Sunshine Vitamin & Black People: The Power Of Vitamin D (ePub)

Men of African-American descent are at a significantly higher risk of developing prostate cancer than white men. There are reasons why more black people are dying of prostate cancer. Vitamin D. The deficiency of it. Black people need the sun more than white folks. It takes less time under the sun for a white skin to manufacture all the needed vitamin D. It requires more time for the dark skin to warm up and even more time to start manufacturing vitamin D. Black folks tend to shy away from the sun because the sun will make them "darker." That is a bad strategy.
When you walk through a park in the summer you see sunbathers.
I don't know about you but these sunbathers are mostly white folks who need the sun far less than black folks.

Ordinarily, the people that are mostly in need of sunbathing while partially naked are the black skinned people. This is because dark skin need the intense sunlight the most. Black skin is a marvel. It is black for a reason. It evolved to be black so as to be able tap into the Sun and get those properties that will give you long life, full of health, stronger and biologically efficient.

The white skin needs the Sun but not that much. More than fifteen minutes in the Sun without sunscreen and they will get burns and ultimately peels. Black folks need it far more and they don't get scorched in fifteen minutes even without sunscreen.

But some Africans and other diaspora Africans avoid the Sun. Is it not ironic that while some black folks are lightening up, some white folks are darkening down? They call it tanning and it does not come cheap either.

People of African descent, living in cold climate, can have a natural Sun protection factor (SPF) of up to 13 as compared to 3-4 for whites. For equatorial and other hot weather blacks, it is even better. This advantage for African Americans and black immigrants, can also be a disadvantage. It is a double edged sword for black people not living in equatorial climate. You just need to have proper information with which to turn the disadvantage into an advantage.

Vitamin D is getting a lot of attention lately even in medical circles. Many people are having their vitamin D levels tested and are surprised to find out that they are low in this essential hormone.


What exactly is Vitamin D and why should you care about your Vitamin D levels? How does sunscreen use, contribute to deficiency in this important vitamin, and what can we do to remedy the deficiency?