This time of the year, in winter, it feels good to have the warm sun on our bare skin. While most of us are aware of the dangers of too much sun, sunlight confers enormous health benefits as well.
Sunlight may help prevent cancer: It’s not just plants that metabolize sunlight. Humans do too. Through a complex process, our bodies turn sunlight into life-giving vitamin D and apparently, there is a connection between cancer and Vitamin D deficiency. Research indicates that being deficient in vitamin D increases the risk of many cancers, especially breast and colon.
Sunlight reduces blood pressure and risk of cardiovascular disease: Avoiding excess sunlight exposure is critical to prevent skin cancer but not being exposed to it at all as a result of a certain lifestyle could increase the risk of cardiovascular disease
Sunlight is beneficial for Alzheimer’s patients: Clinical research has shown that exposure to full-spectrum light throughout the day coupled with darkness at night can help improve some aspects of Alzheimer’s disease—reducing agitation, increasing sleep efficiency, decreasing night time wakefulness, and decreasing night time activity in these patients.
Sunlight may lower risk for multiple sclerosis: Multiple Scherosis is more common in populations that live farther from the equator according to experts. People who move from a low-risk area to a high-risk area before the age of 15 acquire a higher risk of developing the disease, whereas those who make the same move after adolescence retain a lower risk, say researchers. These observations suggest that environmental exposure, and in particular, early sunlight exposure (which is correlated with vitamin D levels) in the first two decades.
