SUNLIGHT: AMAZING BENEFITS BEYOND A GREAT TAN

Exposure to sunlight has been demonized by none other than the medical profession, and among doctors, dermatologists are the most vociferous in their warnings about the horrors of sun exposure.

The Medical Underground could not disagree more strongly with this medical malpractice! Dermatologists conflate sun exposure with skin cancers, especially the much dreaded (and for good reason) melanoma. They have poisoned the minds of the American public with this nonsense for the last thirty plus years. Nothing could be further from the truth.

As always, the Medical Underground likes to educate its readers so they fully comprehend what I am discussing. So, let us take a deep dive into sunlight and its many benefits as well as its “dark side”, and as always have some fun at the same time.

Kinky Fact/Nerd Food: The Sun and its cycles:
The Sun generates very strong magnetic fields that permeate the entire solar system. By the way, terms involving the Sun always begin with Sol since that is its Latin name.

The magnetic fields generated by the Sun are carried throughout the entire solar system by what is called the solar wind, which itself is a stream of electrically charged gas that is emitted from the Sun in all directions.

Since the Sun rotates on its own axis, this creates a spinning of the magnetic field in a large rotating spiral, known as the Parker Spiral. This creates a pattern like what you would see from a large rotating garden sprinkler!

The radiation emitted by the Sun is not always of the same intensity, since the Sun goes through a cycle of high and low activity cleverly named the solar cycle. The low point of the solar cycle is known as the solar minimum, the high point is the solar maximum.

The solar cycle lasts 11 years on average but can be as short as 4 years and as long as 14 years. Incredibly, each cycle is created by a complete flipping of the north and south poles of the Sun! This polar flip causes wild violent swings in the magnetic fields of the Sun, starting a solar maximum.

During these periods the surface of the Sun is awash in solar storms and sunspot activity reaches a high, as does solar radiation reaching the Earth. Sun activity during a solar maximum can affect many things, including interfering with our satellites in space, and our communications on Earth.

Sometimes there are very intense areas on the surface of the Sun that look like a flare off its surface, aptly named solar flares. Solar flares emit large amounts of radiation into space. Sometimes they emit enormous streams of plasma mass from the Sun. This is known as a coronal mass ejection. These are incredibly violent and powerful and produce the same effect on the Earth as an EMP or electromagnetic pulse from an atomic weapon explosion.

The strongest coronal mass ejection to strike the Earth fortunately did so before we were using electricity in September of 1859 and was known as the Carrington Event. We had no electricity then, but we did have telegraph wires. The amount of radiation striking the telegraph lines during the Carrington Event was strong enough to cause some of the telegraph stations to burst into flames!

Just imagine how destructive a CME would be to our modern society. Just like an EMP, it could wipe out everything, all of our electric power. No radios, cars, trucks, televisions, telephones, or computers would work. You would wake up and find yourself in the dark both physically and figuratively, with no communication with anyone you couldn’t shout to. However, I digress.

WHAT EXACTLY IS SUNLIGHT? Sunlight is a spectrum of electromagnetic radiation emitted by our Sun. Our Sun is a 4.5-billion-year-old yellow dwarf star, composed of a hot glowing ball of the first two elements on the periodic table, hydrogen and helium. The Sun Is 93 million miles from Earth and is the largest object in our solar system.

The gravitational force of the Sun is what holds our entire solar system together, and its sunlight is what makes life on Earth possible. In fact, the Earth is the perfect distance from the Sun, any closer and it would be too hot for life, any further away and it would be too cold.

Sunlight has three main wavelengths. The first is light you can see, hence named visible light. The second and third wavelengths are invisible, ultraviolet and infrared. Ultraviolet you cannot see, and it is what gives you a sunburn. Infrared you cannot see either, but you can feel it, it is the heat you feel from sunlight.

Sunlight is 50 percent infrared, 40 percent visible light, and 10 percent ultraviolet. Visible light has all the colors of the rainbow. The term “ultra” means beyond, and “violet” is the far end of the visible light we can see. Hence, ultraviolet is invisible since it is beyond violet.

Ultraviolet light is invisible to humans because our eyes block wavelengths in its range and our retinas lack the cones necessary to perceive light in that color range. However, many other animals including some mammals, insects, and birds can perceive light from the ultraviolet spectrum.

