The Benefits of Sunlight

[Guest guest]

The Benefits of Sunlight JoAnn Guest Aug 17, 2003 15:20 PDT

 

 

Everyone feels better when the sun comes out, but sunbathing has had

such a bad press for so long that the health benefits of getting out in

the sun have been almost forgotten by a generation that now believes

sunbathing is as bad for your health as smoking.

 

It is true that the wrong kind of exposure to the sun will increase your

risk of skin cancer, but the right kind of safe sunbathing can still

make you happier and healthier.

 

For centuries, doctors and natural healers relied on something

called Heliotherapy -

 

using sunlight for healing - to mend wounds, treat

bone diseases such as rickets or lung infections like tuberculosis (TB)

and to simply help their patients rebuild strength after anillness -

but all the known benefits of sunbathing were ignored when researchers

began to link the alarming rise in the number of cases of skin cancer

over the last 20 years with over-exposure to the sun.

 

The damage caused by staying too long in intense sunlight does

increase the risk of skin cancer but safe sunbathing has been shown to

help alleviate a host of problems ranging from chronic skin conditions

including acne, eczema, and psoriasis.

 

It can help build strong bones and teeth, lower cholesterol levels,

prevent heart disease, and ward off depression.

 

Even better, according to some health experts, sunshine

may even prevent more cancers than it causes.

 

 

Stronger Bones & Teeth--

 

Everyone knows you need calcium for strong bones and teeth, but to

make sure the calcium you do eat can do its job, you also need a good

supply of vitamin D -

which protects against bone loss.

 

Vitamin D is not really a vitamin at all--

 

but a hormone-like substance that the body can only make when it gets

enough sunlight.

 

Since 90% of westerners now spend 90% of their waking time indoors, the

majority of people do not get enough exposure to sunlight to make enough

vitamin D.

 

The UK's department of health says we need 400IUs (international units)

of vitamin D a day to stop the body from leaching calcium from the

bones.

 

 

The trouble is, the typical British diet only provides, on average, 100

IUs per day.

 

Also, the body is better able to use the vitamin D it makes itself than

that which it gets from the diet.

 

What all this means is that a growing number of people who are at risk

of being deficient in vitamin D and thus also at risk of brittle bone

disease.

 

Osteoporosis now affects one in every three women and one in every

12 men in the UK.

 

Described by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as `the

silent epidemic " there are often no symptoms until the first

fracture, by which time you may have lost a third of your bone density.

 

In women, the menopause can accelerate the problem because levels of

the female hormone oestrogen, which helps bones absorb calcium,

declines.

 

 

The World Health Organisation, (WHO), is now predicting that the

number of hip fractures could increase six-fold to over six million by

the middle of this century.

 

This is why osteoporosis is being called an epidemic, yet one solution

could be as simple and as free as safe

sunbathing.

 

In studies of elderly populations who have suffered a

broken hip, up to 40% have been shown to be lacking in vitamin D. There

are also more hip fractures in winter when bone density is at its

lowest.

 

Enhanced Immunity--

 

 

Sunlight triggers the body to make its own vitamin D, which is

crucial not only for strong bones and healthy teeth ,but for keeping the

immune system healthy too.

 

Studies have shown, for example, that exposing the body to sunlight or

even ultraviolet light from an artificial source increases the number of

white blood cells or lymphocytes.

 

These are the body's primary defence against the onslaught of an

infection and are an important part of your immune response to the

organisms that cause illness.

 

Vitamin D also plays a role in increasing the amount of oxygen your

blood can transport around the body which, in turn, will boost your

energy levels, sharpen your mental faculties and give you an

improved feeling of wellbeing.

 

Less Cholesterol & Lower Blood Pressure--

 

 

Few people realise that sunlight actually lowers blood cholesterol

levels and so can be a powerful ally in the fight against theWestern

World's biggest killer - heart disease.

 

This works because the body needs the ultraviolet light in sunlight to

breakdown cholesterol, which at high levels could otherwise block the

arteries.

 

Both cholesterol, which is needed to make the sex hormones, and

vitamin D are derived from the same substance in the body - a chemical

called squalene, which is found in the skin.

 

There is a new theory that in the presence of sunlight, this squalene is

" converted " to *vitamin D* but in its absence, it is converted to

*cholesterol*.

 

Sunlight can also affect blood pressure. Levels are higher during

winter and lowest in the summer.

 

The theory is that without enough vitamin D, triggered by exposure to

sunlight, the body increases levels of *parathyroid* hormone.

 

This hormone not only causes calcium to leach from the bones but also

raises blood pressure, leading to a greater risk of cardiovascular

disease.

 

Protection Against Cancers--

 

Population studies have now shown how women living in less sunny

regions in America have a 40% higher chance of dying from breast cancer

than those living in sunnier parts such as Florida or Hawaii.

 

It was reported that women who lived in sunny regions and who had high

exposure to sunlight reduced their risk of this disease by up to 65%.

 

 

 

This protective effect is believed to be linked to vitamin D, which has

been shown in laboratory tests to inhibit cancer cell growth.

