The Sun is Different!, page 10

Here is an article about the healing power of the sun, for those that think the sun is only bad for you.

News and Views As more scientific evidence of the benefits of sunlight exposure and of getting sunlight into buildings becomes available it will be examined and discussed here. Vitamin D Deficiency Vitamin D deficiency is common across all age groups. There is even a resurgence of the bone disease rickets amongst children, half a century after it was thought to have been eliminated. For the last 20 years medical experts have been telling us that ultraviolet radiation is harmful and that anyone who goes out in the sun should cover up or put on sunscreen. As soon as summer approaches this message is repeated throughout the media, with little regard to the fact that sunlight is the most important source of vitamin D in the body. Very few foods are natural sources of vitamin D, and clothing and sunscreens can prevent the synthesis of it in the skin. So, do health campaigns that promote sun avoidance add to the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency? This was one of the subjects discussed at a meeting on Sunlight, Vitamin D and Health chaired by Dr Ian Gibson MP at the House of Commons, London, on the 2nd November 2005.

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Evidence that supports vitamin D's profound health benefits continues to mount: Unprotected sun exposure helps the body produce the vitamin D it needs to keep bones healthy and ward off cancers and other ailments. For example:

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According to one study, researchers found that men with high exposure to the sun had half the risk of prostate cancer than those with low sun exposure.
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Another study found that high levels of vitamin D and calcium appeared to reduce women's risk of premenstrual syndrome, or PMS.

The above studies' findings should come as no surprise to Harvard Medical School professor Dr. Edward Giovannucci who, in an April speech to the American Association for Cancer Research, spoke out about the proven link between sun exposure and vitamin D production. While acknowledging the dangers of the sun-related skin cancer melanoma that killed some 8,000 Americans last year, Giovannucci convincingly argued staying away from the sun--and preventing the body from making enough vitamin D on its own--may add as much as 70 more cancer deaths per 100,000 people each year. Further, during his speech Giovannucci challenged anyone to find an area or nutrient or any other factor that held such consistent anticancer benefits as vitamin D.

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