Can Sunshine Improve your Mood?

I’ve been feeling quite depressed recently and I’m sure this is linked to the awful Great British Summer weather we’ve been having. Rain, damp, cold and fog! Welcome to July in the North east of England! I long for the feel of the sun on my skin and would drop everything tomorrow to jet to warmer climes – If Only!

But does sunshine really make you happy, and if so why? UVB sunlight is the most effective, most reliable, most abundant (although not so much in England!) and most natural source of Vitamin D. Vitamin D sufficiency, along with diet and exercise, has emerged as one of the most important preventive factors in human health. Hundreds of studies now link vitamin D deficiency with significantly higher rates of many forms of cancer‚ as well as heart disease‚ osteoporosis‚ multiple sclerosis and many other conditions and diseases.

Vitamin D promotes Calcium absorption in the gut, and as I’m sure you know calcium is extremely important for bone growth and bone remodelling by osteoblasts and osteoclasts. With a deficiency of Vitamin D bones can become thin, brittle or misshapen and eventually lead to osteoporosis in adults and in children can cause rickets.

• Humans make 90 percent of our vitamin D naturally from sunlight exposure to our skin – specifically, from ultraviolet B exposure to the skin, which naturally initiates the conversion of cholesterol in the skin to vitamin D3
• There are very few foods which naturally contain vitamin D, It is added to some supermarket food types and can be taken as a supplement. Foods which contain some Natural Vitamin D are Fatty fish such as tuna, mackerel, salmon and swordfish. Small amounts of vitamin D are found in beef liver, cheese, and egg yolks and some mushrooms such as shitake variety can be a source of Vitamin D; however, skin's exposure to the sun makes thousands of units of vitamin D naturally in a relatively short period of time.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), also known as winter depression or winter blues is a mood disorder in which people experience depressive symptoms in the winter. Symptoms of SAD may consist of difficulty waking up in the morning, morning sickness, tendency to oversleep as well as to over eat, and especially a craving for carbohydrates, which leads to weight gain. Other symptoms include a lack of energy, difficulty concentrating on completing tasks, and withdrawal from friends, family, and social activities. All of this leads to the depression. Whilst overexposure to the sun carries risks; premature skin aging, pigmentation (sunspots, dark spots) and in extreme cases skin cancer, you can safely use the skin to improve your mood.

Ample opportunities exist to form vitamin D (and store it in the liver and fat) from exposure to sunlight during the spring, summer, and fall months even in the far north latitudes.rnComplete cloud cover reduces UV energy by 50%; UVB radiation does not penetrate glass, so exposure to sunshine indoors through a window does not produce vitamin D. Sunscreens with a sun protection factor (SPF) of 8 or more appear to block vitamin D-producing UV rays, although in practice people generally do not apply sufficient amounts, cover all sun-exposed skin, or reapply sunscreen regularly. Therefore, skin likely synthesizes some vitamin D even when it is protected by sunscreen as typically applied.

As with most things in life, moderation is the key. "Aim for approximately 15 minutes of unprotected sun exposure three times a week to benefit from Vitamin D production" – USA TODAY. Then protect your skin with an effective sunscreen.