Ultraviolet radiation comes in three main types:

Ultraviolet A (UVA): UVA rays have the longest wavelengths (315–399 nanometers) and make up about 95% of the UV radiation that reaches the Earth’s surface. They are present in sunlight throughout the day, even in overcast conditions. While UVA rays are less likely to cause sunburn, they can penetrate the skin more deeply than UVB rays, contributing to premature skin aging and potentially leading to skin cancer. Tanning beds often use UVA rays, increasing the risk of skin damage and cancer1.

Ultraviolet B (UVB): UVB rays have shorter wavelengths (280–314 nm) and are responsible for causing sunburn. They significantly affect the outer layer of the skin (the epidermis) and play a role in vitamin D synthesis. UVB exposure is associated with skin damage and an increased risk of skin cancer1.

Ultraviolet C (UVC): UVC rays have the shortest wavelengths and are typically absorbed by the Earth’s ozone layer, so they do not reach the surface in significant amounts. UVC rays are used in germicidal lamps for disinfection purposes1.

Now that we understand what sunlight is made of, let us take a look at its benefits and harm.

THE MILLON DOLLAR QUESTION: DOES SUN EXPOSURE CAUSE SKIN CANCERS

The dilemma for modern day humans and the sun is all about exposure. In earlier times, before the advent of electricity, humans for the most part followed the daily rhythm of day and night. They had no reason to be indoors ever except to sleep and seek shelter from only the most severe weather, otherwise they were outside from dawn to dusk.

As the seasons progress, their sun exposure increases but by that time their skin has developed a nice deep tan, even in the fairest skinned humans. They did not get sunburns like modern man because their skin (by design) acclimated to the lengthening days by slowly tanning.

If this was not the case you would have historically seen humans riddled with horrendous skin lesions and basal cells, squamous cell, and melanomas would have been rampant, but they were not. Historic photos of Yankee farmers from New England show them to have deep tans, and skin cancer was not an issue for them.

Contrast earlier man with modern man. Our sun exposure is miniscule in comparison. Today the vast majority of people spend almost their entire day inside without any sun exposure. To make matters worse, when they do venture out, they feel the necessity to slather themselves with sunblock. When they do venture outside, many of them burn, and do so repeatedly over the course of their cave dwelling lives. THEREIN LIES THE PROBLEM, REPEATED SUNBURNS, THAT IS WHAT CAUSES ALL TYPES OF SKIN CANCERS, NOT SUN EXPOSURE.

There are other problems with the “sunshine causes skin cancers” theory, especially melanomas. If that was truly the case you would expect construction workers to have much higher rates of skin cancers than office workers, but the opposite is true!

Another glaring inconsistency in the “sunlight causes melanoma theory” is the fact that many melanomas arise in areas that were never exposed to the sun! It gets even weirder − redheads develop melanoma at the same rate whether they were sun exposed or not! Clearly, modern medicine does not have a complete understanding of melanomas.

For the above stated reasons, the Medical Underground truly believes that repeated sun burning is the greatest cause of skin cancers, especially melanomas.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF SUN EXPOSURE?
Unknown by the public, there are many health benefits to sun exposure. Let’s take a deep dive into this so you can better understand why I advise my patients to spend time in the sun.

When I suggest increasing your sun exposure, it is dependent upon the type of skin you have. If you are of northern European extraction, i.e., English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Norwegian, Swedish, Finnish, German, Polish for example, then it is very likely that you are very fair skinned and don’t typically tan well, and frequently burn.

If this sounds like you, then your sun exposure should be BRIEF BUT REGULAR, EVEN DAILY. You should limit your exposure depending upon your skin’s reaction to the sun. Once your skin becomes pink or slightly reddened you should stop your exposure for that day.

Note: You will not be wearing sunblock of any kind during this exposure, and preferably early morning or late day sun.

You know the adage ─ Midday sun is for mad dogs and Englishmen (English Army). That is an old saying from the days of the British Empire, where British troops fought all over the world, primarily in tropical conditions.

This sun tanning hack works very well if adhered to properly and not overexposing your skin resulting in a sunburn. Our goal is to always avoid sunburns which are the problem not sun exposure.

Now, if you are like me and have olive skin and you are of Mediterranean extraction, then obviously you will be able to tolerate a lot more sun exposure before you get reddened. As my cousin Sylvia used to say about my late cousin Bobby: Bobby opens the refrigerator, and he gets a tan!

