Vita Min

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Whats a Vitamin D Deficiency?

Sun is harmless if you take it's gifts wisely

In this article I'll try to consentrate on basic tips wich you must know before going for sunbathing. If you find theme urgent - please visit my blog for more information all types of tanning.

Want some outdoor tanning tips for maintaining healthy skin during outdoor activities? Well, there’s really nothing like the feeling of the sun caressing your skin as you bask in the warmth of its rays….

It’s no wonder that outdoor tanning continues to remain a popular form of relaxation and rejuvenation to millions of people around the world.

Outdoor tanning not only gives you the unparalleled sensation of soaking in natural sunlight, but when done properly leaves you with an attractive glow and replenishment.

By facilitating the body’s production of Vitamin D, outdoor tanning can be a tremendous benefit to preserving youthful skin long into life.

And if you’re among the many who always anxiously watch your local weather forecast to determine the sunniest day for outdoor activity, pay heed to these outdoor tanning tips….

1) Have the necessary products like sunscreen and suntan lotion that can help boost your tan while also guarding against your skin from being dehydrated. Dehydrated skin can easily lead to dry, wrinkled skin…

2) Make sure your outdoor tanning products contain broad spectrum protection and a nonacnegenic element to keep your pores clear. (Some pores may be enlarged in the process of sun tanning.)

3) Remember that in outdoor tanning you cannot control the UV intensity of the sunlight, so plan appropriately to take breaks and reapply protective lotion.

4) The sun is strongest between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM, which produces intense rays especially during the hot summer months. Avoid such timings outdoor as far as possible.

5) Understand that medications such as prescription acne medications or birth control pills can affect your outdoor tanning results due to body sensitivity….hence, you may want to opt for self tanners, salon tanning treatments or otherwise request a switch of medications from your physicians.

Try to keep these outdoor tanning tips in mind and always be extra demanding in your selection of any outdoor products.

Note: It is important that you change your expose angle of your body profile regularly. For example - if you have an average skin darkness (like I do :) ) it's advisable that you turn over every 30 min. So after two hours of sunbathing you would expose 2 x 30 min of your rear side of your body and 2 x 30 min of your back side. Just remember that face and belly burns much faster then legs and back.
And one more thing - never try to determinate your tan level during sunbathing because first redness appears about 30min after exposure to the Sun.

You can find more outdoor taning tips here

About the Author

I know everything about tanning and sunbathing:)

tanning bed vs. sunlight--vita D?

Do most tanning beds (typically emitting about 90 to 95% UVA rays) offer enough or any production of vitamin D in the body?

A friend works the night shift and never sees the sun. He was curious if he went in the tanning bed 5 min a few times per week (to decrease skin damage risks) if this would improve the vitamin D production for his body (and also just psychologically make him feel better with this light)???

I'm not sure if a typical tanning bed has enough UVB rays to have this kind of positive effect though? So any explanations about this?? (he doesn't want to take supplements btw)

Good question!

The higher the UVB content the better the synthesis of Vitamin D is.

To answer your question,.. yes all tanning beds will create synthesis of Vitamin D, and mood improvement.

Though as I suspect you know,.. you want UVB rays, and tanning beds are more UVA than UVB, due to wavelength, burn vs tan etc.

With that said, there is enough UVB to stimulate more than enough Vitamin D.

I would recommend he do this tanning for health. I suggest he start with 3-5 minutes (whatever is the lowest) -- and do it AT LEAST 3 times a week.. As he notices his skin change darker (even a little bit).. it would be advised he slightly up the time due to the pigment filtering the rays.. but don't work up to 15mins x 3 etc.. keeping the times short will keep the health benefits high and risks low.

I would like to see 3-5minutes 5 days a week actually.. A few minutes isn't going to harm him.. the negative effects of tanning beds are from people who do 15-20-25+ minutes nearly every day of the week .. more importantly, for years on end. With this, the skin never gets a chance to heal itself.. is constantly damaged etc.

I would recommend that he add in 1000 IU's of vitamin D3 per day. Though you said he didn't want to supplement,.. It is very safe, and cheap.

If it makes him feel better, he could get some "One a Day" vitamins that have about 400IU of Vitamin D,.. and the other major vitamins for overall health.

Vitamin D works a little differently than some may think. We synthesize it from the UV rays, as you know.. but it is stored to be used for months on end. It is stored like this in our Liver.

If we are not deficient but have ample, high stores of vitamin D going into the winter -- we should not get SAD, or any health effects from the lack of UVB depending on the angle of the earth to the sun.

If your friend lives below about 37 degrees north lattitude -- then getting out in sunlight , natural, even a few minutes daily will also help (if possible).

Alot of people think in the winter, in the cold, it won't work. If you are below this lattitude it WILL and DOES. Figuring out how to get sunlight and deal with the cold is tricky, but helpful.

Tanning beds are sort of like a convenient method and a big dose in a short time period.

Our skin can produce ten's of thousands of IU's of Vitamin D in mere minutes.. and we can never 'over produce' with the UV synthesis.

The sun has UVA-UVB- and UVC .. all we really need (that is thought) are UVB.. though coincidentally the UVA rays are unwanted from the Sun year-round but tanning beds utilize high ratios of UVA's.. go figure.

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Addendum: I read pooh's answer -- and I just wanted to back up my claim that the beds do stimulate vitamin D, and that the first answer from Pooh is misinformation. No offense.

It has been studied: As is shown here:

Studies done by Decastro et al. report that exposure of the body’s surface to either direct sunlight or tanning bed radiation was effective in increasing blood concentrations of Vitamin D. In a study done by Decastro et al., the objective was to prove that tanners have a higher vitamin D concentration than those who do not usually use a tanning bed, and the results showed that not only were the levels of Vitamin D higher, but the bone mineral density was also significantly higher, which benefits the skeleton in numerous ways, such as decreasing the risk for osteoporosis. This same experiment showed that the prevalence of Vitamin D deficiency in the winter was significantly lower in the tanners (8%) than the non-tanners (41.5%) From this study, the researchers concluded that a “moderate” use of tanning beds may also provide some medical health benefit. This benefit would be due to the growing amount evidence that having a higher concentration of vitamin D may reduce the risk of colon, breast, and prostate cancers, hypertensions, and autoimmune diseases (Decastro, 2004).