risk of dying 2 times higher due to various heart diseases. Even research conducted in Canada states that vitamin D deficiency is associated with the incidence of breast cancer in women.

Not only that, studies reported in the Archives of General Psychiatry found a relationship between vitamin D deficiency and increased depression in women and men aged 65 to 95 years. Vitamin D, which is needed on average by the body, is 15 mcg per day and for people over 65 years of age need vitamin D of 25 mcg per day.

How does sunlight stimulate the body to produce vitamin D?

The body is designed to produce vitamin D automatically when the skin is exposed to sunlight. Sunlight contains ultraviolet B (UVB) light. When UV B is exposed to the skin, the skin will form large amounts of vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol). Vitamin D3 is a vitamin from vitamin D which is directly channeled to the liver and kidneys to produce vitamin D needed by the body.

Actually, it doesn't take long to be exposed to sunlight for the skin to form the vitamin D3, even just 15 minutes for people to have white skin. While people who have dark skin types need more time, about 90 minutes. However, you do not need to 'burn' your skin for hours to get vitamin D. Skin that is exposed to sunlight for a short time, can produce the amount of vitamin D the body needs for daily needs.

What affects the amount of vitamin D produced during sunbathing?

Basically, your body can produce 250 mcg to 625 mcg for a short time, depending on the skin color and clothes worn. The more parts of the skin are exposed to sunlight, the more vitamin D is produced by the body. Here are some factors that influence the amount of vitamin D produced:

1. When exposed to sunlight

The time to absorb sunlight is very influential on the amount of vitamin D that the body will produce. When in the morning or evening, the atmosphere usually blocks sunlight so that UV B rays cannot penetrate and are not exposed to the skin. The more afternoon, the more vitamin D is produced. Simply put, the higher the shadow you have, the less vitamin D is produced, and vice versa.

2. Skin color

Melanin is a substance that affects a person's skin color. The more melanin you have, the darker your skin color. The amount of melanin also determines the amount of vitamin D that can be produced by the body. The function of melanin is to protect the skin from damage that can be caused by exposure to too much UVB light, so dark-colored skin contains a lot of melanin and inhibits UVB light from being absorbed by the skin. The slightly absorbed UVB rays cause little vitamin D to be produced. That is why, if you have dark skin, you need more time to be exposed to sunlight so that the body produces vitamin D.

White people may only need 15 minutes in the sun. Whereas people with darker skin need at least 6 times longer than white people.

3. Other factors

Other factors that affect the production of vitamin D derived from sunlight are:

How much body part is exposed to sunlight.
Age. As age increases, the ability to produce vitamin D. decreases
Location. Sunlight actually has better quality if the location is higher. Your skin will easily form vitamin D from sunlight if you are in a mountainous area compared to the beach.
Cloudy weather makes UVB rays unable to hit your skin.
Air pollution can cause UVB rays to reflect and not reach the skin. So if you live in a place that has high air pollution, you could be deficient in vitamin D because air pollution inhibits UVB rays.

Who is at risk for vitamin D deficiency?

Some people may be at risk for vitamin D deficiency because they are not exposed to sunlight, so no vitamin D is formed. These people are:

People who have dark skin. This group needs more UV light to produce vitamin D.
Old or old people who almost spend all their time indoors.
Babies whose mothers experience vitamin D deficiency when pregnant.
Take several drugs that affect the production of vitamin D and calcium.
Groups that do have to avoid sunlight, like people who have a history of skin cancer.

These groups usually need vitamin D supplements to support their daily needs. In addition, groups who are at risk of developing vitamin D deficiency are encouraged to consume various food sources that contain vitamin D such as milk, fatty fish in tuna and salmon, beef liver, egg yolks, and cereals.