Why you probably can’t get Vitamin D from the sun in the winter, and what you can do about it!

Why you probably can’t get Vitamin D from the sun in the winter, and what you can do about it!

(Blog post headlines are very limited in the information they can give. So, therefore, I urge you to read until the end).

So many of us are deficient in Vitamin D, often due to the lack of strong enough sunlight in the wintertime. But did you know, even those in more southern climates are also at risk for Vitamin D deficiency? This is because people are inside much of their daylight hours and do not soak in enough sunshine regularly to have enough of it in their bodies.

First of all, what is Vitamin D, why do we need it, and how do we get it?

Vitamin D was discovered when doctors and researchers were trying to figure out a treatment for rickets, which is a skeletal disorder especially in children that is characterized by delayed growth, pain in spine, pelvic, and leg bones, muscle weakness, and soft and brittle bones. This disorder was detailed by Francis Glisson in 1650, and even known as far back as in antiquity. By 1824, cod liver oil was prescribed by doctors for the treatment of rickets.

It wasn’t until 1906 that it was thought that there were certain essential dietary constituents needed in the prevention of rickets, as well as other conditions, like scurvy. Often it was thought to be that fresh air and sunshine could prevent rickets, but it wasn’t until 1921 that Hess and Unger noticed that seasonal changes in sunlight impacted the incidence of rickets, as well as a team at Vienna University in 1922 observed in their work with children that sunshine, as well as whole milk and cod live