Thread: Sunshine is healthy

Fair-skinned people need only 15 mins in the sun to produce enough vitamin D to keep their bones healthy and reduce certain cancers, an Australian study has found. Sunlight is our main source of vitamin D and the studies shows levels of the vitamin to be falling as people spend more time indoors. Researches agree people should stay out of the sun at midday but 10 to 15 mins of unprotected of sun exposure on the face, arms, and hands before10 am or after 3 pm three or four times a week will give fair-skinned people enough vitamin D without damaging skin.
Dark-skinned people may need up to six times as much sunlight to produce the same levels of the vitamin. Low levels of the vitamin D have been linked to osteoporosis, rickets in children, diabetes, bowel cancer, and lymphoma. Only about 10 % of our vitamin D intake comes from food such as oily fish but supplements are available.