Sunlight On Skin
TLDR - Sunlight is crucial for human health. While UV exposure carries risks, our bodies have mechanisms to protect and repair themselves. Instead of avoiding the sun entirely, we should focus on supporting our natural protection and repair pathways.
Importance of Sunlight Exposure
Vitamin D Synthesis - When UVB rays from the sun strike your skin, they trigger the synthesis of vitamin D, which is crucial for cardiovascular health, immune function, reducing inflammation, and much more. Unlike vitamin D obtained from supplements or food, sunlight induced vitamin D comes in multiple forms, offering a broader range of benefits.
Refer to the studies listed below for more details on how vitamin D levels affect COVID outcomes.
Healing Red and Infrared Frequencies:
Mitochondrial Function: Red and infrared wavelengths, especially prominent during sunrise and sunset, support mitochondrial function and help build exclusion zone water in the skin. This enhances cellular energy production and overall skin health.
Anti inflammatory: These wavelengths are soothing and can help reduce inflammation, promoting quicker recovery if there's any slight skin damage.
Approximately 40% to 50% of the sunlight that reaches Earth is in the infrared range. This means that even when you're exposed to high intensity UV rays, you're also receiving the healing benefits of infrared light.
Infrared Light: Infrared light is highly effective in expanding and charging EZ water. When infrared light strikes the skin, it penetrates and interacts with our bodies water molecules, causing them to form structured layers.
UV Light: UV light also contributes to EZ water production. UV light generates free electrons when it strikes the skin, which can then be absorbed by the EZ water, enhancing its negative charge and expanding its structure.
This is a large contributor to charging our ‘body battery’.
Building a Solar Callus:
A solar callus is the skin's natural adaptation to sunlight, allowing it to handle more intense UV exposure without burning. Gradually increasing your sun exposure helps build this protective layer. Similar to preparing for a long race, you need to prepare and practice beforehand. Just as you can't wake up one day and decide to run a marathon without any preparation and expect not to hurt yourself, you can't go outside in the sun for multiple hours at noon without preparation and expect not to harm your skin.
Ways to Build Your Solar Callus:
Melanin Production: Melanin, the pigment responsible for tanning, provides a natural defense against UV radiation.
Morning Sunlight: Exposure to morning sunlight helps your body prepare for more intense UV rays later in the day. It signals your brain to start producing melanin, which protects your skin from potential damage.
Avoiding Sunglasses: Sunglasses block the UV light that signals your brain to produce melanin. Without this signal, your skin is more susceptible to sunburn and damage when exposed to UV rays.
Amino Acids for Melanin Production: Amino acids through a nutrient dense diet are essential for melanin production. These amino acids help capture light and convert it into histamine, aiding in the tanning process.
Impact of Seed Oils and PUFAs: Seed oils and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) found in processed foods can make your skin more prone to burning by downregulating melanin production. Reducing intake of these oils can help your skin adapt better to sunlight.
Gradual Exposure: Begin sun exposure early in the spring when UV strength is lower. Start with short periods during times of lower UV strength, such as early morning or late afternoon. Gradually increase your exposure to build your solar callus without risking sunburn.
Analogy - Getting sunlight on your skin or in your eyes is like running. If you never run and then suddenly decide to run a few miles, you might hurt yourself. Similarly, if you rarely expose yourself to sunlight and then suddenly spend a long time in the sun, you could get hurt. Everyone knows running is healthy, but you need to build up to it gradually to avoid injury. The same goes for sunlight exposure. It's incredibly beneficial, but you need to ease into it rather than jumping in all at once.
Considerations Impacting UV Strength
Latitude: UV strength varies with latitude. Closer to the equator, UV rays are more intense year round.
Elevation: Higher altitudes receive stronger UV radiation due to thinner atmospheric layers.
Reflection: Surfaces like snow and water can reflect UV rays, increasing exposure.
Cloud Cover: Clouds can block some UV radiation, but up to 80% of UV rays can still penetrate through thin clouds.
Support Your Body’s Ability to Heal
UV rays from sunlight can cause some cellular stress and damage, but the body is equipped with effective repair processes to address this.
Melatonin: One key element is the production of subcellular melatonin, especially from red and infrared light exposure, which acts as an antioxidant to clean up cellular damage throughout the day. At night, a dark and EMF-free sleep environment supports the production of pineal melatonin, a hormone crucial for nighttime repair processes like DNA repair, reducing inflammation, and promoting overall cellular health.
Stress Reduction: Practices such as reducing stress, minimizing exposure to EMFs, and creating a comfortable sleep sanctuary further enhance the body's ability to repair and regenerate. These practices ensure that key repair processes like autophagy (cellular cleanup) and apoptosis (removal of damaged cells) are effectively activated during sleep, allowing the body to recover and thrive after sunlight exposure.
Doesn’t the Sun Cause Cancer?
Sun exposure can increase the risk of skin cancer if you're not supporting your body's ability to prepare for and repair after exposure. Consider the following:
Are you eating a diet filled with inflammatory foods that disrupt your body's ability to protect itself from the sun?
Are you wearing sunglasses, preventing your body from receiving the signals needed for sun protection?
Are you getting sunlight in your eyes in the morning?
Are you constantly in a high state of stress, impairing your healing processes?
Are you doing all of the above?
Our Western culture often supports practices that prevent the body from properly preparing for and healing from sun exposure. While the sun is critical for human health, many health outlets and the media promote avoiding sunlight, allowing these inappropriate practices to continue.
Studies
If you're interested, search on Google to find numerous studies supporting the benefits of sunlight exposure. Also, look into studies that highlight the dangers of UV rays. Make sure to review how each study was conducted, particularly whether natural sunlight or a lamp simulating specific wavelengths of light was used, as this affects the findings.
Benefits of Sunlight Studies
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160321135854.htm#:~:text=developing%20skin%20cancer.-,An%20analysis%20of%20information%20on%2029%2C518%20Swedish%20women%20who%20were,due%20to%20cancer%20to%20increase.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130507195807.htm
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2290997/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7400257/
I found this link with 250+ light studies. Note some of them discuss the harms of non natural light.
Vitamin D and COVID
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35166850/ - “Conclusion: The findings of this study show that vitamin D supplementation is effective in reducing the COVID-19 severity. Hence, vitamin D should be recommended as an adjuvant therapy for COVID-19”
https://chess.uchicago.edu/vitamind/ - “Using data from the University of Chicago Medical Center, we provided some of the earliest evidence to support the hypothesis that vitamin D deficiency may affect COVID-19 risk, finding that patients with vitamin D deficiency that was not adequately treated were 77% more likely to test positive for COVID-19 than patients who were not likely vitamin D deficient.”
https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/long-covid-treatment-does-your-vitamin-d-level-play-a-role - “In their conclusion, the authors explain that their study suggests a new potential treatment for both COVID-19 and Long COVID: vitamin D supplementation”
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10787-023-01383-x - “There is accumulating evidence to support the use of VD supplements, before and after infection with SARS-CoV-2 (Long COVID-19), as a preventive strategy to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection and mortality as well as prevent and treat post-COVID-19 syndrome.”