The benefits of sun exposure that I am going to list below are going to blow your minds, since we have been programmed for decades to think of the sun as the enemy.

1. The infrared portion of sunlight promotes wound healing: What does this mean? It means if you have an injury to your skin, exposing it to daily sunlight will hasten its healing.

2. Sun exposure via the ultraviolet B portion will stimulate the production of vitamin D from cholesterol. Hence, you can lower your cholesterol by regular sun exposure since to make vitamin D your body uses cholesterol. Vitamin D also has an entire host of benefits, and we are learning more daily about it. Here are just some of its major benefits.

   • Supports bone health

   • Strengthens the immune system

   • Promotes heart and brain health

   • Reduces inflammation

   • Supports healthy muscles

   • Helps prevent diabetes, influenza, heart disease, and autoimmune disorders

   • Helps alleviate depression

3. Sun exposure helps build strong, dense bones that can resist fracture and the development of osteopenia (the stage before osteoporosis) and osteoporosis. It does this via vitamin D3 production. Vitamin D3 helps increase the absorption of calcium and phosphorus, both of which build strong bones.

4. Sun exposure lowers blood pressure because it stimulates the production of nitrous oxide, which dilates blood vessels thus lowering blood pressure.
   
   Studies have shown that as little as a half an hour of sun exposure daily will lower systolic (the upper number on your blood pressure readings) by about ten points! When was the last time your cardiologist mentioned that or about sunlight lowering cholesterol? My guess would be never.

5. If you are a pregnant woman and get regular sun exposure without sunblock, it will increase the height of your child. Regular exposure of your infant for a few minutes daily, not ever burning him or her, will also produce both taller and healthier children. I KNOW YOUR PEDIATRICIAN NEVER TOLD YOU THAT!
   
   Just place your infant in early morning sunlight without any sun block of any kind for fifteen minutes daily and the child will develop a healthy glowing suntan. Not necessarily dark, but not burnt and healthy appearing. So many children these days look so pale and sickly, with skin that is never exposed to sunlight.

6. Sunlight stimulates our immune system, helping invigorate the activity of your white blood cells. Sunlight is also deadly to most bacteria, fungi, and viruses. This fact was very well known to physicians in the pre-antibiotic days, and solariums were put up all over the world to treat patients with infections of all kinds, especially respiratory infections like tuberculosis.
   
   Sunlight is known to be particularly deadly to strep infections, staph infections, tuberculosis, and typhoid.

7. Sunlight helps treat viral infections of all types including COVID-19. It does this by lowering the viral load. The viral load for my nonmedical readers is the amount of virus present in a sample of blood, sputum, urine etc. Usually, it refers to viral blood counts.
   
   Why is viral load so important? The reason is the greater your viral load the more infectious you are. So, if you are sick with COVID-19 or any other virus, it behooves you to spend some time outside soaking up that beautiful sunshine.
   
   That was one of my arguments with the “powers that be” during the COVID-19 pandemic, get patients out into the sun to help lower their viral loads, and even more importantly in my humble opinion, to raise their vitamin D blood levels.
   
   Many studies demonstrated the critical importance of vitamin D levels in COVID-19 patients, in fact, the lower the vitamin D blood levels the higher their mortality! Yet, those damn fools never suggested supplementing vitamin D3 to COVID-19 patients even though every study showed its importance especially in critically ill patients.
   

8. Sunlight improves mental health helping patients suffering with anxiety, depression, panic attacks, mood disorders, bipolar disorder, and seasonal affective disorder (SAD). There is anecdotal evidence that it may even help patients with autism and attention deficit disorder.
   
   Most of these effects are due to sunlight stimulating the production of serotonin and dopamine, both of which are mood enhancers. If you look at a graph of decreasing sun exposure in children, it follows very closely the extreme uptick in mental illnesses of all varieties in our children and now young and middle-aged adults.
   
   Vitamin D3 is also referred to as the happiness vitamin due to its enhancement of mood. Sun exposure in the elderly will also help delay the progression of cognitive disorders such as dementia.
    

9. Sun exposure improves sleep by helping to reset our circadian rhythm. The circadian rhythm is a natural cycle your body goes through in a twenty-four-hour period, the sleep/wake cycle for example. Sunlight lowers melatonin production by the pineal gland in the brain signaling to the brain that it is daytime, and therefore helps awaken you, thus there is less melatonin around. Once it gets dark, your melatonin production goes up and you feel sleepy. This is the bodies normal circadian rhythm.

