Especially if you have dark skin and live in the North you should read this more urgently, but everybody need what I am talking about below.
I wrote this article just weeks before the Pandemic (December 2019) and now it is even more relevant because it is also related to the gravity of the covid disease. If you do your research you’ll check it out.
The lack of vitamin D as well as having a dark skin complexion increases greatly the chances of getting the disease and the gravity of its symptoms. What you’ll read below is what I wrote last December as a result of my own research to find out solutions for other health problems as the covid was not yet known.
You may or you may not have heard about this but living in Canada with dark skin has health risks that not many people know about.
The pigmentation of the skin (melanin) is a filter that in sunny countries and with less clothing would be protective you from too much of the UV (ultraviolet) rays. So dark-skinned people (DSP) has a natural protection from the excess sunlight.
On the other hand all human beings need a vitamin that is normally produced on the skin through the exposure to some of those rays (the UVB) and so thr melanin that protects your skin prevents you from making vitamin D as easily as the paled skinned people.
That would be OK if you didn’t live in Canada and stay the winters here.
Living in a country like this one is a cause of vitamin D deficiency already prevalent among almost everybody but even more for DSPs.
In most tropical countries the traditional cultures such as Sub-Saharian Africans, indigenous Latinamerican in hot places, and South-Asians have had allowed the use of very little clothing protection from the sun and people were very healthy and robust with beautiful teeth and good bone structure.
The exposure to the sun of the bare skin in the tropical countries was enough to make the vitamin D necessary for healthy physical development.
Then two fundamental health problems (with hundreds of subsequent health conditions) happened with the advent of the European domination and the “Westernization” of the lifestyle, the first one is the depletion of many other nutrients that are missing in the deleterious Standard American Diet and the second one is the clothing that prevents the optimal production of vitamin D.
The traditional cuisine in all countries is much healthier than the one that has been influenced by the food industry and the convenient foods with the processing and cheaper production.
On the other hand, most populations that developed for thousands of years in Northern areas such as Europe and Canada adapted to the lack of sunlight through a paler skin, which helps them make more vitamin D.
What about the Inuits, which have dark skin but live in the North?
They had succeeded to remain healthy while for thousands of years they were eating their traditional way, which provides sources of vitamin D and other nutrients. Once the Inuits started eating the “Westernized way” they got all the physical and mental health problems they have developed, including alcoholism and diabetes.
Many researchers had made already the link between the traditional and less processed foods and health but very few had thought that the way we dress can have such an important impact. That being said, you can use your logic to see how this makes sense.
So, pale skinned people need less sun exposure to get vitamin D, but even then, everybody needs supplemental vitamin D during the “cold seasons” anyways.
During the cold seasons, the sunlight comes from a lower angle from the summit and the sunlight doesn’t have the UVB rays we need to make the vitamin D.
Dark skinned people need even more sunlight to increase the vitamin D levels and higher supplementation. For those who can travel to tropical areas during the winter and expose the bare skin to the sun that’s an amazing option but not very realistic for most people.
The other two options are: going to a tanning bed (I know that sounds weird and you may appear crazy but it’s the second best option) and the third and most realistic and convenient that is taking a supplement of vitamin D, which is affordable. I personally do both).
What happens when we don’t get enough vitamin D (and as I said, dark skinned people are much more at risk)?
Do your web research instead of just believing blindly in what I said but here you’ll have a hint.
The insufficient vitamin D levels are associated tooth decay, osteoporosis, diabetes, prostate cancer, breast cancer, depression, seasonal mood disorder, fibromyalgia, lupus, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, weak immune system, respiratory infections, ovarian cancer, cataracts, lung cancer, macular degeneration, rheumatoid arthritis, acne, asthma, COPD, myasthenia gravis, eczema, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, chronic hives and many more.
You can verify this by doing a web research as I said before, and look for the name of any of these conditions and the term vitamin D, for example: “fibromyalgia vitamin D” or “prostate cancer vitamin D” or “vitamin D covid”. You’ll find studies on each subject.
Before leaving this article you need to know that even if you can find easily the link lack vitamin D and all kinds of conditions and diseases, you’ll also find that most studies say the supplementation doesn’t give the results we expect.
What they don’t say is that the dosages used for those studies are too low to get significant outcomes.
Most supplements come with capsules of drops of 1000 IU of vitamin D.
I take at least 30000 IU per day and I have taken much more for months but I don’t have the right to tell how much to take because of the corrupted medical system prevents me to make claims.
That being said I can provide you with more detailed information about the different studies and approaches to find out what you individual optimal dose is.
In the meantime, I’ll give you a link for one of the products I’ve used in the past as I’m negotiating for having an even better product in the near future.
Mario Quesada 