Fresh Air and Sunshine

Each day you should spend time out of doors where you can breathe fresh air, assuming you live in an area where the air is clean. Its negatively charged ions are known to inhibit cancer growth and to improve the body's overall condition. Indoor air, that is often positively charged, inhibits positive factors such as the body's ability to produce stress-relieving hormones. There are also many known psychological benefits associated with spending time out of doors every day.

In addition to breathing fresh air, numerous studies have also shown that regular exposure to sunshine creates a sense of well being and happiness that enhances and strengthens the immune system and all other systems of the body. Vitamin D is created naturally by exposure of the skin to the sun. Vitamin D is essential to building and maintaining healthy bones, teeth, and muscles. Strive to combine your daily exercise with adequate intakes of sunshine and fresh air. Sufficient vitamin D is created in just 15 minutes of exposure to the sun in most latitudes, if the sunshine is present and if it can reach the skin of the forearms and face.

In latitudes above 35 degrees north latitude and below 35 degrees south latitude studies indicate that it is impossible to enjoy enough of the UV-B rays to make vitamin D through exposure to the sun on our skin during the months of November through February.

In the summer, the UV-B rays from the sun can create the vitamin D we need with just 15 minutes of sun exposure on the arms and legs a few times a week (creates about 20,000 IU of vitamin D). Sunscreen decreases the ability to create vitamin D from exposure to the sunshine by 99 percent.

Darker skin tones require significant more sunlight that lighter tones to produce optimal levels of vitamin D. Moreover, regardless of skin tone, vitamin production from sunlight exposure decreases with age. For example, a 70 year old would require three to four times as much sunlight exposure as a 20 year old to produce the same amount of vitamin D.

Very few foods are naturally rich in vitamin D. Wild Salmon (not farmed) contains 500 to 1000 IU per 3.5 ounces. Wild Salmon derive their vitamin D through the food chain, whereas farmed Salmon contain less than 1/10 the vitamin D by comparison. If you were to depend upon Salmon for vitamin D, you would have to eat a serving everyday.

Common symptoms of vitamin D deficiency include chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and osteomalacia. By comparison, optimal vitamin D levels are associated with decreased risk of breast, colon, and prostate cancers and with optimal bones, muscles, and teeth.

Symptoms of inadequate exposure to the sunshine include depression, moodiness, fatigue, lack of motivation and energy, anti-social behavior, weight gain, and the inability to sleep soundly.

Also, a nice walk in the sunshine first thing in the morning turns off melatonin production (sleep neurotransmitter) and stimulates the production of seratonin (ready for action neurotransmitter) and is a very healthy lifetime habit. _____________________
ENDNOTES:
Nedley, Neil, M.D., Proof Positive, pp 500-501 and 520-521
Ibid
Ibid