Benefits of Sunlight ☀
WHAT ARE SOME OF THE BENEFITS OF MODERATE SUNBATHING?
NOURISH YOUR BODY
The sunlight's Vitamin D is also known as the sunshine vitamin! It is a crucial ingredient for our overall physical health. It can protect against inflammation, it lowers high blood pressure, helps muscles, and improves brain function.
When our vitamin D is low we can be more susceptible to heart disease, cancer & dementia.
Roughly 9 million Americans use
every day to go to bed, but studies show that getting a small amount of sunshine daily can positively impact sleep quality!
Sunshine helps guard against seasonal affective disorder and depression.
Sun exposure can help suppress an overactive immune system, so moderate exposure sunlight is often used to treat autoimmune diseases like psoriasis (as well as other skin ailments like eczema, jaundice & acne). The sun also helps us produce more white blood cells increase with sun exposure which play a key role in fighting diseases and thus strengthening our immune system.
The "sunshine vitamin" also plays a big role in bone health, as low vitamin D has been shown to be linked to rickets in children and bone diseases like osteoporosis. Vitamin D3 is a calcium absorption regulator, so when you have higher levels of vitamin D3 in your blood, you are at a lower risk of suffering all types of bone fractures. Sun exposure is especially important for this reason for older adults!
NOURISH YOUR MIND
It is believed that sunshine stimulates the production of our serotonin, Serotonin is a naturally-occuring chemical chemical and neurotransmitter in the human body that helps regulate - among oher things - mood, social behavior, appetite, digestion, sleep, and memory. Studies have shown that when our serotonin is low we are more prone to depression & season affective disorder. Lack of sunlight has also been linked with anxiety, panic attacks, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, and pre-natal depression.
Scientific studies have also shown that older adults with low vitamin D levels had reduced cognitive function, and other studies have found that sunlight can help spur nerve cell growth in our brain's hippocampus, which is in charge of forming, organizing and storing our memories!
Nourish your body + mind by getting at least 10-15 minutes of safe sun exposure daily! Remember that your genetics & natural skin tone do play a factor, so it's always a good idea to use a SPF 15 for protection, especially with prolonged sun exposure!