The Healing Power of Sunlight

Need for Sunlight

For years, I was bipolar and married to a husband who had no understanding whatsoever of my personal need for sunlight. That made me very SAD. I craved sunlight. When I was in the sun, I'd feel great.

When I didn't have enough exposure to sunlight, I became a mess (emotionally that is). I would feel like I couldn't get out of the bed. I became very lethargic and teary eyed. Negativity was the name of the game.

It was easy to blame everybody else for my misery and SAD state. I simply dragged and could not do anything about increasing my energy.

Personally, at the time, I had no idea this was because of lack of sunlight.

When did I put two and two together? Finally after many years of saving money we were able to go on vacation. We chose Florida. There in the bright warm glow of the sunlight, I blossomed.

My energy zoomed, my thoughts were clear and focused, and my sense of well being was wonderful.

Since that visit to Florida, I begged my husband to move to Florida. Because living in NJ, without the extra two hours of daylight and bright shining sun nearly every day, I would experience a severe bout of SAD (acronym for seasonal affective disorder). I'd also experience SAD feelings literally as well.

As usual my husband said, "Oh, it's all in your head." (Don't you love such an understanding spouse?) "Snap out of it and you'll be ok."

How little did he realize it was in fact "all in my head," but NOT in the way he thought it was.

Your Hypothalamus Works with Sunlight

You see, the hypothalamus needs sunlight in order to function properly. The hypothalamus is located in your brain. When the hypothalamus is sluggish, the brain is sluggish.

The hypothalamus' main function is maintaining the body's status quo. Factors such as blood pressure, body temperature, fluid and electrolyte balance are held to a precise value or regulation by the hypothalamus. (It's an important little "organ.")

If your hypothalamus is not turned on by sunlight your experience low energy, feelings of sadness consume your thoughts, you drag yourself from one small project to another with Herculean effort, accomplishing little.

But unfiltered sunlight turns your hypothalamus on.

Natural sunlight also increases your production of serotonin levels. Increase in the serotonin levels is generally known to decrease SAD and bipolar depression symptoms.

Depletion of serotonin is considered as the main neurotransmitter of depression.

So what can you do to get enough natural sunlight, so you no longer experience those SAD feelings of depression and foggy thoughts?

What You Can Do: Sensible exposure to natural sunlight is the simplest, easiest and yet one of the most important strategies in turning your hypothalamus on.

It also is one of the best "natural treatments," for improving your health. I urge you to read the book, “The UV Advantage” by Dr. Michael Holick to get the full story on natural sunlight. You can find this book at most local bookstores or through BN.com or Amazon.com.

I recommend it because of its great importance in preventing chronic disease and enhancing health without drugs or surgery.

This may be the single most important book on physical and mental health (bipolar/SAD disorder) you ever read. If more people understood this information, we could drastically reduce the rates of chronic disease in this country and around the world.

Sunlight exposure is truly one of the most powerful healing therapies in the world. Sunlight by far surpasses the best efforts of today’s so-called “advanced medicine.”

There is no drug, no surgical procedure, and no high-tech procedure that comes even close to the astonishing healing power of natural sunlight.

And you can get it free of charge. Can you guess why nobody’s promoting it?

Besides the mental health improvements you absorb natural vitamin D with sunlight exposure.

According to Dr. Michael Holick (author of The UV Advantage)Vitamin D prevents osteoporosis, depression, prostate cancer, breast cancer, and even effects diabetes andobesity.

Vitamin D is perhaps the single most underrated nutrient in the world of nutrition. That’s probably because it’s free: your body makes it when sunlight touches your skin.

Drug companies can’t sell you sunlight, so there’s no promotion of its health benefits. Truth is, most people don’t know the real story on vitamin D and health. So here’s an overview taken from Dr. Michael Holick's book.

