Better than Sunshine Vit D production compared to Sunlight

Written by Gerado Gutiérrez - Published on Feb 01, 2024

Vitamin D production is dependent on the following:

Amount of UVB, Spectrum of UVB, Time exposed to UVB, Skin type (darker produces less because on natural melanin production), Age 

Is dependent on the time of the day, time of the year, altitude and weather.

For example in high latitudes (above 35 degrees) (imagen) the sun is considered to not be ideal for Vit D production because most of the year the sun is not high enough in the sky. (The higher in the sky the better for Vit D production) so even if you spend time outdoors vit D production will be minimal.

Early in the morning and late at the evening sunlight has almost no UVB, so it is healthy for getting infrared light, but useless for Vit D production. (So the actual best time for Vit D production is around noon)

Natural sunlight contain mostly UVA (96% of sunlight is UVA and only 4% is UVB), but only one part the UVB spectrum is actually used to make vitamin D (UVB range is 280NM-320NM but only 293NM-308NM is used to make vitamin D).

So actually only around 2% of total UV light is used by the body for Vit D production, so the other 98% is not efficient for this use.

These images show that sunlight has a lot of UVA. It even shows that even during the middle of the day in the tropics the sun only provides 59 IU per minute of vitamin D. 

Skin type #1 in the Fitzgerald scale (red heads or very pale) produces more vitamin D than others so it needs little exposure to get adequate doses. Lighter skin tones need less sun exposure, African descent (skin type 6) need up to 8 times more exposure to sun to get the same vitamin D production (that is why low vitamin D is more of a concern as your skin gets darker)

Since vitamin D is produced in the upper layer of the skin, the thicker the layer the bigger the amount of natural vitamin D.As we age collagen is lost and the epidermis becomes thinner lowering the bodys capacity to make vitamin D, so a 75 year old person on average only produces 1/4 of the vitamin D a 20 year old produces.

Using the Solarmeter model 6.4 designed in conjunction with its app, sun at mid at a tropical location for a 20 year old for 10% body exposure (face and hands) can produce between 30-80 IU per minute (yes, that sound low).

If you compare this values to the ones obtained with the BTS sunlamp we can get as much as 500 IU´s of vitamin D at the recommended 15 inch recommended distance, so the BTS sunlamp is about 6-15x more powerful in producing natural vitamin D than the sun (and with 50 times less exposure to UV rays)

The better than Sunshine lamp might be the best alternative for natural vitamin D production because it is always available (no matter the latitude, time of the day, weather, or work schedule). It can produce enough vitamin D for most people in less than five minutes, and without any skin aging UVA light.

And best off all it is combined with 4 frequencies of Red light therapy (RED and Near Infrared) just like natural sunlight that combines this 2 since infrared helps the production of vitamin D and also protects the skin from burn or aging.

As a general guide: 3-5 times per week, but we do recommend you measure your vitamin D levels before starting to use the machine and 2 months after so you can find your sweet spot.

If you are very deficient you can used it every day and even one cicle on your chest and one on your back until your levels get to the recommended levels above 40ng/ml (around 80-100 is considered optimal)

By the way you cannot overdose of vitamin D with natural sunlight of sunlamp, when you have enough your body stops production (so you don’t have to worry about overdose as with oral Vitamin D).

First of all 295nm light is the same no matter if it comes from the sun, or if it comes from a LED and yes it has been proven https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32014913/

First of all the biggest problem with tube base sunlamps is that they produce not only the required UVB frequencies but up to 70% of their light output goes to UVA (skin aging and cancer) and even some UVC (gene mutations, this light is not natural on earth since it is filtered by the atmosphere).

So yes tube sunlamps produce Vit D, but they are less eficiente and also deliver unwanted radiation. also they don’t last long, can break and release dangerous chemicals and consume up to 5 times for power.

 And lastly, they don’t provide Near Infrared radiation like the BTS sunlamp or sun, and this is the natural and best way to get vitamin