Melatonin production is a little tricky to understand. Yes, sunlight lowers the production of melatonin in your brain, but this is just about 10 percent of the melatonin your body produces. The other 90 percent is produced in the mitochondria (the cells powerhouse), where it is used for its antioxidant effect where it neutralizes ROS or reactive oxygen species produced by the mitochondria as they make ATP that every cell in our body needs for energy. Sunlight stimulates the production of mitochondrial melatonin, but not the brain’s.

NOTE: IF YOU WEAR SUNGLASSES YOU WILL BLOCK THE EFFECTS OF SUNLIGHT ON YOUR BRAIN, JUST LIKE SUNBLOCK BLOCKS THE EFFECT OF SUNLIGHT ON YOUR SKIN.

10. Routine sunlight exposure lowers the rates of various cancers including breast cancer, colon cancer, endometrial cancers and even skin cancers like melanoma! Once again, in the case of skin cancers it is all predicated upon not getting sunburnt.

11. Routine sun exposure lowers the rates of metabolic syndrome, obesity, and even diabetes. The mechanism for that is unknown currently.

12. Routine sun exposure lowers the risk of developing autoimmune diseases such as celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, Graves disease (hyperthyroidism), and myasthenia gravis.
    
    Could the explosion of autoimmune diseases during the last thirty years be the result of our fear of sun exposure?
    

13. Sun exposure actually accelerates wound healing; it also helps skin conditions such as psoriasis. It is the infrared portion of sunlight that warms your skin and helps heal the skin. So, if you have bad psoriasis or have a laceration of your skin or a surgical wound, get out in the sun and allow your body to soak it up and begin healing itself.
    

14. A healthy tan is a great look to have, showing glowing, naturally radiant, healthy skin, as opposed to the pasty, sickly look of so many of our children and young people, who rarely venture out into the sun. Maybe that is why they are the sickest generation in American history.
    
    WHAT DOES THE MEDICAL UNDERGROUND ADVISE FOR SUN EXPOSURE?

    The Medical Underground likes to evaluate any treatment in light of my Functional Medicine mindset. That mindset allows me to analyze how our bodies were designed to work and then proceed from that notion.
    
    Our bodies were designed to be outside all day every day, soaking in sunlight, fresh air, and drinking clean water. If sunlight was as dangerous and deadly as modern medicine would have us believe, we would have become extinct as a species. Obviously, that is not the case, and I have shown you all the benefits of sun exposure for which there is more and more research supporting everything I outlined above.
    
    As I stated earlier in this paper, if you can, stay outside as much as you can, making sure you never get burnt. In the beginning this will necessitate depending on your skin type, from as little as 15 minutes daily without sunblock to over an hour. Remember, as soon as your skin starts to redden, that is your signal to either stop your exposure or to apply sunblock that fits your needs. I for example am dark skinned, so for me, I like a number 8 (if I can find it).

Nothing could be healthier for you than to spend time outdoors. Gardening is a very underrated form of exercise, involving lifting, carrying weights, pulling and digging, bending and stretching, all outside basking in that beautiful sunlight, while hearing the birds serenade you.

What could be better. It is good for your mind, body, and soul. At the same time, you will be growing delicious healthy fruit, vegetables, and nuts, or beautiful flowers that emit wonderful essential volatile oils that do so much for our moods. Spending time outdoors is truly one of those rare WIN-WIN situations that has so many health enhancing benefits.

Limit the time your children spend on computers and watching television on a beautiful day. Teach them by example, and take them for a hike, climb some trees, pick some berries or fruit, go for a bike ride or a swim, listen to those birds singing, smell those flowers, and bask in nature and all its beauty.

As always, I hope you found this paper both educational and entertaining. Share it with friends, family, and coworkers and turn them on to the Medical Underground. If you are not already a subscriber, please hit that subscribe button and become one.

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Until the next exciting chapter of the Medical Underground, May God Bless You and Your Family and the United States of America, and for those of you who believe in Jesus Christ. always remember: Miracle Shall Follow Miracle and Wonders Shall Never Cease.

This disclaimer provides that such medical information is merely information – not advice.
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***Copyright © 2023 by Dr. Ralph La Guardia, MD
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