The Benefits of Sunlight

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The Benefits of Sunlight

Jun 18, 2006 23:31 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 an illness - 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 past 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.

 

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 400 IUs (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. But all females naturally start to lose bone

density from the age of 30 - so

don't think this is only a problem of middle age. There may be no

symptoms until a bone has fractured and by the time you are at

serious risk of osteoporosis, you may have already lost a third of

your starting bone mass.

 

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

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.

 

Lower Blood Pressure

Few people realise that sunlight actually lowers blood cholesterol

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

Western

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 doctor.

 

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.

 

 

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/