20 SPF or 1000 SPF? If you care about Vitamin D the first choice might be better

Are you a sunscreen fanatic? With my bleach white skin, the product of too many hours under fluorescent bulbs at work, require immediate protection from the sun when I’m diving. I recall a question I got once while returning from a dive on a boat, “Lewis, are your cheeks naturally red?”. Well, “no” I said and immediately took a lotion bath with the SPF 50 sunscreen that I brought.

What I learned while reading the June issue of National Geographic Adventurer is that I could be robbing my body of much needed Vitamin D.

According to Kate Rope “three out of four Americans today aren’t getting enough vitamin D, and the ramifications could be severe”. What does vitamin D do for you? “Vitamin D aids calcium absorption, keeps us agile as we age, and may fend off colds.”

So how much is enough and how much is too much?

Well, Rope tells us that “3 to 10 minutes of sun exposure with 40% of your skin bared, twice a week during the summer, is enough to get almost a year’s worth of D.” Now before you go running out to jump in the Sun we are given the warning that “any longer than that, apply sunscreen.”

So how does all this work?

Well, Rope tells us that “the UV triggers a form of cholesterol in our skin that is converted into D in our kidneys.”

All of this news comes packed with the constant caution that everything must be taken in moderation. I can understand that I could probably back my typical 50 – 70 SPF sunscreen down to about 30 or 40 to let a little more sunlight in but I guarantee that anything more than 10 or 15 minutes in the sun without sunscreen and I could answer the question “Is that red normal?” with a cry of pain!

You can read the entire National Geographic Adventurer article here: The Sun Rx.

Do you wear sunscreen when you dive? What about when you are just hanging out on the beach?