As the sun shines on you, learn why you need vitamin D and why it protects you from the sun’s rays.
Many Americans living north of 37 degrees north latitude will soon need to find an alternative source of vitamin D, a vital nutrient.
According to the Mayo Clinic, vitamin D helps the body build and maintain strong bones, and it also supports immune health, muscle function, and brain cell activity.
While vitamin D can be obtained through several types of food, the body can also make its own vitamin D, but it needs the sun to do so. Vitamin D production occurs when direct sunlight converts a chemical found in our skin into the active form of the nutrient, the Mayo Clinic said.
FILE – The sun rises over the mountains as seen from the Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, California, U.S. on September 3, 2022.
(Typhoon Kuskun/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
When the skin does not receive enough sunlight, the body cannot produce enough vitamin D to maintain certain functions.
This vitamin D deficiency is of particular concern for people who live in areas that don’t get much direct sunlight, especially when the seasons change. People who spend a lot of time in the sun during the summer end up deficient in direct sunlight and vitamin D in the fall when the Northern Hemisphere tilts away from the sun.
Researchers say many of us are deficient in vitamin D and don’t know it
The boundary line for having and not having sunlight is around the 37th parallel or 37 degrees north latitude on the map. This horizontal line starts just south of San Francisco, runs along the northern border of the Texas Panhandle and Oklahoma, and then along the northern border of North Carolina.
A map showing the 37th parallel.
(FOX Prediction Center / FOX Weather)
As of fall, people living in cities above the 37th parallel, such as Seattle, Billings, St. Louis, and New York City, do not receive enough direct sunlight to produce enough vitamin D. Because of this, they are at greater risk for vitamin D deficiency, according to Harvard Medical School.
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To combat this deficiency, residents over 37 miles may want to take a vitamin D supplement for the next few months. They won’t receive enough direct sunlight to produce vitamin D until spring, when the Northern Hemisphere tilts toward the sun again.
However, when the abundant sunlight returns, people should use sunscreen to prevent excessive sun damage to their skin.
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