Chasing the sun

Today was a furlough Friday for young Butterfly, so we decided it was a good day to chase the sun. It's been raining for close to two weeks with only a few patches of intermittent sunshine. It was definitely time for the beach and some warmth so off we headed.

Haleiwa was a good place for lunch. We sat and watched the rain as we consumed Waialua brewed sodas and munched sandwiches.

We continued around the island in our quest for the elusive non-rain. We finally found some sun in Pupukea. Young Butterfly waded in the tidal pools (water temps in the low 60's) and finally decided that we would try to find a little more sun. (Besides, my rear end was getting mighty sore sitting on the old Aa lava bed. That stuff is pretty sharp and poky.)

We made several more short stops; Butterfly to wade in the water and pick up more rocks for her collection, and me to just lie in the sun. I'd been feeling sun-starved and it was luscious to feel the rays on my skin even if it was only on my face and hands since the rest of me was bundled up in an effort to stay warm.

I wondered how I could get Mama out in the sun to collect more vitamin D. Japanese culture has always revered white, white skin - hats and parasols were used to keep skin as bleach-white as possible. Consequently, she's vitamin D deficient and must take a supplement. I've been reading how most Americans are vitamin D deficient* these days because of the overuse of sunblock. That deficiency is showing up in the form of larger percentages of diabetes, cancer, skin disorders and more. Seems to me that here in Hawaii we shouldn't be having these diseases since we are blessed with sun and warmth (okay, at least we are most of the year.)

We finally made it back home 6 hours after setting out. Butterfly had two large handfuls of colorful rocks and I had a little bit of vitamin D from the rays.

It's been a lovely day. We need more days like today.

*Optimizing your vitamin D levels can also help you to prevent as many as 16 different types of cancer including pancreatic, lung, breast, ovarian, prostate, and colon cancers.

But perhaps most important to note is that vitamin D can lower your risk of dying from any cause, according to a new European meta-analysis published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 2007.

Another group of researchers have calculated that simply increasing levels of vitamin D3 could prevent diseases that claim nearly 1 million lives throughout the world each year, as the widespread vitamin D deficiency seen today is now thought to fuel an astonishingly diverse array of common chronic diseases, such as:

Cancer, Hypertension, Heart disease, Autism, Obesity, Rheumatoid arthritis, Diabetes 1 and 2, Multiple Sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, Cold & Flu, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Tuberculosis, Septicemia, Signs of aging, Dementia, Eczema & Psoriasis, Insomnia, Hearing loss, Muscle pain, Cavities, Periodontal disease, Osteoporosis, Macular degeneration, Reduced C-section risk, Pre eclampsia, Seizures, Infertility, Asthma, Cystic fibrosis, Migraines, Depression, Alzheimer’s disease, Schizophrenia