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[music] Hello, I’m Dr. Neal Schultz
[pause]
and welcome to DermTV.
In order to be healthy you need to get enough of all of the vitamins
everyday and one vitamin in particular, Vitamin D, is actually made by the
body when the sun hits your skin. (I know, it’s the first time I have said
the sun does something good for your body.) However, there has been a lot
written in the press lately sensationalizing the potential risk of
sunscreen causing Vitamin D deficiency because sunscreens today so
effectively block UVB rays of the sun, and it is those UVB rays that enable
the body to make the Vitamin D.
In reality, you only need a few minutes of unprotected sun exposure to make
enough Vitamin D everyday, and despite your best intentions of using
sunscreen properly and using it effectively, it is still not going to be
perfect and a certain amount of sun is going to get through the sunscreen,
get around the sunscreen, and thereby enable your body to make natural
Vitamin D anyway.
Having said that, if you are still concerned that you do not have enough
Vitamin D either because you’re using sunscreen or probably because you are
indoors all day, it is very easy to get a simple Vitamin D blood test from
your doctor to find out whether or not you have enough. Alternatively, you
can eat foods that are rich in Vitamin D like certain fish, vegetables, and
fortified cereals or take Vitamin D pills everyday.
But don’t risk sun damage in the form of wrinkles and skin cancer by not
using sunscreen just because you are trying to get more natural Vitamin D.
It just doesn’t make sense and you probably have enough Vitamin D anyway.