A couple of weeks ago we spent the day looking for gentian. It was worth the day spent. Gentian (pronounced gen-chin not gen-tea-an) is a diverse family of flowers and scattered all over the world. Flowers of gentian in its various forms can grow all summer but the ones around here apparently are late summer bloomers. Gentian root is a common ingredient in bitters and is listed as an herbal digestive. It was also used to add bitterness to beer years before the widespread use of hops. A century ago, pharmacists (chemists) would make herbal remedies such as gentian or quinine more palatable by mixing them and some sugar in soda water (also thought to be medicinal). Hey! A few flavors and some ice cream later and Voilà! - The ice cream soda fountain.

We decided to check Blue Lakes for the gentian- since it is always a great hike and we hadn’t yet been there this year. Now the blue lakes trail used to be very quiet but has recently gotten busy. We were told the influx of Touristas is due to an article which appeared in Backpacker Magazine. This, of course, shows both the pros and cons of our little community becoming more popular. But, what we lacked in quiet, we gained in vitamin D and that made me want to write about it. Vitamin D turns out to be more of a hormone than a vitamin because although you can eat, like the Vitamin D milk on your morning fruity pebbles, it is also made in our bodies after exposure to the sun. Why care? Because we have long known that vitamin D make strong bones and teeth but recent studies from the Mayo Clinic and in the Journal of Internal Medicine show positive results of vitamin D supplementation on diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular health, blood pressure, cholesterol, kidney function, immune function and depression. Low Vitamin D levels may be mistaken for fibromyalgia, or Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Yet only 15-20 minutes of sunlight on your face and neck gives you about 1000 U or 10ng/ml of free vitamins.

Recall that humanity began much closer to the equator - only relatively recently moving further north and inside. But north vs south is only part of the reason for our friends and relatives in Portland and near the Great Lakes having more depression than we do. Latitude doesn’t seem to be a factor as long as one takes advantage of the sun when it is out but most people spend days indoors and miss the sunshine opportunities. Of course in SW Colorado (with 320 sunny days a year) we get as much sun as we want but what about sun burn and melanoma? Slathering on sun block (as the Coppertone girl would have us do) blocks sun burn but also blocks vitamin D production. Sunlight is composed of a couple of ‘kinds’ of light. There is visible and ‘invisible’ light. One invisible light, ultraviolet, comes in 3 ‘flavors’ – UVA, UVB, and UVC. UVC never makes it down to us (thanks to the Ozone layer). There is much more UVA than UVB and UVB is also blocked except in the middle of the day. But it is UVB that activates the vitamin D and causes sun burn. In this way, UVB can damage our DNA causing cancer but 92% of the worst kind of skin cancer (Melanoma) seems to be caused by indirect oxidative damage and not damage from UVB on cells at all. Most of us make a pigment in our skin after some exposure to UVB called melanin. Melanin acts like a little sunshade, blocking the UV light from damaging the skin and converting it into harmless heat. So getting a little tan can actually prevent cancer because the melanin protects our skin from oxidation and free radicals created by UVB and UVA not and from the direct DNA damage. Studies also show that people who use too much sun block actually have an increased risk of melanoma because the natural protection mechanisms of the skin to UV light are not activated. Also some sun block ingredients can themselves cause cancer when exposed to light. I leave it to the moderate reader to moderate his or her moderation moderately and discuss all personal health care issues with their physician (not their vet).

BTW the flowers were wonderful. We saw monkshood, and columbine, beardtongue, and we finally found a few lonely gentian way-up high. After a day on the mountains we felt happier and our bones and muscles feel stronger. So if you need to get a little extra vitamin D, find a book on wildflowers of Colorado, and go looking for some gentian. As long as they don’t feature your favorite trail in Backpacker you should be feeling fine.