Do you have any idea how much sun your body needs? How do you know when it is too much or too little? Excessive sun exposure may cause skin cancer, while too little may cause a deficiency in Vitamin D, the nutrient that helps boost your immune system and protects you from many types of diseases. But, with this in mind, how do you know when you’re getting enough sun?
To have a better understanding, it is important to note that the rules for getting the right amount of sun exposure are not absolute. This is because everyone has a different response to sunlight. The duration of sun exposure that may be good for me, may not necessarily be good for you.
Factors that Determine How Long You Should Stay in the Sun
Dr. Joseph Mercola, a nutrition expert, says that skin color, amount of time spent in the sun, location, time of the day, and season affect how your body responds to the sun. Let’s discuss them in detail:
• Skin Color – Caucasians and fair-skinned people may tan easily and may produce Vitamin D many times faster than those with dark skin. Dark-skinned people may need as much as ten times more sun exposure to produce similar Vitamin D levels as those with fair skin.
• Amount of Time Spent in the Sun – Dr. Mercola advises to tan for a few minutes (10 to 15 minutes) or until such time that the skin turns a shade of pink since this is the minimal redness required that produces Vitamin D in the skin. Going beyond that will not cause an increase in Vitamin D production.
• Location – Sunlight varies from place to place. A person’s distance from the equator affects how much he should tan. For example, a pale-skinned person who lives in North America (which is far from the equator) would probably have to go out in the midday sun for three 20-minute tanning sessions every week to get darker. A dark-skinned person would probably need to stay outside longer.
• Time of the Day – Peak times of the sun’s ultraviolet light are in the middle of the day. During this period, a person’s skin makes the most Vitamin D when exposed to the sun and gets easily darker. It is also the time when the skin is most easily damaged. Meanwhile, off-peak hours of the sun’s UV are before 12 pm and after 3pm. This period would require a person to sunbathe longer in order to get sufficient levels of Vitamin D. You will enjoy sunbathing more at this time.
• Season – The amount of sunlight changes at different times of the year. During the start or end of summer when the sun is significantly lower in the sky, longer tanning sessions would be needed to produce more Vitamin D in the skin.
Other elements like the person’s age, the amount of melanin in the skin, weather conditions like cloud cover and pollution, elevation, use of sunscreen and clothing also have an influence on the kind of sunlight that you get.
Find out Your Own Sunlight Requirements for Optimal Tanning
To know how long you should stay in the sun, you will have to determine the sunlight factors mentioned here and assess your own needs so you can effectively tan while avoiding sunburn.
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