Sunlight for Health
The sun provides the energy that all living things need in order to exist on this earth.
Getting your daily dose of sunshine will enhance your immune system. It increases the number of white blood cells in your blood. It also helps them to be better fighters in their mission to destroy germs.
Sunshine encourages healthy circulation. It also stimulates the production of more red blood cells, which increases the amount of oxygen in your blood.
Sunlight helps your body convert a form of cholesterol that is present in your skin into vitamin D. This results in lower blood cholesterol levels.
Getting enough sunlight during the day can help you sleep better at night. If you are exposed to natural light during the day, it will increase your body’s production of melatonin at night. Melatonin is a natural hormone made by our bodies that enhances sleep and slows down the aging process.
According to some studies on the benefits of sunlight, exposure to the sun may decrease your risk of breast, colon, and prostate cancers. Lack of sunlight can worsen feelings of depression in some people. According to one study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition your chances of getting cancer could increase by as much as 70% if you don’t get enough direct sunlight.
If you don’t get enough sunlight, your body may not make enough vitamin D. Having a vitamin D deficiency may put you at increased risk for bone diseases such as osteoporosis. Low vitamin D levels can also cause weak hearts, poor metabolism, and slow healing of bones and cuts.
Sunshine is one of nature’s most powerful healing agents. Sunlight converts cholesterol in the skin to vitamin D, but only to safe levels. This vitamin is essential for the proper handling of calcium in the body and in the prevention of rickets and adult osteomalacia (a disease occurring mostly in adult women that results from a deficiency in vitamin D or calcium and is characterized by a softening of the bones with accompanying pain and weakness. Adequate vitamin D can be obtained by exposing the face to the sun for a few minutes each day.
- It increases the circulation of the blood.
- It stimulates the production of more red blood cells, increasing the oxygen content of the blood, and thus increasing muscular endurance.
- It increases liver function and stimulates the liver to produce a drug-metabolizing enzyme. This increases one’s ability to withstand environmental pollutants.
- It stabilizes blood sugar levels.
- It lowers cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood. Sunlight may decrease cholesterol by more than 30%.
- The ultraviolet rays are antiseptic; a short morning sunbath (before 9am) several times a day will kill germs and promote wound healing. Even reflected light from windows can destroy bacteria in the dust on windowsills and floors.
- The heat of the sun is useful in the treatment of neuralgia, neuritis, arthritis and other pain.
- It increases gamma globulin – a protein that helps the body fight infection.
- It is a good treatment for jaundice in the newborn baby.
- It increases muscle tone; persons who exercise in the sunlight build muscle faster than those who exercise indoors.
- It increases body metabolism.
- Sunlight has been shown to increase to relieve depression and to improve sleep.
- Resting heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration rates are all decreased after a sunbath.
Source: hubpages.com/hub/Health-Benefits-of-Sunlight
MORE HEALTH BENEFITS
- If you allow your skin to get moderately tanned, it will be more resistant to infections and sunburns than if your skin is not tanned.
- Feeling down? One of the major benefits of sunlight is that it will soothe your nerves and boost your mood leaving you with a renewed sense of well-being. Sunlight increases the production of endorphins and serotonin in your brain, which will definitely leave you feeling much better.
- The ultraviolet rays in sunshine act as a natural antiseptic. These rays can kill viruses, bacteria, molds, yeasts, fungi and mites in air, water, and on different surfaces including your skin.
- Getting some sun tends to help clear up different skin diseases such as acne, boils, athletes foot, diaper rash, psoriasis and eczema.
- Another of the main benefits of sunlight is that it stimulates your appetite and improves your digestion, elimination, and metabolism.
- Sunlight is one of the most effective healing agents that exists.
- The healing properties of the sun are excellent for people who are suffering from various diseases and ailments.
- Sunlight helps to balance out your hormones. It may even help to relieve certain symptoms of PMS.
- Sunlight improves the function of your liver and helps it to break down toxins and wastes that could lead to cancer and other diseases.
- If you’ve got swollen, arthritic joints, sunlight may help lower your pain levels.
- Sunlight is an effective treatment for jaundice.
- Sunlight helps your body convert a form of cholesterol that is present in your skin into vitamin D. This results in lower blood cholesterol levels.
- Other benefits of sunlight include the life-giving energy it gives to your organs and the way it helps to strengthen and vitalize your body.
