Welcome to My World – Benefits of Sunlight
Hello World! Today I’ll share with you about the benefits of sunlight; something I love but, these days, spend little time out in the sun. Southeast Texas is HOT in the summer and I’ve spent too much of my life in the sun and have skin damage as a result of the dumb things I did when I was younger… If we only knew in our twenties what we know now… How about you? Does the sun rejuvenate you?
My friend the sun shines almost daily where I live, especially in the summer.
Little-Known Benefits of Sunlight
This time of year, everyone wants to be outside. It feels so good to have
You need to remember that the key is moderation & a good sunscreen.
the warm sun on our bare skin. If you haven’t heard that being out in the sun, unprotected by sunscreen, puts you at risk for wrinkles (at best) and skin cancer (at worst) then you’ve probably been living under a rock!
However, while most people are aware of the dangers of too much sun, many don’t realize that sunlight confers enormous health benefits as well. Keeping in mind that you need to protect your skin with a high-quality sunscreen when you go outdoors, let’s look at some of the surprising benefits of sunlight.
Sunlight may help prevent cancer.
It’s not just plants that metabolize sunlight. We do, too. Through a
vitamin D may help you prevent cancer.
complex process, our bodies turn sunlight into life-giving vitamin D.
The connection between vitamin D deficiency and cancer was first made by Drs. Frank and Cedric Garland from the University of California, San Diego. After finding that the incidence of colon cancer was nearly three times higher in New York than in New Mexico, the Garland brothers hypothesized that lack of sun exposure, resulting in a vitamin D deficiency, played a role.
Research now indicates that being deficient in vitamin D increases the risk of your getting many cancers, especially breast and colon. For example a four-year, placebo-controlled study involving 1,179 postmenopausal women concluded that vitamin D supplementation produced a dramatic 60% drop in the risk of developing any form of cancer.
Sunlight is beneficial for Alzheimer’s patients.
Clinical research has shown that exposure to full-spectrum light
do you know anyone with Alzheimer’s. Sunlight may be helpful to them.
throughout your day coupled with darkness at night can help improve some aspects of Alzheimer’s disease—reducing agitation, increasing sleep efficiency, decreasing nighttime wakefulness and decreasing nighttime activity in these patients.
Sunlight may lower risk for multiple sclerosis.
MS is more common in populations that live farther from the equator.
Your sunlight exposure can help prevent MS from developing.
People who move from a low-risk area to a high-risk area before the age of 15 acquire a higher risk of developing MS, whereas those who make the same move after adolescence retain a lower risk. These observations suggest that your environmental exposure, and in particular, your early sunlight exposure (which is correlated with vitamin D levels) in the first two decades of life, influences your risk of developing MS.
Related to this finding, several European population studies observed that there is a lower risk of MS for births occurring after October and a higher risk for MS for births occurring after May. This suggests that maternal levels of vitamin D during the third trimester of pregnancy may influence risk of MS.
Sunlight helps heal psoriasis.
Exposure to sunlight is extremely beneficial for individuals with psoriasis.
If you have psoriasis, sunlight can help you.
In one study, an outdoor four-week sunbathing therapy was shown to promote significant clearance of psoriatic symptoms in 84% of subjects.
Sunlight can ease mild depression.
There has been a lot of research on the link between sunlight and your
I know for a fact that sunlight helps me.
mood. One solid study found that sunlight actually increases levels of a natural antidepressant in your brain. On sunny days, the brain produces more of the mood-lifting chemical serotonin than on darker days.
Sunlight contributes to bone health in older adults.
It is well known that vitamin D stimulates your absorption of bone-
Sunlight can help your bone health as it produces the vitamin D your bones need.
strengthening calcium. The process of vitamin D manufacture begins when sunlight changes the 7-dehydrocholesterol in your skin into vitamin D3. Emerging research is showing a direct correlation between both bone density and blood levels of vitamin D3. Higher blood levels of vitamin D3 are associated with a lower rate of your getting fractures of virtually all types; lower blood levels of vitamin D3 are associated with a higher rate of fractures of all types.
Sunlight can improve sleep quality.
When sunlight hits your eyes, your optic nerve sends a message to the
do you have the joy of sleeping like a baby? Sunlight may help you sleep better.
gland in your brain that produces melatonin (a hormone that helps you sleep); the gland decreases its secretions of melatonin until the sun goes down again. In other words, exposure to sunlight during your day increases your natural production of melatonin at night. Low levels of melatonin production are linked to your poor sleep quality, especially in older adults.
I find this to be great information and I believe in what they’re saying. Do you limit your activities in the sun or do you use a good sunscreen? I use SPF55 on my face as I already had one basil cell skin cancer removed from my forehead.
I hope you have a great healthy day!
Enhance Your Life with Mother Nature! Great for your Mind, Body & Spirit!