You may wonder what sunscreen has to do with osteopenia.   Perhaps, like me, you didn’t realize that suncreen prevents Vitamin D from forming on your skin.  As the action of the sun on the skin is our best way for getting
vitamin D for healthy bones, this is a big concern for us.

Please consider the reason for our concern.  Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin that is extremely important in preventing or healing osteopenia. When ultraviolet rays from the sun touch your skin,  they trigger synthesis
of Vitamin D.  However, sunscreen prevents that action from happening.

Vitamin D regulates both the calcium and phosphorous levels in the blood
by enabling their absorption from food. Your body is unable to absorb
calcium from your digestive system into the blood stream without
adequate Vitamin D.

As Vitamin D promotes bone growth and health,  a deficiency of Vitamin D
can lead to bone softening.   Known for preventing rickets in children it also
works with calcium to protect adults from osteopenia and osteoporosis.  Without Vitamin D, bones  become brittle, porous, thin and misshapen.

As an aside, we are seeing an increasing amount of osteopenia and rickets
among young children (a tell-tale symptom is bow-leggedness) . How can
this be when we are drinking Vitamin D fortified milk? The answer comes
from what seems to be a little known secret:  There are two forms of
Vitamin D. Vitamin D2 is a synthetic form ( a copy of the original
produced in the laboratory) and Vitamin D3 is the natural form, which
your body needs. And the kind found in milk is not the natural form.

A second problem is that Vitamin D can only be absorbed in the
presence of fat.  Are you or your children drinking fat-free milk? Then,
how do we get Vitamin D3? It is still possible to get ample Vitamin D3
from the sun by spending at least 15-30 minutes in the sun each day
without sunscreen (unless you are taking cholesterol lowering
medications- see below).   Of course, it is best to avoid the hottest time
of the day as well as overexposure. (Peak hours are generally considered from noon to 3 p.m.) It is better to have two shorter exposures than one
long one.

There is an irony here. Since just being outside in the sun is a way to
get Vitamin D3, we should easily be getting lots of it. But, again,several
factors can prevent that. First, since the invention of sunscreen, many
are woefully lacking in Vitamin D because it is produced in your body
only by the action of the sun on cholesterol in the skin.

If you have used sunscreen and also have a dangerously low cholesterol
level of 100 to 150, you are almost guaranteed to be low in Vitamin D.
Then your bones will be unable to utilize calcium. Second, an often
neglected fact about Vitamin D from sunshine is that the action of the
sun on the cholesterol in the skin needs to continue for about 30 minutes
after exposure before washing the skin.

A few decades ago,  it was very rare for a child to have a broken bone.
In the summer, we spent most of our days outside in the sun, and a
surprising amount of us were given one terrible tasting tablespoonful
of Cod Liver Oil daily during the winter months. My mother would say
that Cod Liver Oil was “cheaper than doctor bills”.   (No one  had health
insurance those days.)

Today, it is possible to get lemon flavored Cod Liver Oil and no taste
test is necessary to decide which is better tasting! If you have been
diagnosed with Osteopenia,  you will be greatly helped by taking Cod
Liver Oil- a natural source of Vitamin D.

It is also possible now to purchase Vitamin D3 in 5000 IU capsules.
For a reliable source of that  natural vitamin click the link below to
get  Puritan Pride.

Tag  Osteopenia, Vitamin D3, Suncreen,

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