CS: Sun Exposure and Epigenetics

I've been meaning to post this a while. I've been wondering a few things about sun exposure.

CS, you've spoken of adequate vitamin C preventing sun burn. Does the vitamin c prevent tanning (ie - is that a part of burning), or does the tanning come before the burning. I ask because I intend to get at least an hours sun a day this summer (weather permitting).

My face doesn't tend to burn easily (never in fact), but the rest of my body (arms etc) havn't seen much exposure and burn easily.

My dad tends to tan very rapidly, even a few hours exposure in winter will cause his skin to darken. He has wondered if this is because his dad made him spends 30 minutes in direct sun at midday every day (this is what he himself had done to adapt to the sun in the desert in WWII).

I'm also wondering, if like food - could an environmental factor like sun exposure alter genetic expression?

Excess sun exposure can cause mutations. UV radiation isn't that great. The reason why your skin cells produce meltonin is to prevent such overexposure. I think you should look up guides on how to tan (that's what you want right?) and limiting exposure so you don't end up with some crazy carcinoma. I'd say do some research as I'm not entirely sure what answer your looking for.

No Dave,

I'm not after tanning, but tanning is something that will occur. I'm after increased Vitamin D production, and I don't want to be burning.

I'm taking it you've not spent a huge amount of time reading here - my aim is to get a lot more sun, without burning as the health benefits will far outway the UV exposure assuming I don't go crazy.

My question though, is really about Epigenetics and sun exposure.

gbp2000 - Once your skin turns pink, it's best to seek cover, because at that point, you've absorbed all the vitamin D that you can that day and will only risk burning after that point.

As far as genetics, vitamin D affects 10% of the human genome. It's probably the greatest modulator of genetic expression of any other "vitamin." Of course vitamin D is really a secosteroid or a hormone.

If you take regular vitamin C, it will do nothing to prevent sun burn. The only thing that will help as far as vitamin C goes is ascorbyl palmitate (a fat soluble form).

There are other things that help to prevent burn--Krill oil helps to an extent, so does Ecklonia Cava.