[rael-science] 5 Amazing Properties of Sunlight You’ve Never Heard About‏

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5 Amazing Properties of Sunlight You’ve Never Heard About
http://www.wakingtimes.com/2013/01/14/5-amazing-properties-of-sunlight-youve-never-heard-about/
January 14, 2013 | By admin | 1 Reply

Green Med Info
Waking Times

Sunlight is well-known to provide us vitamin D, but did you know that
it kills pain, keeps us alert at night, burns fat and more…

Our biological connection and dependence to the sun is so profound,
that the very variation in human skin color from African,
melanin-saturated dark skin, to the relatively melanin de-pigmented,
Caucasian lighter-skin, is a byproduct of the offspring of our last
common ancestor from Africa (as determined by mitochondrial DNA)
migrating towards sunlight-impoverished higher latitudes, which began
approximately 60,000 years ago. In order to compensate for the lower
availability of sunlight, the body rapidly adjusted, essentially
requiring the removal of the natural “sunscreen” melanin from the
skin, which interferes with vitamin D production; vitamin D, of
course, is involved in the regulation of over 2,000 genes, and
therefore is more like a hormone, without which our entire genetic
infrastructure becomes destabilized.

While the health benefits of vitamin D are well-documented
(GreenMedInfo.com has identified over 200 health conditions that may
benefit from optimizing vitamin D levels: Vitamin D Health Benefits
page, and Henry Lahore’s Vitamin D Wiki has far more), the therapeutic
properties of sunlight are only now being explored in greater depth by
the research community.

Below are detailed five noteworthy properties of sunlight exposure:

1) Sunlight Has Pain-Killing (Analgesic) Properties: A 2005 study
published in the journalPsychosomatic Medicine titled, “The effect of
sunlight on postoperative analgesic medication use: a prospective
study of patients undergoing spinal surgery,” analyzed patients
staying on the bright side of the hospital unit who were exposed to
46% higher-intensity sunlight on average. The patients exposed to an
increased intensity of sunlight experienced less perceived stress,
marginally less, took 22% less analgesic medication per hour, and had
21% less pain medication costs. [i]



2) Sunlight Burns Fat: A 2011 study published in The Journal of
Investigative Dermatologyrevealed a remarkable fact of metabolism: The
exposure of human skin to UV light results in increased subcutaneous
fat metabolism. While subcutaneous fat, unlike visceral fat, is not
considered a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, it is known that
a deficiency of one of sunlight’s best known beneficial byproducts,
vitamin D, is associated with greater visceral fat.[ii] Also, there is
a solid body of research showing that vitamin D deficiency is linked
to obesity, with 9 such studies on our obesity research page.

One of them, titled “Association of plasma vitamin D levels with
adiposity in Hispanic and African Americans,” and which was published
in the journal Anticancer Research in 2005, found that vitamin D
levels were inversely associated with adiposity in Hispanics and
African-Americans, including abdominal obesity.[iii] The point?
Exposure to UVB radiation, which is most abundant two hours on either
side of solar noon and responsible for producing vitamin D, may be an
essential strategy in burning fat, the natural way.

3) Sunlight via Solar Cycles May Directly Regulate Human Lifespan:
Published in 2010 in the journal Medical Hypotheses and titled, “The
effect of solar cycles on human lifespan in the 50 United states:
variation in light affects the human genome,” researchers review the
possibility that solar cycles directly affect the human genome.
According to the researchers:

In the current study we report that those persons conceived and likely
born during the peaks (MAX approximately 3 years) of approximately
11-year solar cycles lived an average 1.7 years less than those
conceived and likely born during non-peaks (MIN approximately 8
years). Increased energy at solar MAX, albeit relatively a small 0.1%
increase from MIN, apparently modifies the human genome/epigenome and
engenders changes that predispose to various diseases, thereby
shortening lifespan. It is likely that same energy increases
beneficial variety in the genome which may enhance adaptability in a
changing environment.

Sunlight exposure, therefore, may directly affect the length of our
life, and may even accelerate genetic changes that may confer a
survival advantage.[iv]

4) Daytime Sunlight Exposure Improves Evening Alertness: A 2012 study
published in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience titled, “Effects of
prior light exposure on early evening performance, subjective
sleepiness, and hormonal secretion,” found that subjects felt
significantly more alert at the beginning of the evening after being
exposed to 6 hours of mainly daylight exposure, whereas they became
sleepier at the end of the evening after artificial light exposure.[v]

5) Sunlight May Convert To Metabolic Energy: If a novel hypothesis
published in 2008 in theJournal of Alternative and Complementary
Medicine is correct,[vi] a longstanding assumption that animals are
incapable of utilizing light energy directly is now called into
question. In other words, our skin may contain the equivalent of
melanin “solar-panels,” and it may be possible to “ingest” energy, as
plants do, directly from the Sun.

