One of the podcasts on internet security I listen to went off-topic for a whole episode to talk about health. What I heard was very interesting, and if you have been following the said podcast, you’ll know that Mr. Gibson is a very respectable fellow. So hearing him take a time out from talking about security, and go into the topic of Vitamin D was something I definitely was willing to listen to. After all it doesn’t hurt to listen right?

I’ll try to summarize the key points I personally found useful (and some of my observations), but if you want the full text (he’s pretty awesome in explaining very complex stuff in laymans terms), you can read it here

Vitamin D

“Vitamin D” is basically not a vitamin, as a vitamin is a form of nourishment that cannot be manufactured by our body; that is to say that it has to be acquired from an outside dietary source.

D is different as our bodies can manufacture it, but it’s done so by synthesizing sunlight… ultraviolet light to be more precise. Again, there’s more to the “process” than meets the eye, which you can read from the article itself.

D in it’s active form is actually an extremely potent steroid hormone, and the “production” of which degrades considerably as we age.

As for the significance of said steroid hormone, I personally don’t want to go on researching on all this shit; that’s why we have doctors to do the studying for us (or you can read the article). But simply put, it all seems to be interconnected – and the depletion of D can lead to all sorts of bad stuff.

Correlations

Like I said in the previous paragraph, are a lot of “unique” issues people experience that in one way or another can ultimately be connected to the lack of sunlight (and ultimately D-ficiency ¹ See what I did there? lol ) Rickets, Seasonal Affective Disorder, etc.

There’s even the subjective stuff like “how come carpenters or farmers seem to be healthier compared to pampered city adults of the same age? Or even why blacks’ physiology tend to be “stronger” than whites, ² You can literally even invoke the whole slave trade scenario to emphasize this point is that why black athletes tend to be better in everything?

Before continuing the thought above, I’d just like to mention that correlation does not equal causation. But it’s worth noting these relationships in case they actually turn out to be significantly connected down the road.

If the “cradle of human-kind” is in the equatorial region of the world, and if you believe in evoltuion (that we are descended from apes), it can be argued that we lost our fur because of our bodies overheating in such hot regions, ³ Doesn’t explain why there are still apes in the jungle though, but whatever hahahaha and our now bare skin resorted to pigmentation to achieve the same sort of protection our fur gave us from over-exposure to the suns rays. ⁴ Of course, after it has taken in the sufficient daily dose of UV for D production As some of our human ancestors migrated away to colder places, they lost their skin pigmentation possibly to accommodate more radiation from the sun.

It’s also now scientific fact that 70% of children nowadays are D deficient, and given our lifestyles with sunscreen and air-conditioning, etc… if you would connect the dots, it’s not surprising.

Solution?

So I could probably go on and on about correlations that may [or may not] be significant… but the funny thing is that it gets kinda obvious that we were made [or evolved] to be under the sun, and perhaps simply taking the time to be under it (perfect excuse to relax at the beach) would be the easy solution right? Not quite.

There are a bunch of problems.

First is that our lifestyles make us adverse to it. Most of us prefer to be fair-skinned, we like air conditioning, in tropical countries like the Philippines, a lot of us hate the scorching oppressive sun. I’m going out on a limb and say that only a few beach-goers enjoy the sun for what it is; they usually enjoy it for getting a tan (if there was a cheap way to get a perfect tan without going under the sun, you’d probably see them preferring that). Most beach goers (myself included) are really after the water.

Second is that apparently, the UV radiation we need is during those hours that can give you skin cancer. So the “good stuff” is when the sun is directly above you – yes, its those the “bad” hours that we need. And sunscreens specifically block UV rays… which is good for not getting over-radiated, but apparently we need some UV exposure each day.

Third and most importantly is that, as we age, our capability to synthesize the radiation properly is compromised considerably. So it doesn’t matter if you sit out in the sun the whole day, if you’re capacity to process that sunlight isn’t as good as it used to be, then you’re just doing exactly what most people are avoiding nowadays: getting yourself skin cancer. Also, unless you, as an adult, still have the physiology of a child, your skin will just end up pigmenting; protecting yourself from the sun’s rays, and at the same time, lessening even more any chance to get those UV rays you need to get to your system.

It’s almost like another one of those cruel jokes God is playing on us; where the stuff we like is bad, and the stuff we dislike is good.

This certainly is an extremely effective way of killing-off the older generations (which as far as natural selection goes, is perfectly logical), it seems the only way to counter it is to use supplements.

Just like Mr. Gibson, I don’t really care if I live long or not, but the quality of life I want is another story; I don’t want to wither and die. If I die, I’d rather it be swift… like an accident during a skydive or something.

So I’ll be trying out what he said… I’m not into taking vitamins (still not taking any supplements to this day) because I always believed if it’s your time it’s your time. But I guess after hearing what I’ve heard, there’s really no getting around the fact that we’re going to need some help from technology if we plan to maintain a good quality of living. And this “vitamin D” will probably be on the top of my list moving forward.

Taking it on faith

I admit that the topic, and the nature of which it was discussed would definitely raise eyebrows. As much as there are a lot of facts and figures used, the topic ultimately hasn’t been scientifically “ratified” (for lack of a better term) – as you read the post, most of the “implications” mentioned are based on correlation… and any intelligent person knows that correlation != causation.

But to to give you an idea how and why I find Mr. Gibson’s arguments sincere and compelling is because of the type of person he is.

He is well known and respected in the security community; which is saying something given that the basic tenets of security is to, ironically, “trust no one.” He coined the phrase “spyware,” and he is the author of the best disk recovery utility SpinRite.

So he’s been around, but you just have to respect the way he stands by his product(s):

SpinRite (his primary source of income) has a 100% satisfaction guaranteed or your money back. Pretty much expected [or should be expected] from any product right? but here’s the kicker: even if it worked, and you decide to be a douchebag and claim it didn’t (to get your money back), they will refund your purchase, no questions asked.

He’s not worried about piracy: He maintains that there are a lot of cases where people end up getting licenses for his software because a pirated copy they had, had saved their data… and the users simply felt compelled to “return the favor.”

I can relate to that sentiment, as I started using an cracked copy of an application called 1Password on the Mac when I first switched from Windows. I had every means to use it for “free” if I chose to do so, ⁵ I knew how to make a license key that would not be blacklisted in future releases – which I was already using but along the road, it was just so damn pleasing to see such a well designed, well developed, well supported, and incredibly useful program, that I felt compelled to show the authors how much I valued the work they put into it. Simply put, I bought a license. As soon as the iPhone/iPod touch version came out, I immediately bought that… there’s a Pro version for the iPhone/iPod touch that just came out, and yes, I also have purchased it 😉

I guess the point here is that there are a few products out there that are shining examples of how well made products could speak for themselves. And SpinRite, like 1Password would be one of them.

Companies/individuals who recognize such value and dedicate their lives making a good product instead of a profitable one, are the ones that really “get it.” And they much props in my book. Steve Gibson is one of those people.