If lowering cholesterol was as simple as soaking in some sunshine everyday and absorbing vitamin D, everyone would do it. So, what’s the link between the “sunshine vitamin” and cholesterol?

When our skin is exposed to sunlight, it makes vitamin D. One theory is that because cholesterol is used in vitamin D synthesis, levels of cholesterol will reduce as more vitamin D is made.  One study showed that doing outdoor activities such as gardening in the summer did indeed reduce cholesterol levels in the blood. This did not occur during winter.

According to a study conducted by The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), deficiency of sunlight and thus, lack of vitamin D is a factor that might influence susceptibility and disease incidence.  Sunlight deficiency could increase blood cholesterol by allowing squalene metabolism to progress to cholesterol synthesis rather than to vitamin D synthesis as would occur with greater amounts of sunlight exposure, and the increased concentration of blood cholesterol during the winter months, confirmed in this study, may well be due to reduced sunlight exposure.

In another study – Seoul National University College of Medicine conducted a study on cholesterol levels with 4,124 healthy men and women, who were divided into 4 groups according to their vitamin D levels.

The findings? The group with the highest vitamin D levels had 26% less people whose cholesterol level was over 200mL than the group with the lowest vitamin D. This lead to the conclusion that people with higher vitamin D levels have lower cholesterol levels.
Vitamin D is also known as the ‘Sunshine Vitamin’ because they are created by the cholesterol in our body when we are exposed to sunlight. The more vitamin D we make, the more cholesterol we use up, therefore lowering cholesterol levels!

So make sure to get some morning sun today and don’t shun away from it anymore!