Melanin has a diverse set of roles in various organisms. From the ink
of the octopus, to the melanin-based protective colorings of bacteria
and fungi, melanin offers protection against a variety of threats:
from predators and similar biochemical threats (host defenses against
invading organisms), UV light, and other chemical stresses (i.e. heavy
metals and oxidizing agents). Commonly overlooked, however, is
melanin’s ability to convert gamma and ultraviolet radiation into
metabolic energy within living systems.

Single-celled fungi, for instance, have been observed thriving within
the collapsed nuclear reactor at Chernobyl, Ukraine, using gamma
radiation as a source of energy. Albino fungi, without melanin, were
studied to be incapable of using gamma radiation in this way, proving
that gamma rays initiate a yet-unknown process of energy production
within exposed melanin.

Vertebrate animals may also convert light directly into metabolic
energy through the help of melanin. In a review titled, “Melanin
directly converts light for vertebrate metabolic use: heuristic
thoughts on birds, Icarus and dark human skin,” Geoffrey Goodman and
Dani Bercovich offer a thought-provoking reflection on the topic, the
abstract of which is well worth reading in its entirety:

Pigments serve many visually obvious animal functions (e.g. hair,
skin, eyes, feathers, scales). One is ‘melanin’, unusual in an
absorption across the UV-visual spectrum which is controversial. Any
polymer or macro-structure of melanin monomers is ‘melanin’. Its roles
derive from complex structural and physical-chemical properties e.g.
semiconductor, stable radical, conductor, free radical scavenger,
charge-transfer.

Clinicians and researchers are well acquainted with melanin in skin
and ocular pathologies and now increasingly are with internal,
melanized, pathology-associated sites not obviously subject to light
radiation (e.g. brain, cochlea). At both types of sites some findings
puzzle: positive and negative neuromelanin effects in Parkinsons;
unexpected melanocyte action in the cochlea, in deafness; melanin
reduces DNA damage, but can promote melanoma; in melanotic cells,
mitochondrial number was 83% less, respiration down 30%, but
development similar to normal amelanotic cells.

A little known, avian anatomical conundrum may help resolve melanin
paradoxes. One of many unique adaptations to flight, the pecten,
strange intra-ocular organ with unresolved function(s), is much
enlarged and heavily melanized in birds fighting gravity, hypoxia,
thirst and hunger during long-distance, frequently sub-zero, non-stop
migration. The pecten may help cope with energy and nutrient needs
under extreme conditions, by a marginal but critical,
melanin-initiated conversion of light to metabolic energy, coupled to
local metabolite recycling.

Similarly in Central Africa, reduction in body hair and melanin
increase may also have lead to ‘photomelanometabolism’ which, though
small scale/ unit body area, in total may have enabled a sharply
increased development of the energy-hungry cortex and enhanced human
survival generally. Animal inability to utilize light energy directly
has been traditionally assumed. Melanin and the pecten may have
unexpected lessons also for human physiology and medicine.



Resources
[i] Jeffrey M Walch, Bruce S Rabin, Richard Day, Jessica N Williams,
Krissy Choi, James D Kang.The effect of sunlight on postoperative
analgesic medication use: a prospective study of patients undergoing
spinal surgery. Psychosom Med. 2005 Jan-Feb;67(1):156-63. PMID:
15673638
[ii] Association Between Visceral Obesity and Sarcopenia and Vitamin D
Deficiency in Older Koreans: The Ansan Geriatric Study. J Am Geriatr
Soc. 2012 Feb 8. Epub 2012 Feb 8. PMID:22316299
[iii] Association of plasma vitamin D levels with adiposity in
Hispanic and African Americans. Anticancer Res. 2005
Mar-Apr;25(2A):971-9. PMID: 19549738
[iv] Walter E Lowell, George E Davis. The effect of solar cycles on
human lifespan in the 50 United states: variation in light affects the
human genome. Med Hypotheses. 2010 Jul;75(1):17-25. Epub 2010 May 7.
PMID: 20452128
[v] Mirjam Münch, Friedrich Linhart, Apiparn Borisuit, Susanne M
Jaeggi, Jean-Louis Scartezzini. Effects of prior light exposure on
early evening performance, subjective sleepiness, and hormonal
secretion. Behav Neurosci. 2012 Feb ;126(1):196-203. Epub 2011 Dec 26.
PMID: 22201280
[vi] Geoffrey Goodman, Dani Bercovich. Melanin directly converts light
for vertebrate metabolic use: heuristic thoughts on birds, Icarus and
dark human skin. J Altern Complement Med. 2008 Jan-Feb;14(1):17-25.
PMID: 18479839


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"Ethics" is simply a last-gasp attempt by deist conservatives and
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