Vitamin D, UV rays, and red hair: what's a good balance of sun?

Factual Questions
1

I have red hair, so I have spent my whole life hearing foreboding messages about my imminent encounters with melanoma. My father (also having red hair) has had somewhere between 8 and 11 melanomas (I’ve lost count) and a basal cell cancer on his nose, which my mother has had as well. In fact, I’m fairly certain that almost everyone over forty in my large family has had some form of skin cancer.

I give that information just to say that I don’t necessarily need the normal melanoma talk.

What I do want to know however is what a good balance of sunshine is. I remember hearing about a study last year saying that Vitamin D is actually a really good anti-cancer agent and that the best source of Vitamin D was the sun (30 minutes of exposure being something like the equivalent of thousands of glasses of milk).

Not only that, the sun has a significant effect on one’s disposition. My mood is seemingly dictated solely by the sun. So, I don’t, for the sake of my sanity, want to be banished to dark basements and windowless rooms.

So, what’s the medium? Is every moment of blissful springtime sunkisses going to mean a later boontime for my dermatologist?

2

If you eat a standard Western diet, including dairy products, you don’t need sun for your Vit. D. “One cup of vitamin D fortified milk supplies one-half of the recommended daily intake for adults between the ages of 19 and 50, one-fourth of the recommended daily intake for adults between the ages of 51 and 70, and approximately 15% of the recommended daily intake for adults age 71 and over.” If you don’t drink milk, a daily serving of cod liver oil, tuna, mackeral or salmon will get you what you need.

If you insist on sun exposure without sunscreen (given your family history of skin cancers and your complexion, I wouldn’t), then “Ten to fifteen minutes of sun exposure at least two times per week to the face, arms, hands, or back without sunscreen is usually sufficient to provide adequate vitamin D [14].”

Quotes from here.

3

I do not see a debate, here.

It is possible that it will wander into the arena of personal testimony and become an IMHO thread, but we’re going to hope that there is a verifiable answer and send it to General Questions, first.

[ /Moderating ]