Sunlight & Vitamin D a Natural Treatment

1. Vitamin D is produced by your skin in response to exposure to ultraviolet radiation from natural sunlight.

2. The healing rays of natural sunlight (that generate vitamin D in your skin) cannot penetrate glass. So you don’t generate vitamin D when sitting in your car or home.

3. It is nearly impossible to get adequate amounts of vitamin D from your diet. Sunlight exposure is the only reliable way to generate vitamin D in your own body.

4. A person would have to drink ten tall glasses of vitamin D fortified milk each day just to get minimum levels of vitamin D into their diet. Even if they did this it wouldn't be the same as getting the sunlight exposure.

5. The further you live from the equator, the longer exposure you need to the sun in order to generate vitamin D. Canada, the UK and most U.S. states are far from the equator.

6. People with dark skin pigmentation may need 20 - 30 times as much exposure to sunlight as fair skinned people to generate the same amount of vitamin D. That’s why prostate cancer is epidemicamong black men -- it’s a simple, but widespread, sunlight deficiency.

7. Sufficient levels of vitamin D are crucial for calcium absorption in your intestines. Without sufficient vitamin D, your body cannot absorb calcium, rendering calcium supplements useless.

8. Chronic vitamin D deficiency cannot be reversed overnight: it takes months of vitamin D supplementation and sunlight exposure to rebuild the body’s bones and nervous system.

9. Even weak sunscreens (SPF=8) block your body’s ability to generate vitamin D by 95%. This is how sunscreen products actually cause disease -- by creating a critical vitamin deficiency in the body.

10. It is impossible to generate too much vitamin D in your body from sunlight exposure: your body will self-regulate and only generate what it needs. But be careful about getting too much exposure at one time causing a sunburn rather than a pleasant suntan.

11. If it hurts to press firmly on your sternum, you may be suffering from chronic vitamin D deficiency right now.

12. Vitamin D is “activated” in your body by your kidneys and liver before it can be used.

13. Having kidney disease or liver damage can greatly impair your body’s ability to activate circulating vitamin D.

14. The sunscreen industry doesn’t want you to know that your body actually needs sunlight exposure because that realization would mean lower sales of sunscreen products.

15. Even though vitamin D is one of the most powerful healing chemicals in your body, your body makes it absolutely free. No prescription required.

On the issue of sunlight exposure, by the way, it turns out that super antioxidants greatly boost your body’s ability to handle sunlight without burning. Astaxanthin is one of the most powerful “internal sunscreens” and can allow you to stay under the sun twice as long without burning.

Other powerful antioxidants with this ability include the superfruits like Acai, Pomegranates, blueberries, etc. I personally use a wonderful juice called Ciaga juice.

Diseases and Conditions Caused by Vitamin D Deficiency:

Osteoporosis is commonly caused by a lack of Vitamin D, which greatly impairs calcium absorption.

(Now that I have gone past the half century, mark I personally use and recommend a calcium supplement. and a revolutionary formula to maintain my bone tensity.) Should you be too?

Sufficient vitamin D prevents prostate cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, depression, colon cancer and schizophrenia.

"Rickets" is the name of a bone-wasting disease caused by vitamin D deficiency.

Vitamin D deficiency may exacerbate type 2 diabetes and impair insulin production in the pancreas.

Obesity impairs vitamin D utilization in the body, meaning obese people need twice as much vitamin D.

Vitamin D is used around the world to treat Psoriasis.

Vitamin D deficiency causes schizophrenia (a mental health disorder closely relate to bipolar affective disorder).

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is caused by a melatonin imbalance initiated by lack of exposure to sunlight.

Chronic vitamin D deficiency is often misdiagnosed as fibromyalgia because its symptoms are so similar: muscle weakness, aches and pains.

Your risk of developing serious diseases like diabetes and cancer is reduced 50% - 80% through simple, sensible exposure to natural sunlight 2-3 times each week.

Infants who receive vitamin D supplementation (2000 units daily) have an 80% reduced risk of developing type 1 diabetes over the next twenty years.