Guest guest Posted April 18, 2003 Report Share Posted April 18, 2003 Fri, 18 Apr 2003 10:50:00 -0500 WC Douglass Let there be light Daily Dose April 18, 2003 ************************************************************** The sun also rises over the medical establishment... I've often wondered -- and more than once in print -- how the human race ever managed to survive and thrive if what the mainstream says about sunlight is really true. To hear them tell it, natural sunlight is only slightly less harmful to our health than nuclear fallout! How did we ever last eight million years as an evolving species? But as usual, my pokings and proddings on the subject have gone all but ignored by conventional medicine. Why? Because of commercial pressures, most likely. After all, how much sunscreen would you buy if they all of a sudden said that getting out in the sun every day was actually GOOD for you? Every once in a while, though, a mainstream doctor will slip up (or even skip ranks) and agree with me about something... Such was the case in a recent New York Times article in which a Boston University Medical Center dermatologist named Dr. Michael Holick re-affirmed what I've said all along -- that sunlight is good for you because it aids in the body's production of vitamin D! An expert on Vitamin D with over 30 years of research on the subject under his belt, Dr. Holick cites a deficiency of this vital nutrient as a major factor in osteoporosis, diabetes, and cancers of the skin, breast, prostate, and ovaries... If this all sounds familiar, it's because it's what I've been telling you -- and the medical establishment -- about the benefits of vitamin D for years now! Anyway... In the interview, Dr. Holick also mentions that vitamin D plays a vital role in regulating cell growth -- and on our immune systems and cardiovascular health. But what are really interesting are his studies on regional sun exposure and vitamin D levels. In one such study, Dr. Holick discovered that 36 percent of young Boston-area adults were vitamin D deficient at the end of wintertime (not too surprising, right)... But get this: They were still 11 percent vitamin D deficient at the END of summer! Remember: these figures represented the youngest, most active adults (aged 18 to 29), the hiking, biking, roller- blading, and running demographic. Can you imagine what those figures must be like for older adults with indoor jobs or a less outdoorsy lifestyle? Not good. But this condition is so easy -- and fun -- to remedy. My recommendation is that you get outside a little every day -- especially if you live north of the Mason-Dixon line. Go ahead, play some golf or tennis, do a little gardening, or take a stroll. It'll do you so much good on so many levels, believe me. Of course, supplemental vitamin D isn't a bad idea if you're sure that what you're taking is of good quality, and highly absorbable. ************************************************************** I hope this doesn't put you to sleep -- it makes me tired all over... Here's another brilliant finding from those " other " doctors, the psychologists... Some wanna-be genius down at Drexel University's Psych department decided that the world had a burning need to know (using a government grant, no doubt) why that most natural of human involuntary actions, the yawn, is so easily passed from person to person in a group. Really, does anyone care why yawning is contagious? It just IS, end of story! But nooo -- we've got to waste valuable tax dollars (most likely) to figure it out, don't we? Anyway, the finding was that people who scored highest on empathy tests were most likely to yawn when another in close proximity yawned. They yawned because they basically felt sorry for the other sleepyhead. Awww, isn't that special? But does this mean that if you don't yawn contagiously, you're a hard-hearted so-and-so? No. Maybe worse -- the study concluded that the non-contagious yawners were more likely to exhibit schizoid traits that the empathy yawners. That's right: If you don't yawn when others around you do, you're closer to being schizophrenic, in the eyes of Drexel's psychologists! But what if I don't belch or break wind when others do? What would that tell them -- that I'm a homicidal maniac? Love that junk science! At least we're getting some quality amusement for our money... Letting the sunshine in, William Campbell Douglass, II, M.D. Copyright ©1997-2003 by www.realhealthnews.com, L.L.C. 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