Sunlight Could Save Your Life

Category: Health News

In Brief:Sunlight is the battery-charger of life. A daily dose of sunlight will do wonders to your feeling of well-being and to your health in general. Sunlight converts cholesterol to vitamin D, it lowers blood pressure, it increases blood output from the heart and improves the circulation, it increases the oxygen level in the tissues, it is a very effective anti-depressant, and Nature’s finest reliever of stress – and much, much more. Just a half hour in the sun each day is all that is needed and, if you have been neglecting your need of sunlight, you will feel a decided difference in just a day or two. Even if you have to eat your lunch in the park near work, and only just expose your stomach, legs and face to the sun for 15 to 30 minutes, this will have a most beneficial effect on the quality of your life and the enjoyment you get out of life.

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Healing Effects Of Sunlight

The value of sunlight has been amply demonstrated by hospital experience, which shows a much larger percentage of recovery in rooms amply exposed to the sun than in those excluded from its rays.’ (Dr J. M. Hoffman, The Missing Link, p.318)

In 1903, Niels Finsen was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his discovery that sunlight heals tuberculosis of the skin. The world rejoiced, and TB sufferers who lived in cold countries traveled to sunny lands like South Africa to bask in the health-dealing sun. Soon they would be on their way home again in perfect health. The only problem with this discovery is the fact that sunlight is free. Commerce could find no way of canning sunlight and, as a result, few people today realise the substantial health benefits of sunlight.

Dr Zane Kime, M.D., M.S., in his excellent book, Sunlight Can Save Your Life, brings to light the following startling research findings regarding the effect of sunlight on the human system.

A study done at Tulane University on the effect of ultraviolet light on blood pressure showed that a group of people who were suffering from this malady had a marked lowering of the blood pressure that lasted five or six days after a single exposure to the sun. (American Journal of Physiology, 114:594, 1935)

In another study it was discovered that the output of blood from the heart was increased by an average of 39% and continued for five or six days following a single ultraviolet light exposure. (Ibid)

Yet another study involved 30 patients who had hardening of the arteries. Each of these patients’ blood cholesterol level was taken just prior to their being exposed to the sun. Blood cholesterol levels were taken again two hours after the exposure. The results showed that the sunlight had brought about a 13% decrease in the patients’ blood cholesterol level. (Circulation, 8:438, 1953)

It is a well known fact that sunlight reduces the cholesterol levels in the body by converting cholesterol into vitamin D and, if an excess of vitamin D results, this in turn is converted into something else that the body needs.

What few people realise, however, and what all people need to know – especially in these times, is the fact that sunlight does wonders to boost our immune system. According to Dr Kime, . . .

`After an individual is exposed to ultraviolet light, the neutrophils in his blood are stimulated to eat germs more rapidly. In some research, it was shown that they doubled their ability to engulf bacteria. If the sun is able to eliminate bacteria from our air, water and skin, and is able to strengthen the immune system of a host, it would naturally follow that persons regularly exposed to ultraviolet light would develop fewer illnesses. This is exactly the clinical result recorded.’

Dr Kime goes on to tell us how students at Cornell University had a reduction in the frequency of colds of from 27.9% to 40.3% after a ten minute irradiation with ultra violet light one to three times a week throughout the winter months. He also tells how in Russia, legislation demands that miners be given sunlight therapy. One study showed that workers in a factory that had been equipped with lights that provided small doses of ultra violet light had a 50% reduction in the frequency of colds. Dr Kime’s book also points out that sunlight improves the circulation and increases the oxygen level in the tissues.

In their book, Boost Your Immune System, Patrick Holford & Jennifer Meek explain what takes place when when we spend time outdoors.

`In the skin there are cells known as keratinocytes which produce a very powerful immune-boosting substance called interleukin-1 (IL-1). This rapidly increases the number of T-cells by encouraging them to reproduce. IL-1 is stimulated by natural daylight which is a good reason to spend some time every day outdoors exposing yourself, so to speak. According to research done in Russia, exposure to ultraviolet light approximately doubles the ability of white blood cells to fight off infections.’ (Boost Your Immune System, p.102)

Sun-baths, together with a natural diet and life-style, are also being used to help people to overcome diabetes. In a study carried out on a group of diabetes sufferers, 65% of the patients were able to come off their insulin completely after these basic requirements of life were met. Those who did not recover completely were able to reduce their insulin requirements drastically. (Zane Kime, Sunlight – Tape 3, Dallas, Texas)

The long and the short of it all is that sunlight really is the battery-charger of life. As Dr Hartley-Hennessey puts it . . .

`Deprive a man of all sunlight and oxygen in air, all sunlight and oxygen in water, and all sunlight from fruit and vegetables, and he has no resistance to disease and has therefore no hope of surviving for long.’ (T. Hartley-Hennessey A.R.C.A., Healing By Water, p.169)

In a number of countries private individuals and groups have established what are known as Nature-Cure Sanitariums. These are small clinics where patients are treated using only natural methods. The sick who come to these institutions are not kept in bed all day, and medicinal drugs are only dispensed when absolutely necessary. While the patients do get plenty of rest, they spend most of the day out in the sunlight and under the trees. Their prescription includes plenty of fresh air and sunlight, appropriate exercise and rest, and a liberal dose of the soothing sounds of nature. The foods served are natural in that they are served as close to how nature presents them as possible. The results are always amazing and permanent.