 

Not many people realise that the skin cancers or malignant melanomas

that can kill develop most often on those body parts that are not

usually exposed to sunlight – i.e. the back of the legs and the

torso.

 

Also, skin cancer rates are higher in less sunny parts of Europe

than those closer to the equator.

 

Again, nobody can explain why this should be so but one theory is that

sunlight works to stimulate the body's own defences against all cancers.

 

In the early 1990s, doctors who reviewed all the medical literature

examining the health risks of exposure to the sun concluded that the

benefits of moderate exposure outweigh both the risk of skin cancer

and premature ageing.

 

Their paper, which was called Beneficial Effects of Sun Exposure on

Cancer Mortality was published in the US journal Preventive Medicine and

reported that safe sunbathing would slash the number of deaths from

breast and colon cancers in America by a third.

 

Better Mood, Better Sleep--

 

 

Sunlight also triggers the increased production of the feel-good

brain chemical, serotonin ---

 

which, as well as controlling your sleep patterns,

body temperature, and sex drive, lifts your mood and helps ward off

depression.

 

The reason so many of us suffer from the winter blues or even a

condition called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) - which now

affects 20% of the population - -

 

is that the body makes less serotonin in the winter.

 

Popular prescription antidepressants such as Prozac work to

increase serotonin levels in the brain and so does sunlight, which

is why many SAD sufferers eventually resort to some artificial indoor

light-box treatment.

 

One intriguing new and, as yet, untested suggestion is that during

the summer, it is possible the body builds a kind of " sunlight memory

bank " to help those of us living further from the equator through the

darker winter months.

 

 

 

In the UK, for example, you cannot make vitamin D from sunlight between

the months of October and March because the UVB radiation with the right

wavelength that is needed to achieve this is only present at ground

level from April to September.

 

 

This means you are dependent on the vitamin D store you have built up

the previous summer.

 

The theory then is that the amount of serotonin your body produces

in winter will be directly related to the amount of exposure to

sunlight you enjoyed the previous summer.

 

 

Another reason sunlight is so important to good health is that you

can only get a *quarter* of the vitamin D you *need* from your diet.

 

The rest must come from the sun. Also, as we get older, our bodies find

it harder to absorb the vitamin D that does come from the diet.

 

 

 

Protection Against Multiple Sclerosis--

 

 

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease of the central nervous system.

It happens when the myelin sheaths, which cover and protect the nerve

fibres, are damaged, leading to symptoms such as tremors and even

paralysis.

 

The cause is not known but what scientists have noted is

that exposure to sunlight in childhood appears to dramatically reduce

the risk of this disease in later life.

 

In Switzerland, for example, MS is much more common at low altitudes

than at high altitudes, where the intensity of ultraviolet radiation

is much stronger.

 

One theory is that greater exposure to bright sunlight in some way

bolsters the immune system to prevent the damage to the nerve fibre

sheaths that underlies this disease. Again, researchers cannot explain

why this should be so, unless vitamin D is involved.

 

In Norway, there are far fewer cases of MS among coastal populations

who eat more fish - an excellent source of vitamin D - than their inland

counterparts.

 

Also in Japan, where the diet again includes a large proportion of fish,

there are lower than expected rates of this

condition. But as we have seen, the body makes even better use of

the vitamin D it produces itself, after exposure to sunlight, than the

vitamin D it gets from food.

 

 

 

Safer Sunbathing

 

 

You do not need to burn or tan to get the exposure you need. Just 20

minutes of safe sunbathing a day is enough. The safest way to

benefit from the healing powers of sunlight, say experts, is to build

your exposure slowly throughout the year and to avoid burning by staying

in the shade when the sun is at its most intense or you are on your

holiday.

 

There are two types of burning rays, UVA and UVB. Both cause burning and

 

tanning but UVB was always thought to be the more damaging of the

two since it causes more rapid burning of the skin. In fact, until

recently when it was discovered that UVA actually penetrates much

deeper, health experts thought UVA was harmless.

 

What they now know is that not only does it penetrates far more

deeply, causing damage to the collagen that gives skin it elasticity,

than

UVB, far from being harmless, the UVA wavelength is more closely

associated with malignant melanoma and premature ageing than UVB.

 

And here's a worrying irony - those countries which have taken the

threat of skin cancers seriously and which have encouraged the

population to use strong sun-protection creams over the last 20

years are still reporting increased rates of malignant melanoma.

 

These

include the US, Canada, Australia, and the Scandinavian countries. The

rise is also particularly marked in Queensland, Australia, where

sunscreens were first introduced and heavily promoted by doctors.

 

Scientists are now concerned that sunbathers may have been using

high-protection creams that only blocked the UVB rays and that this

might explain why, despite and even because of the use of certain

suncreams, skin cancer rates have risen.

 

To sunbathe safely remember that frequent, short exposures are not

only safer but more beneficial than a prolonged dose of sunlight.

 

Also, early morning sunshine has been identified as the most beneficial.

 

 

http://www.whatreallyworks.co.uk/start/articles.asp?article_ID=451

 

 

 

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