“D or Die” is the title of the Vitamin D chapter in the Muscadine Magic book. It’s not hyperbole.

A deficiency of vitamin D has been shown in many studies around the world as a major factor in the degree of risk for a serious viral infection.

Unfortunately, the unprecedented (in America) and growing level of censorship of all natural health news by virtually all media and government outlets requires that I eliminate all references to the current “crisis”, lest I be de-platformed as others already have been.

We are witnessing the death of the 1st Amendment. RIP.

So if you have any interest in my stance on the current state of affairs, you will need to read between the lines.

According to my research, Vitamin D can prevent many types of cancer, reduce pain, strengthen the immune system, and fight disease, including viral infections.

Research suggests that optimizing vitamin D levels is far more effective at preventing flu than a flu shot.

Sunshine is free. Vitamin D supplements are inexpensive. Every doctor should be screaming from the rooftops to optimize Vitamin D levels.

If your doctor has not schooled you on the need to optimize your vitamin D levels, he/she is either ignorant or cares more about their income than your health.

UVB Sunlight

You probably know that Ultraviolet B (UVB) sunlight reacts with a cholesterol derivative in your skin to create Vitamin D (the “Sunshine Vitamin”).

What you might not know is that UVB rays only penetrate earth’s atmosphere where the sun is at a roughly 50 degree or greater angle. At less than a 50-degree angle, the ozone layer will deflect some or all of the short UVB rays, while passing through the longer and more damaging UVA rays.

And while UVA does increase the production of nitric oxide, an extremely healthy nutrient, UVA does not create Vitamin D.

Also:

• It can take 48 hours after exposure to UVB to create Vitamin D
• UVA without UVB may destroy the vitamin D already initiated by UVB
• UVA can penetrate clouds and window glass, which UVB cannot

So I avoid sunlight as much as possible on cloudy days and through window glass, and restrict my unprotected time in the sun to those hours when the sun is at 50 degrees or greater.

Today in New Orleans (2/22/21), the sun reached 50 degrees for the first time this year. To know what the angle of the sun is in your location, go to the “NOAA Solar Calculator” website (www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/grad/solcalc/) and input your location.

There are also smartphone apps that will use your GPS to tell you when you can get vitamin D from the sun. The DMinder app at “dminder.info”, developed with world authority on vitamin D, Dr. Michael Holick, is available for both iPhone and Android.

The amount of sunlight needed for maximum vitamin D production depends on several factors, including skin pigmentation, amount of body fat, and strength of UVB rays. A light-skinned person may need only a few minutes of sunshine while a dark-skinned person may need an hour or longer.

As vitamin D is fat-soluble, overweight people have less usable vitamin D in their blood and more stored in their fat cells.

According to GrassRoots Nutrient Research Institute, the level of vitamin D in fat is about 12 times that in blood. If vitamin D is pulled from fat into the blood, it is only to maintain the 12:1 ratio, not to optimize blood levels.

I believe these factors explain why dark-skinned people and overweight people are at greater risk from viral infections. They are more likely to be deficient in vitamin D.

If for any reason you are unable to tolerate sunlight without sunscreen, or if UVB sunlight is insufficient in your location, you will need to take supplements to maintain optimum blood levels (typically 40 – 70 ng/ml).

Supplements

If you rely on supplements you should have your vitamin D levels tested regularly. The correct test for the doctor to order is 25(OH)D, also called 25-hydroxyvitamin D.

Personally, I just order the test online (since I don’t have a doctor).

When you’re taking vitamin D supplements you also need to ensure you’re getting enough vitamin K2, either through your diet (very difficult) or through supplementation (I buy the natural MK7, not the synthetic MK4). Because when you take supplemental vitamin D, your body will create more vitamin K2-dependent proteins. These proteins help move calcium around in your body, but they need vitamin K2 to be activated.

If they’re not activated, the calcium in your body might end up hardening your arteries instead of strengthening your bones.

Adding to the confusion, there are two common forms of vitamin D supplements, D2 and D3.

The natural one is D3 (cholecalciferol), which is the same vitamin D your body makes when exposed to sunshine. D2 is the synthetic form.

D2 and D3 are both inactive forms and need to be converted in the body to an active form. According to my research, D3 converts 5 times faster than D2, and has a longer shelf life. D3 generally seems more effective than D2.

More importantly, research by an international team shows that supplementation with D3 reduced the risk of premature death by 11%. However, supplementation with D2 appeared to cause an increase in mortality risk.

And yet doctors often prescribe the synthetic D2. Go figure.

So if you take prescription vitamin D, verify if it is D2 or D3. Then use your best judgment.

Sunscreen

The industries that profit from people fearing sunlight tell us that sunlight is dangerous and must be avoided at all times. They tell us to apply generous amounts of sunscreen before facing the evil sunlight.

Following that advice typically results in coating your skin with cancer-causing chemicals that stop you from creating the vitamin D that might have prevented those cancers.

If I need to use sunscreen, I use one that is free of toxic chemicals. I can’t find that at my local grocery or drug store. An online search for “non-toxic sunscreen lotion” should provide good options.

Skin Cancer

According to my research, overexposure to sunlight is a risk factor for basal cell carcinomas (BCC) and squamous cell carcinomas (SCC).

The research says these skin cancers are very common and aren’t usually serious or life-threatening. Less than 1/2 of 1% are fatal, and then mostly to the elderly and others with immune deficiencies.

I have yet to find one scrap of credible evidence that exposure to sunlight causes melanoma, the truly deadly skin cancer. Just the opposite. There is much evidence that the vitamin D that your body produces from exposure to sunlight prevents melanoma and many other cancers.

My research says that melanoma often occurs on parts of the body that are rarely exposed to sunlight.

They’ve been scaring us for half a century or more about the dangers of sunlight. Almost everyone I know or observe believes the hysteria and lathers up with sunscreen before going outside. So why has the rate of melanoma more than doubled since the 1970s (according to the National Cancer Institute)?

I’ve often read that for every case of basal cell or squamous cell carcinomas possibly caused by overexposure to sunlight, 30 cases of deadly cancers are prevented by the vitamin D created from exposure to sunlight.

Sunglasses

Sunglasses can be very useful. Like when you’re driving into the setting sun. Or when you’re playing poker and you don’t want the dilation of your pupils to give away the fact that you’re holding a monster hand.

Honestly, I have never suggested to anyone to not wear sunglasses. I, however, don’t.

There are some 1500 different light waves in sunlight. And humans have evolved for, well, however long you figure we’ve been here. Mostly without sunglasses.

I suspect that some of those light waves benefit our health in some way, and I want to let them in.

Many years ago, when I did wear sunglasses, my wife read somewhere that if you spent the first 30 minutes in the sun without sunglasses, your body would react to protect you from sunburn. Following that advice, I never had another bad burn. There may be some truth to it.

However, we’re all unique. Don’t be foolish. You never want to burn.