“My doctor said I have osteoporosis and I should spend 15 minutes in the sun 3 times a week to raise my vitamin D level to prevent worsening of my osteoporosis. Is this a good idea?”
This is a very common question. While vitamin D is very important in regulating the calcium levels in our bodies, and sun exposure can increase our vitamin D levels, the answer is not as simple as that. Our bones are very much alive and need certain signals from the rest of our bodies to thrive. Our bones are the major storage reservoir for calcium, and calcium is responsible for maintaining the strength of our bones. Our muscles attach to our bones, and when we use a muscle, a bone typically moves as a result. So muscles pull against bones to produce movement to walk, run, swim, lift heavy objects, and so forth. Strong muscles require strong bones in order to be capable of more strenuous efforts. The pulling action of the muscle sends a signal to the bone it is attached to, and tells it that it needs to keep the calcium in it to remain strong.
Weight lifting and resistance training are the ways in which we can keep our muscles strong. These exercises make our muscles pull against our bones, sending the important signals to our bones, reminding them to keep the calcium in them to stay strong. When we allow our muscles to weaken and atrophy due to illness, injury, or just lack of physical activity involving some sort of resistance exercise, our bones essentially follow along, deciding that they don’t need to be so strong, and release their stored calcium, resulting in weakening of the bones. Early on, this is called osteopenia, and without corrective action, this will evolve into osteoporosis.
So what about my vitamin D levels and the sun? Vitamin D is important in the overall calcium levels in your body and helps to maintain the proper balance of calcium in your bloodstream and your muscles, bones, and other organs. We need to supplement our diets with vitamin D to maintain the proper calcium balance in our bodies, and there are many sources available. Sun exposure is not necessary to maintain your vitamin D levels in order to prevent osteoporosis. Weight lifting and resistance exercise is the key to preventing osteoporosis by maintaining strong muscles and instructing our bones to retain their calcium and stay strong.