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Mercola Says: Vitamin D–Sun or Supplement
by Joseph Mercola, D.O.
Dr. Joseph Mercola
of Mercola.com
As I’ve stated on many occasions, getting your vitamin D from the sun is the absolute best way to optimize your vitamin D level, but there are a number of factors that influence your vitamin D production.
- Weather Conditions: The more clouds there are, the less UV radiation reaches the earth’s surface. However, UV can penetrate cloud cover to some extent, so it is still possible to get sunburned on a cloudy day.
- Latitude and Altitude: Sunlight is, of course, strongest at the equator, where the sunlight comes from directly overhead rather than at an angle; the solar radiation therefore has the shortest distance to travel through the earth’s atmosphere. The UV radiation is about four times as strong at the equator as it is at the Arctic and Antarctic Circles.
- Season: Winter is the time of year when you need to be most concerned about the amount of vitamin D you are receiving, as your vitamin D levels can drop by up to 50 percent during winter months.
- Time of Day: UV levels are at their most intense at noon. This is because when the sun is directly overhead, it has the least distance to travel through the atmosphere before reaching the earth’s surface.
If you choose to use an oral vitamin D supplement be aware that there are basically two types: natural and synthetic. The natural one is D3 (cholecalciferol), which is the same vitamin D your body makes when exposed to sunshine. The synthetic one is vitamin D2, which is sometimes called ergocalciferol. Once either form is in your body, it must be converted to a more active form. Vitamin D3 is converted 500 percent faster than vitamin D2, and is clearly a better alternative.
