The benefits of Sunlight
Everyone feels better when the sun comes out, but sunbathing has had such a bad press for so long that the health benefits of getting out in the sun have been almost forgotten by a generation that now believes sunbathing is as bad for your health as smoking. It is true that the wrong kind of exposure to the sun will increase your risk of skin cancer, but the right kind of safe sunbathing can still make you happier and healthier.
For centuries, doctors and natural healers relied on something called Heliotherapy - using sunlight for healing - to mend wounds, treat bone diseases such as rickets or lung infections like tuberculosis (TB) and to simply help their patients rebuild strength after an illness - but all the known benefits of sunbathing were ignored when researchers began to link the alarming rise in the number of cases of skin cancer over the last 20 years with over-exposure to the sun.
The damage caused by staying too long in intense sunlight does increase the risk of skin cancer but safe sunbathing has been shown to help alleviate a host of problems ranging from chronic skin conditions including acne, eczema, and psoriasis. It can help build strong bones and teeth, lower cholesterol levels, prevent heart disease, and ward off depression. Even better, according to some health experts, sunshine may even prevent more cancers than it causes.
Women who stay out of the sun are increasing their risk of developing breast cancer, a new study suggests.
The safe-tanning messages that are drummed into women each year may help to reduce their risk of skin cancer – but at the cost of increasing their risk of breast cancer.
The majority of vitamin D comes from exposure of the skin to sunlight but many women – exposed less in winter and reluctant to bare themselves in summer because of the dangers – are deficient.
There has been anecdotal evidence to suggest that breast cancer is less common among women who live closer to the Equator, where the sunshine is stronger.
However a new study provides evidence that the lower the levels of vitamin D in a woman’s blood-stream, the greater the risk of her developing breast cancer if she has passed the menopause.
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