Health Benefits of Sunshine
By Paul M. Theys

Cold temperatures are almost over.  The sun is out longer each day, begging us to visit, as it hasn’t seen many of our faces for the past 5 months, if not longer.  Aside from the sun causing warmer days, it also has many health benefits.  Here are a few:

• Sunshine enhances the production of vitamin D in our skin.  Exposing our skin to the sun causes our body to produce vitamin D for use.  Vitamin D is one of the key ingredients in keeping strong bones.  Recently it was discussed in the Green Bay Press-Gazette that there has been an increase in rickets again—a condition where a child’s bones are softer due to not enough vitamin D.  The article stated that the medical community is speculating that the rise in rickets is due to women who are breast-feeding not getting enough vitamin D in their diet; therefore the vitamin D isn’t passed to the infants.  Nursing women need to get enough sunshine to produce enough vitamin D for herself and her nursing infant.  Our bodies are designed to produce vitamin D in the skin—not get it through the diet.  Therefore, skin not covered with sunscreen is very important for vitamin D synthesis.

• Sunshine enhances emotional well-being.  The sun’s rays enter the eyes and stimulate production of several key neurotransmitters in the brain.  These substances help with mood elevation and to decrease the intensity of pain responses.  The lack of sunshine in the winter months cause many to experience a depression called Seasonal Affective Disorder, a condition that is rare in the summer unless a person rarely sees sunshine.

• Sunshine produces skin protection.  When a person is exposed to the sun’s rays, skin protectors are sent to the surface of the skin to prevent a person from becoming burned by the sun in the future.  Evidence of this is a person becoming tan.

• Sunshine helps balance the wake-sleep cycle.  Before indoor artificial lighting, people would wake with the sun and get tired when the sun set.  Exposure to sunshine helps to make waking in the morning easier and falling asleep easier as well.

• Sunshine helps keep the skin healthy.  One of the earliest treatments for any skin ailment was exposure of that affected skin to sunshine.  Wounds healed much faster with fewer complications.

Many people feel that they need to cover their skin with sunscreen if they are exposed to the sun for more than a few minutes; the main fear is skin cancer.  
However, in his book Natural Cures “They” Don’t Want You to Know About, Kevin Trudeau stated it is not exposure to sunshine that causes skin cancer, it’s the chemical in the sunscreen that causes the cancer (page 152).  People along the equator do not get skin cancer; they don’t use sunscreen.

Exposure to 20 minutes of “unprotected” sun exposure can stimulate enough vitamin D production for 3 days!  Most people can be in the sun for 20 minutes without burning.  The 20 minutes is also enough time to help balance the wake-sleep cycle, stimulate brain substances, and help afford some protection against a burn.

Some reasons why you should not expose yourself to 20 minutes of sun daily:
 

• You have a great fear of getting skin cancer.  If this is the case, the fear will interfere with the benefits of the sunshine, so you might as well use sunscreen or stay out of the sunshine.

• You are taking a medication that increases your risk of sunburn—examples are antidepressants, antipsychotic drugs, and anti-anxiety drugs.  The main herb that might increase the risk is St. John’s Wort.

• You have skin that is severely sensitive to the sun.  In this case, use the lightest SPF factor you can tolerate in your sunscreen, thereby allowing some of the helpful rays to penetrate the skin.

• Any other condition as directed by your medical doctor.

Sunshine is one of the cheapest natural health care “remedies” available to all.  It doesn’t matter if you have a wealth of income or not, whether you speak English or not, or if what religion you choose to follow.  It is available to everyone.  Health is available to everyone.  Why not visit the sunshine every day and allow yourself to benefit from its healing?

Disclaimer:  this article is for informational purposes only and is not an attempt to diagnose, treat or state that anything natural can cure any health condition.

Paul M. Theys is a Reiki master and Reflexologist.  Paul’s passions are alternative ways of energy and care for the environment and all its creatures—humans, animals, birds, and water life.  He lives in Green Bay with his wife (Ronda Behnke Theys), who is a Naturopathic Doctor, and their two cats.