Terry Women's Cycling

Recently, the news has been full of stories about the need to get 15 minutes of sunshine for Vitamin D. Too little Vitamin D and you can have health problems. Apparently sunscreen prevents the sunshine from having the necessary effect. Does anyone know how much skin has to be exposed for 15 minutes? A few square centimeters? Many square centimeters?

If anyone knows the answer, I'd love to know, too. I Googled it, but found nothing except discussions of trade-offs of protecting skin from too much sun versus not getting enough sun.

I attended a continuing education class last year for nursing and there was a discussion about vitamin D, we were told 15 minutes of any direct sunlight is enough. No need to run around naked or let yourself burn, your face and other normally exposed areas are enough to absorb what is needed. Those who live in extreme northern areas are usually the only ones who need to take supplements for too little exposure.
Hope that helps a little.
Julie

Hi
Yes its true we get vitamin d from sunshine but excess of it will not be good to our health.I also attended nursing classes 15 minutes is more then enough.Don't misunderstand and prefer direct sun rays at afternoon time that rays of sun are very hot and unbearable you will feel like you are burning don't do that.For vitamin D you can stay in sunshine at early morning or before 10am.

I've also read a tip that says you should start out on a bike ride sans sunscreen and then put it on 15 minutes into the ride.

I've heard that the 15 minute guideline is for fair skinned people of European descent. If you are dark skinned you'll need a lot more because you'll have melatonin blocking the uv rays. I've also heard that if you live in the northern hemisphere, any sunlight you get between October and March is not useful for vitamin D production because the specific uv wavelength needed isn't present in great enough quantities. I don't know if that's true, but even when a chinook is blowing, I'm not inclined to sit out in the garden sunbathing in February.
At my last annual physical, my doctor told me to start taking 2000 i.u. of vitamin D per day. Sounds like a lot, but I guess the old recommendation of 400 was just the bare minimum to prevent rickets in children.