With summer in full swing now and the UV index higher than ever, it is so important to prepare your largest organ for sun exposure. Feeding your skin the right nutrients is crucial to getting safe sun exposure, and you may be missing out on the natural, internal sunscreen benefits of D3.
Many experts claim vitamin D3 as the preferred form of vitamin D given that it is naturally produced in the body and found in most foods that naturally contain the vitamin.
There are a wide range of health benefits from getting healthy, non-burning sun exposure. You can increase vitamin D3 in your body from being in the sun or eating fatty fish, liver, and egg yolks. However, many people struggle to get enough from fortified foods, so it is helpful if you can take it as a supplement. If you do purchase supplements, make sure you aren’t taking more than a recommended dosage, which is typically around 600 IU daily (unless told otherwise by your doctor).
Beyond the benefits of sun exposure with D3, it can offer immunity advantages as well, such as reducing risk of many diseases and improving recovery time. Vitamin D generally poses no threat to health (when taken correctly) and can reduce inflammation as well as both build immunity and control infections by regulating the activity of immune cells and triggering antiviral responses. Further, studies have shown that taking vitamin D can slow cancer cell growth and can help treatment of multiple sclerosis.
Having a deficiency in vitamin D3 can put you at risk of infection and autoimmune diseases as well as lead to rickets in children and osteomalacia in adults, which cause skeletal deformations and weak, softened bones.
So – the moral of the story is to get your vitamin D3 and reap the benefits this summer!