One thing I recall from my childhood is that I was darker than everyone else, darker than everyone at my school, in my after school program and amongst other places .I also noticed that not too many people were happy with how they looked or appreciated the color of their skin. With that in mind, I noticed that people took bleach baths, used bleaching cream, avoided drinking coffee and avoided being in the sun at all cost…because of fear of getting darker. Being dark skinned wasn’t something that I was particularly proud of and didn’t recognize it’s power until adulthood. It seemed like my cousins and friends that were lighter had special privileges, so if my family /associates treated darker skin people that way, how was I suppose to feel about myself? Of course I was in the sun during long summers in Tifton, GA and when participating in extra curricular activities throughout my life e.g. band, cross-country, but I was never a sun worshiper by any means. It takes my mom to tell you that I am the only person that moved to Florida and got lighter…LOL because I never went outside nor did I ever enjoy the sun.
While at an annual physical my physician tested my vitamin D levels and they were extremely low in which I was prescribed vitamin D. To my surprise I had signs and symptoms of vitamin D decency and didn’t even know it. Signs and symptoms of Vitamin D deficiency include but not limited to:
- Getting sick often
- Never feeling rested
- Bone and back pain
- Depression
- Impaired wound healing
- Bone loss
- Hair loss
- Muscle Pain
Geesh if I would have known all that could happen I would have stood in the sun every second, minute, hour and so on. Although I was taking vitamin D3 supplements, I still didn’t understand the importance of being in the actual sun. From my understanding since I wasn’t close to the equator, I wasn’t absorbing a lot of vitamin D from the sun anyway right? WRONG! I couldn’t be more wrong, I recently heard a M3P featuring Gessie Thompson, Dr. Amsu and Dr. Amun and they discussed the importance of the sun, and never did they mention the sun making you black, but it actually aided in healing. The Doctors(s) mentioned that the sun was the best source of vitamin D and emits 3 rays to include UVA (harmful), UVB and UVC. UVB and UVC are the most important rays and the closer you are to the equator the more UVB and UVC you receive. It was also mentioned that Vitamin D is important when dealing with inflammatory issues and is a very powerful antitumor agent that inhibits human uterine fibroid cells. Many diseases processes develop secondary to inflammation, and guess what? Fibroids do too. It has been statically proven that women with low vitamin D levels are at higher risk for developing fibroids when compared to women with higher vitamin D levels. My physician recommended that my vitamin D blood levels remain >than 50 ng/mL in an effort to shrink my fibroids naturally, hence the importance of the sun and diet. Vitamin D has been known to enhance the minerals in your body and increase your vitality. Please keep in mind that you don’t get vitamin D from the sun but from the actual rays from the sun via melanin in your body, so isn’t my HUE or your HUE and Melanin beautiful?
Different hues exist and are beautiful in their own right, but it turns out that the darker the skin, the more it’s protected against skin cancer but the less able it is to absorb UVB rays. (one reason why African American women may suffer from fibroids more than women with lighter hues). If you’re fairer skin, you would need only a few minutes in the sun without sunscreen, but if you’re of darker hue more time would be required to be in the sun to received the same amounts of vitamin D. Vitamin D we received from the sun and various foods helps protect against but not limited to the following:
- Osteoporosis
- Heart disease
- Cancers of the breast, prostate and colon
- Protecting against depression
- Insomnia
- Fibroids
- Overactive immune system.
So if you are of darker hue, appreciate the kiss from the sun that you have, suppress the childhood memories that try to remind you that your hue is not beautiful, and stand in the sun for longer periods of time and absorb that vitamin D, so that you can have a healthy body and dissolve your fibroids naturally.
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