• Review Login
  • Work with Dr. Ruscio
  • Home
  • About
  • Podcast
  • Store
  • Contact
  • Review Login
  • Work with Dr. Ruscio
  • Digestion &
    Gut Health
  • Gut-Thyroid
    Connection
  • Your Gut &
    Autoimmunity
  • Healthy Gut
    Diet & Lifestyle




Dr. Michael Ruscio, DC

Digestion, Thyroid, and Functional Medicine Doctor

  • Digestion &
    Gut Health
  • Gut-Thyroid
    Connection
  • Your Gut &
    Autoimmunity
  • Healthy Gut
    Diet & Lifestyle
Get Dr. Ruscio's long-awaited
book, Healthy Gut, Healthy You!

Learn more

Get Dr. Ruscio's long awaited

book, Healthy Gut, Healthy You!

Learn more
You are here: Home / Autoimmunity / Blood Pressure, Vitamin D, and the Sun

Blood Pressure, Vitamin D, and the Sun

February 13, 2017 by Dr. Ruscio 2 Comments Category: Autoimmunity, Diet & Lifestyle

Like most people, you’ve probably heard that Vitamin D is essential for your health. You may have also heard that overexposure can be harmful.  Lets discuss how Vitamin D can help to lower blood pressure and may actually protect against many forms of cancer.

If you need help with the beneficial effects of vitamin D, click here.

Sun Exposure and Vitamin D

Dr. Michael Ruscio: Hi, this is Dr. Ruscio. And if you’re like most people, you’ve probably heard something about the beneficial effects of vitamin D. And you’ve also probably heard that overexposure to the sun may put you at risk for skin cancer.

So you may be supplementing with vitamin D so as to get your vitamin D and not put yourself at risk for skin cancer. And if you’re doing this, you may not be deriving nearly the health benefit that you’ve been led to believe.

Now, allow me to explain a few things. We know through population-wide studies that, generally speaking, people who live closer to the equator have a lower incidence of certain diseases—cancer and heart disease being two. And so this north/south discrepancy in disease prompted investigators to start looking into why this might be.

One of the theories was that because when you’re closer to the equator, you have longer days with stronger sun, people got more sun exposure. And that sun exposure caused higher vitamin D. And vitamin D had this beneficial effect.

Well, we certainly have seen a lot of research published showing that vitamin D does in fact have a good benefit. But as we continue to study vitamin D, we’re starting to learn that vitamin D is not the whole story. And numerous pieces of information are coming out that are showing that if you rely on vitamin D supplementation alone, you may not derive full health benefits because there are other positive effects from sun exposure than just the vitamin D.

So it’s safe to say that vitamin D is a marker of sun exposure. But vitamin D is not the only beneficial thing that happens in the body when one is exposed to sunlight.

Now, if you click on the bubble here, you’ll see a recent report that I did that showed that prostate cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma did not benefit from vitamin D and only benefited from sun exposure.

And another investigation by a British dermatologist named Richard Weller is depicted by this graph here. Now, what he has found is that, independent of vitamin D levels, people who get sun exposure will actually have lower blood pressure.

And the way this works and what this diagram is showing is that sunlight will actually help convert nitric oxide into an active form. And when the body releases nitric oxide, it actually helps with dilation of the blood vessels which causes a lowering of blood pressure.

So sunlight and diet are two of the big factors that will help the body produce this nitric oxide which has a vasodilatory effect which helps lower blood pressure.

Now, in this next slide, you’ll see the actual study results where Dr. Weller exposed subjects to UVA radiation. And UVA radiation will not cause any vitamin D production. But with this UVA exposure, people actually did increase their production of nitric oxide. And this decreased their blood pressure. So what he derived from this study was that, independent of vitamin D, there are other benefits associated with sun exposure.

Now, if we look into this a little bit more closely, we’re brought to the question of, “Well, what about cancer?” And it’s a great question. And it’s one we should talk about.

Now, on this slide, you’ll see the top ten cancer sites in women. Now, you see that there are a number of cancers above skin cancer. So skin cancer is, as far as cancers go, not the most prevalent form of cancer. In fact, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is more prevalent than skin cancer. And remember, that study I reviewed earlier showed that only sun exposure had a beneficial impact on non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and vitamin D did not.

And if we look at another distribution slide here, you see that the third common distribution site of cancer is the male genitalia. And the ninth is lymphomas. Both of those, we know from the recently published study, do not respond solely to vitamin D but do respond to sun exposure. And they are both more prevalent than skin cancer.

So we may want to rethink the recommendation that you should really avoid the sun at all costs. And we may want to start swaying more closely to the side of reasonable sun exposure—at least 30 minutes a day during peak sun exposure, so between the hours of 11 and 2 are good times, and 30 minutes.

