Everything on Earth would die without the sun, yet in 2023 people are more scared of sunshine than covid 19. People think going out in the sun will give you cancer, and so to prevent that, they rub white creams full of cancer causing chemicals into their skin, which doesn’t make a lot of sense if you ask me.

The U Shaped Curve

As I was reminded often by friends and family during Covid-19, I’m not a scientist or doctor. I am but a guy who likes to read and notice things. A casual observation I’ve made is that most people who get skin cancer are white women who wore a lot of sunscreen after having a tanning phase in the 1980s or 1990s.

The chart above illustrates the U shaped Curve. This curve applies to a lot of things, like food, exercise, vitamins and minerals, and drugdosages. For example: If you get too little Vitamin A or too much you are harmed either way. There is an ideal dosage that a person needs.

When it comes to the sun, I have a hunch it works the same way. If you’re the type of person that goes to the tanning salon and gets burnt a few times a year, or goes to the beach and lays out until you blister then you’re probably not approaching sun exposure in a healthy way. If you slather your skin in xeno-estrogens, cover yourself in plastic fabric and block your body from making vitamin D, that’s probably not good either.

Stuff Sunshine Does:

Boosts mood, improves sleep, enhances collagen production, creates cancer fighting Vitamin D, regulates hormone levels and enhances sex hormone production, enhances immune function, kills pathogens like fungus, bacteria, and viruses, sets circadian rhythms.

It’s easy to see that without sun exposure health will suffer.

How Much Sun Is Enough? How Much Is Too Much?

The first steps to figuring out this answer for you are to use an app called DMinder. This app will help you determine your Fitzpatrick Skin Type and will allow you to estimate your current vitamin D level. The best thing to do is to get your vitamin D level tested. You should also learn what is known about healthy vitamin D levels .

In my research phase I learned that doctors aren’t sure what level is ideal. They believe 12-20ng/ml in the blood is adequate or possibly inadequate. Some suggest 20-40. Personally I know people that have taken big doses for long periods and been fine. I also read several papers that found people with toxicity symptoms with blood levels of 400 ng/ml or higher. I decided to target 80ng/ml for myself. Based on my skin type and weight, I need about 15,000ius per day through sun or vitamin D supplementation.

Where I live, it’s very difficult to get 15,000 IUs per day from the sun, I typically aim for 30-60 min of full body sun exposure per day and still wind up supplementing with 5,000 ius fairly often.

The best thing to do is to make sure you don’t burn and to get at least some sun every day, as much as you can tolerate. The next best thing is to test your vitamin D levels once or twice a year to make sure you haven’t overcooked yourself.

So in conclusion, sun is good, hiding from sun is bad, slathering oneself in cancer causing endocrine disruptors to block out the benefits of the sun is – pardon the pun – not too bright.