Research
Hormonal
Aging significantly decreases the skin's capacity to produce vitamin D3, requiring older adults to have greater sun exposure or supplementation to maintain healthy vitamin D levels.
As you age, your skin becomes less efficient at producing vitamin D from sunlight. You may need more sun exposure or consider supplementation to maintain healthy levels.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
The effect of aging on the cutaneous production of vitamin D3 was demonstrated in a study that exposed healthy young adults and older adults to the same amount of UVB radiation in a tanning bed. The increase in the blood level of vitamin D3 in six young adults aged 20–30 was at least 3-fold higher compared with the six older adults aged 62–80 demonstrating that aging significantly decreased the capacity of the skin to produce vitamin D3.
Why this rating
Supported by specific comparative studies cited in the review.
Source
Sunlight and Vitamin D
Matthias G. Wacker et al. · Dermato-Endocrinology · 2013
DOI 10.4161/derm.24494
narrative_reviewCited 1,128×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
More from this paper
- Sensible sun exposure produces vitamin D3 in the skin, which is metabolized into 25-hydroxyvitamin D and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D, regulating calcium/phosphate metabolism and influencing chronic disease risk (autoimmune, cancer, cardiovascular, infectious, schizophrenia, type 2 diabetes).Good
- Skin pigmentation (melanin) acts as a natural sunscreen, reducing the efficiency of cutaneous vitamin D3 synthesis, requiring darker-skinned individuals to have longer sun exposure to achieve similar vitamin D levels as lighter-skinned individuals.Good
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