Let’s Get More Sunlight – Sundry Notes

  • In order to get sufficient sunlight, we do not have to spend long hours drying out in the sun. 15 minutes lying on your back, and 15 minutes on your stomach, is all that is needed. When sunbathing, always remove as much clothing as your surroundings and decency will permit. If you are not going to be exposed to the sun for longer than 30 minutes, you do not have to use suntan lotion as many of the therapeutic effects of sunlight are filtered out by such lotions. They also block the pores of the skin and hinder the skin in its work of eliminating impurities.
  • Do not spend your lunch hour in an air-conditioned office, but rather take best advantage of tea-times and lunch-times by sitting or lying in the life-giving sun. If you work in the city, try and gain access to the roof of your building. Instead of holding meetings in an office, hold them on the roof-garden, or in a nearby park. Besides the advantage to your health, you will also find your meetings to be far more productive.
  • We must open our windows as wide as we can and pull back those curtains to let as much sun into the home as possible. While sunlight might fade the carpets and furniture a little, it will brighten the cheeks of all in the family. Net curtains drawn across the window may look nice, and they may foil the antics of peeping-toms, but they do nothing to help vitalize the air in the room. If we insist on using net curtains (which we do not recommend), we must at least draw them back for some time every day in order to give the healing, cleansing rays of the sun full access to our rooms.
  • Rooms that are not exposed to sunlight and fresh air become damp. Beds and bedding gather dampness, and the atmosphere in these rooms becomes poisonous because it has not been purified by the life-giving sunlight and fresh air. It is a good idea to air out our bedding in the full rays of the sun for a little while every day. Mattresses too should be left in the sun for a few hours, each week if possible, or at least once a month.
  • Children should always be encouraged to play outside in the sunlight rather than indoors. Those children who remain confined indoors will always have a tendency to take cold; their skin will be pale; and they will be inclined to have a miserable disposition. By encouraging children to run around barefoot in the sunlight, we will be doing more for their health than any medicine could ever do.
  • `Shade trees and shrubbery too close and dense around a house are unhealthful; for they prevent a free circulation of air, and shut out the rays of the sun. In consequence of this, dampness gathers in the house. Especially in wet seasons the sleeping rooms become damp, and those who occupy them are troubled with rheumatism, neuralgia, and lung complaints which generally end in consumption [TB].’ (E. G. White, Counsels on Health, p.58)
  • `[The rays of the sun] cannot pass in effective amounts through ordinary window glass and they are easily diverted by dust particles and smoke in the atmosphere.’ (Dr. L. & D Rosenvold, `Science and Modern Manna’, p.43)
  • The herbalist, Al Wolfsen, has established that, unlike glass, Perspex and plastic do not filter out ultra violet rays. Something to think about when planning that sun-room, porch or enclosed sun-bathing area.
  • The sun is truly one of God’s most powerful physicians. It is most beneficial to allow the sick to lie out in the sunshine and shade for a reasonable portion of each day. Always make sure that the sick are allowed to rest in a well-ventilated, sunny room as nothing vitalizes the air, and therefore the life, more than sunlight. Any room that does not get any sunlight during the day is unfit as a sleeping-room and certainly not suitable as a sick-room, or even as a living room. Patients who are so able, should be encouraged to exercise outside in the sunshine on a daily, or even a twice daily basis.
  • It is true that because of the destruction of the ozone layer certain harmful radiations from the sun are now entering the earth’s atmosphere. Nevertheless we should not imagine for one moment that we can live our lives without sunlight. In the light of the ozone catastrophe we should be more cautious about over-exposure to the sun, but we must still ensure that we get our daily exposure to the sun. Older people, in particular, need a liberal dose of sunshine each day.
  • Vigour declines as years advance, leaving less vitality with which to resist unhealthful influences; hence the greater necessity for the aged to have plenty of sunlight, and fresh, pure air.’ (E. G. White, Ministry of Healing, p.275)

Much has been said about the danger of the sun causing cancer of the skin. With the depletion of the ozone layer, we need to take this seriously, but we need to bear in mind that there are other factors involved as well. Dr. Zane Kime has suggested that it is the combination of unnatural, hydrogenated oils in the diet, together with over-exposure to sunlight, that causes cancer. We believe that once you have eliminated hydrogenated oils from the diet, you need have no fear that the sun, in reasonable dosages, will cause cancer. In truth, once these unnatural oils are eliminated from the diet, the sun, together with the other laws of health, will in all probability do more to heal cancer of the skin than to cause it.

May you have a great, happy, sunny day – every day. And, just think of it, all those incredible healing benefits can be yours – absolutely free – and they come with no side effects.

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