Sunlight:

“Let There be Light”

“We live by a small trickle of electricity from the sun”

- Nobel Prize laureate Dr. Szent-Gyorgyi

Sunlight = Health

Sunlight is the basic component from which all life originates, evolves, and is energized.   Essentially, we are human photocells and without sunlight as a biological nutrient, there is no health.

Ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation from sunlight produces our major source of vitamin D.  Its many positive health benefits, include inhibiting the growth of several cancers, appropriate timing of melatonin production, and reducing seasonal affective disorder (SAD).On the other hand, excessive sunlight exposure is associated with skin cancer, photo-aging skin, immune suppression, and eye diseases (E.g. cataracts).It is generally agreed that there needs to be a balance between having too much and too little sunlight, that you should gradually build up tolerance to the sun, and that you should always avoid getting sunburnt. Unfortunately vitamin D deficiency is a common problem in the United States.

Lack of Sunshine Causes One Million Deaths a Year

“The human race evolved under the sun, and for thousands of years lived in harmony with its heat and light. Yet over the last fifty years we have lost this close contact with the sun and its healing powers. We have become afraid of it”.

Dr. Richard Hobday, Phd, MSc

- Author of “The Healing Sun: Sunlight and Health in the 21^st Century”

Vitamin D deficiency doubles your risk of cancer.   According to researchers from the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), if vitamin D3 levels were appropriately increased, then 350,000 cases of breast cancer and 250,000 cases of colorectal cancer could be prevented each year worldwide. This includes nearly 150,000 cases of cancer that could be prevented in the U.S. alone. Unfortunately, the average blood levels of vitamin D measured at the end of winter in the U.S.are only ~ half of the required amount to provide protection. (Nutrition Reviews, 2007)

Far more lives are lost to diseases caused by LACK of sunlight than by those caused by too much.    According to epidemiologist Robyn Lucas at Australian National University, analyzing lifespan vs. disease. (ANU, 2009;  Time in the sun, 2008)

The Many Benefits of Sunlight

References

ANU - National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health- NCEPH". (2009-12-07) Nceph.anu.edu.au. ;

"Time in the Sun: How Much Is Needed for Vitamin D? - US News and World Report" (2008-06-23) Usnews.com.

Nutrition Reviews (August 2007), Volume 65, Supplement 1,  pp. 91-95(5)