And you want to steer that recommendation to be slightly more or slightly less depending on your skin tolerance. People who are lighter skinned burn easily. So they’ll want to spend less time in the sun. People who are darker skinned will want to spend slightly more time in the sun.

The most important thing is that you never burn. But you do want to get what’s called a minimal erythemal response where you get a slight pigmentation change in the skin.

So hopefully, looking at this information has helped you take a second look at vitamin D, the sun, and how this all interfaces to health. So what this really means is that, while vitamin D supplementation is certainly a good idea and a practice that one should incorporate, you cannot use vitamin D as a crutch for not having solid or good lifestyle practices, one of which is getting outside and enjoying the sun.

So this is Dr. Ruscio, and I hope you find this information helpful. Thanks!


If you need help with the beneficial effects of vitamin D, click here.

What do you think? I would like to hear your thoughts or experience with this.

Dr. Ruscio is your leading functional and integrative doctor specializing in gut related disorders such as SIBO, leaky gut, Celiac, IBS and in thyroid disorders such as hypothyroid and hyperthyroid. For more information on how to become a patient, please contact our office. Serving the San Francisco bay area and distance patients via phone and Skype.

Filed Under: Autoimmunity, Diet & Lifestyle Tagged With: Any Vitamins, Biomolecules, Causes High Vitamin D, Health, Health Effects Of Sunlight Exposure, High Vitamin, Lowest Blood Pressure, Michael Ruscio, Nutrition, Secosteroids, Skins Cancer, Study Vitamin D, Sun Tanning, Sunburn, Tocopherol, Ultraviolet, Vitamin, vitamin D, Vitamin D Levels, Vitamin D Production, Vitamin D Supplements, Vitamins

Autoimmunity Diet & Lifestyle

GET DR. RUSCIO'S UPDATES ONThyroid, Gut, Immune Health and More

Private, secure & confidential.

I care about answering your questions and sharing my knowledge with you. Leave a comment or connect with me on social media asking any health question you may have and I just might incorporate it into our next listener questions podcast episode just for you!

Notes: (1) The information provided on this website is for educational purposes only and is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease. Please do not apply any of this information without first speaking with your doctor. (2) The Ruscio Institute is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. (3) Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc, or its affiliates.

Comments

  1. John F Hondzel says

    July 10, 2019 at 10:13 AM

    Hi, I am taking 8mg of Perindopril Erbumine and my blood pressure is still high. It is usually 140/80. But in the last 2 days it goes as high as 190/95. I do spend a loot of time in the sun without sunbloock. I am 5’7″ and 165lbs. I do workout about 4 to 5 days a week and am 74 years old. Please let me know what I can do to lower it to acceptable levels.
    Best Regards,
    John Hondzel

    Reply
    • Drew, CNC (Ruscio Institute Team) says

      July 11, 2019 at 2:47 AM

      Hi John,

      Dr Ruscio often finds that his patients who change their diets (paleo is where he usually starts) and experiment with intermittent fasting often see improvements in their blood pressure. Definitely talk with your doctor before starting anything new though.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Calling All Practitioners

How do we change to a practical and cost-effective model of functional medicine? Join my Future of Functional Medicine Review Clinical Newsletter to find out.

Learn More

Get Dr. Ruscio’s
long awaited book,

Healthy Gut,
Healthy You!

Learn More

Search

Popular Topics

  • Adrenal Fatigue
  • Celiac Disease
  • Constipation
  • Diarrhea
  • Elemental Diet
  • Food Allergies
  • Gluten Sensitivity
  • Heart Disease
  • IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome)
  • Low FODMAP Diet
  • Paleo Diet
  • Probiotics
  • MCAS (Mast Cell Activation Syndrome)
  • Metabolism
  • SIBO (Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth)

Our Latest Videos

Bloating, Constipation, Brain Fog & Joint Pain Resolved
New Formula for Elemental Heal: Improved Taste with Less Carbs
One Key Reason Why Your Thyroid Medication Isn’t Working
My Daily Gut Health Routine: Gut Rebuild Nutrients + Probiotics
Health Benefits of Collagen, What the Evidence Shows
Contact Us   |   Work with Dr. Ruscio, DNM, DC
Your Trusted Functional Medicine Doctor
specializing in Digestion and
Thyroid East Bay
© 2018 Dr. Michael Ruscio, DC. All rights reserved.
Dr. Ruscio's Clinical Practice
43 Quail Ct Building 43 #107
Walnut Creek, CA 94596
(800) 335-7009 or (925) 705-7454
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
DrRuscio.com  |  The Ruscio Institute Inc.
848 N. Rainbow Blvd. #4049
Las Vegas, NV 89107
Disclaimer & Privacy Policy

© 2019 Dr. Michael Ruscio, DC · Rainmaker Platform

Privacy Policy