The conventional wisdom is to avoid the sun and be sure to protect your skin with sunblock to prevent those terrible sun rays from touching your bare skin and entering your body. Keep this in mind - Humanity is also part of nature and needs sunlight for health and well being, for vitality and happiness.
Sunlight is vital to maintaining normal blood pressure. That's because vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin, helps your body absorb calcium, which regulates blood pressure.
That's the premise scientists were investigating in a recent study of 18 people with high blood pressure. For six weeks, the study participants were exposed to either ultraviolet B light or ultraviolet A light all over their bodies for short periods of time.
The people exposed to ultraviolet B light had a significant reduction in blood pressure. The researchers think this reduction was caused by the connection between calcium and vitamin D.
Researchers also believe light directly affects blood pressure. Studies have shown that blood pressure tends to increase the farther you are from the equator and peaks in winter and lowers in summer. It also tends to occur more often in dark-skinned people, who have more pigment in their skin to resist sunlight. Since the production of vitamin D in your body depends on the amount of sunlight to which you are exposed, this could explain such differences in blood pressure.
A researcher at the University of Alabama hypothesizes that differences in exposure to sunlight and the resulting synthesis of vitamin D may at least partly account for these geographic, seasonal and racial blood pressure differences. Sunlight-induced synthesis of vitamin D decreases with increasing distance from the Equator, and h is lower in winter than in summer. People with deeply pigmented skin synthesize less vitamin D than light-skinned people do when exposed to the same amount of sunlight. Differences in vitamin D synthesis influence parathyroid hormone status, which in turn may alter blood pressure.
It's notable that geographic and racial differences in blood pressure and the prevalence of hypertension have usually been related to dietary changes, particularly sodium and potassium consumption, to intrinsic genetic differences in renal hemodynamics and sodium metabolism, and to the social and economic stresses of industrialization. The new hypothesis complements rather than replaces these explanations.
I'm not suggesting you slather baby oil on and broil in tropical sun at midday for hours. Tanning
moderately throughout the year is better than avoiding the sun altogether; sudden bursts of strong solar radiation are unnatural and dangerous, protection needs to be built up slowly; early morning sunlight in cool temperatures is particularly beneficial to the body
In 2005, a clinical study of the health benefits of Far Infrared Sauna Therapy (a commercial product) was conducted by the University of Missouri, Kansas City. The study concluded, "the far infrared sauna did lower both systolic and diastolic blood pressure." The study concluded that the blood pressure reduction was "statistically significant." For more information, please visit www.sunlightsaunas.com.
You don't actually need a indoor sunlight sauna (unless, maybe, you live in Alaska, USA). If you want a natural prescription for lowering your high blood pressure, try a little dose of real sunshine. You don't want to overdo it and get a sunburn, but a 15-20 minute daily walk in the sunlight is good for two reasons. You'll be getting regular exercise, a good tonic for high blood pressure, and you'll be getting a dose of vitamin D
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