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Hello! I am Dr. Neal Schultz and welcome to DermTV. In order to be healthy, you need to get enough of all of the vitamins every day and one vitamin in particular, Vitamin D is actually made by the body when the sun hits your skin. And I know it's the first time you've heard me say, the sun does something good for your body.
However, there has been a lot written in the press recently, sensationalizing the potential risk of sunscreen causing Vitamin D deficiency, because sunscreens today so effectively block UVB rays of the sun, and it's those UVB rays that enable the body to make the Vitamin D.
In reality, you only need a few minutes of unprotected sun exposure to make enough Vitamin D everyday, and despite your best intentions of using sunscreen properly and using it effectively, it's still not going to be perfect and a certain amount of sun is going to get through the sunscreen, get around the sunscreen, and thereby enable your body to make natural Vitamin D anyway.
Having said that, if you're still concerned that you don't have enough Vitamin D, either because you're using sunscreen or more probably because you are indoors all day, it's very easy to get a simple Vitamin D blood test from your doctor and find out whether or not you have enough. Alternatively, you can eat foods that are rich in Vitamin D like certain fish, vegetables, and fortified cereals or just take Vitamin D pills everyday.
But don't risk sun damage in the form of wrinkles and skin cancer by not using sunscreen just because you're trying to get more natural Vitamin D. It just doesn't make sense and you probably have enough Vitamin D anyway. Please join me again at DermTV.com. If you have a question, please send it to me by visiting dermtv.com/question. I am Dr. Neal Schultz and thank you for watching today.
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