Osteoporosis
Sometimes called “the silent disease,” osteoporosis is the lose of bone mass due to the malabsorption of calcium into the bone. Bone fragility results in increased risk of bone fracture in many parts of the body, including the hips, spinal vertebrae, and ribs. According to James F. Balch, M.D., author of Prescription for Nutritional Healing, fully “half of all women between the ages of forty-five and seventy-five show signs of osteoporosis.” Although this disease is mostly an issue for post-menopausal women, both sexes and all age groups suffer from this disease.
"If vitamin D is absent, calcium, which is vital for normal bone growth and development, will not be absorbed from the intestinal tract and the bones become deformed," says Zane Kime, M.D., M.S. in his book Sunlight. One of the best ways to get adequate vitamin D is moderate exposure to the sun. Even the World Health Organization Task-Force for Osteoporosis recently recommended sunlight as a part of the treatment and management of this disease.
Prostate Cancer
Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of death from cancer in men over age 75. In a recent study by Hanchette and Schwartz of the University of North Carolina and published in the journal Cancer they found that there was a 20 to 40 percent lower incidence of prostatic cancer among men in southern climates. Because of this kind of recent data on vitamin D, some researchers are suggesting that vitamin D may be an effective preventive agent against prostate cancer. If we reduce the incidence of prostate cancer by 20 percent, it would mean that nearly 37,000 men would not have to suffer the anguish of this disease. The importance of sunlight cannot be underestimated in maintaining a healthy prostate.
Athletic Achievement
Most of us probably believe that sunlight gives us extra pep and energy. During the summer months we tend to sleep less, play more and just have more get up and go. To back up this idea with scientific evidence, Bylle Dopps and Scott Hoover of Sun Wellness magazine quote research from the Sports Medicine Department of the German National Olympic Team Training Center. The researchers examined whether routine exposure to sunlight affected athletic performance. The results showed that exposure to sunlight optimized performance capabilities and reduced the incidence and recovery time of athletes from minor injuries.
If simple sunlight can help world class athletes recover from the stresses of training and competition, it seems reasonable to conclude that we can all profit from the stress busting affects of sunlight.
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