Forecast Grim for Indoor Dwellers

The evidence keeps piling up regarding why – despite your dermatologist’s advice – you might want to take your lunch outside.

While there has been an onslaught of stories in the media telling of the dangers of sun exposure, there are also dangers associated with a lack of sun exposure as well.

According to medical researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts, there appears to be a correlation between how much vitamin D someone has in their body and their risk of suffering a heart attack. In fact, those deficient in the vitamin that sun exposure naturally produces in the body are at double the risk of suffering a heart attack.

Researchers discovered this after looking at approximately 18,200 men who were involved in a much larger, unrelated study. These men and the others that participated all submitted blood samples at the study’s outset, which was back in the mid 1990s. Approximately 10 years after the participants submitted their blood samples, the researchers followed up on the health conditions of the 18,225 men. Among other things, they found that 454 men had suffered heart attacks in the intervening 10 years. When they compared the more current blood samples of the men who suffered heart attacks with a segment of the men who had not suffered a heart attack, they found a particularly noteworthy finding: The men whose vitamin D levels were below 15 nanograms per milliliter of blood had more than twice the risk of suffering a heart attack as those whose vitamin D levels were higher. This risk did not change when experts controlled for other possible contributing factors. The study is published in the journal Archives of
Internal Medicine.

Experts say that vitamin D levels ought to be in the 50 to 60 nanograms per milliliter range, but this range is not typical among the majority of Americans. In short, Americans – by and large – are deficient in vitamin D.

What explains the deficiency? Experts believe it’s largely due to Americans’ indoor lifestyles, where work is typically indoors (desk jobs, retail clerks, factory workers), entertainment options are held under rooftops (computers, television, reading, video games, movies) and fine dining equals chandeliers and fine carpeting, not fresh air and green grass.

While it is true, over exposure to the sun increases the chances of skin cancer, regular exposure to the sun – without absurdly high SPF sun screens slathered on the skin – is going to do a world of good. You should be aiming for at least 20 minutes of direct sun exposure every day.

The current recommended guidelines for vitamin D blood levels is 30 nanograms per milliliter. But as aforementioned, these and other researchers advise that the recommended levels be increased, especially considering their findings that men with levels just below 30 nanograms were also at an elevated risk for heart attacks.

Dermatologists may scoff at the suggestion of increased sun exposure, but to these researchers – and yours truly – sun exposure is essential to maintaining healthy vitamin D levels.