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Dr. Cedric Garland explains if women absorb enough vitamin D3 from the sun to reduce their risk of developing cancer.
Dr. Cedric Garland, Dr.P.H., F.A.C.E.:
It depends on the season and how much of skin the woman is able to expose as a practical matter, how regularly she gets out into the sun, and where she lives. There are about a hundred variables that affect it, but if a woman lives in a sunny place and is able to get 40 percent of her skin exposed daily for half a year, then chances are that she will be getting enough vitamin D to do everything that vitamin D can do.
But a woman living say in the northern part of the United States, who can’t get out in the sun very much or nearly as much as the woman in the southern tier, she probably is going to need vitamin D from food or supplements to get to the level in the serum that she and her doctor or nutritionist decide is optimal for her.
About Dr. Cedric Garland, Dr.P.H., F.A.C.E.:
Dr. Cedric Garland, Dr.P.H., F.A.C.E., is adjunct professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. His research interests include, epidemiology of breast cancer, colon cancer, leukemia, melanoma, multiple sclerosis and ovarian cancer.
Visit Dr. Cedric Garland at the University of California, San Diego