Let There Be Light - Or do we have to buy a prescription for that too?
By Brett Whitmarsh
Why are we constantly being brainwashed into believing that the sun is bad for us? I walk my neighborhood and see Mary Poppins imposters, people out walking with umbrellas on beautiful, clear, sunny early mornings, and can't help but ask, why? If they are not donning umbrellas, they are loaded up with SPF 1 million sunblock, appearing like day-walking hybrid vampires.
Most people, nowadays, are also sporting the fancy sunglasses that are so dark they block both harmful and beneficial sunlight rays from entering their eyes. Who am I, you ask? I am not a doctor who is qualified to prescribe medication, give medical advice, and "treat" diseases, nor am I a vampire. In fact, ladies and gentlemen, I rarely ingest any prescribed medication because I'm not a hypochondriac, living in doctors’ offices like so many people these days. As an additional disclaimer, I am also not providing "medical advice,” I'm just sharing my ideas and beliefs to literally shed some natural light on us.
The last time I checked, the sun has been up in the sky forever. In the Bible, at the beginning of Genesis, God said, most likely in Aramaic, "Let there be light," and then there was light. He must have been onto something? I am not advocating getting sunburned every day, not that I even have to. I think you all do a good enough job of that on your own. What I do think is that since God created the sun, and most of the plant life and animals depend on it to sustain life, it can't be all that bad, in healthy doses. The key factor lies in moderation and balance. Surely, don't get too much, but absolutely don't get too little. I am not going to be conditioned and blindly led down that path of fear and control toward believing it is entirely bad for us.
In the mid-1800s, Florence Nightingale, who by many is considered the founder of modern nursing, believed in treating patients with fresh air and direct sunlight. She believed both were essential for health and healing. Nightingale became famous for her involvement working at a military hospital and reducing death rates. Sometime between the late 1800s and 1930s, hospitals were utilizing "solariums", which were glass-enclosed sun rooms where patients could receive their sunlight, since it was known to promote healing. Many hospitals then also featured sun decks, rooftop terraces, or balconies, which combined the benefits of both fresh air and sunlight. I'm imagining right about now, you may be wondering why any of this sunlight therapy is not emphasized today in many recovery & treatment plans. I suspect the "dark truth" quite simply is that sun therapy doesn't cost anything, so money can't be made by prescribing it.
According to Dr. Roger Seheult, a few years back, while treating COVID patients in the same hospital room, he noticed the people in beds closer to the window were generally discharged before the other patients further away. The sun’s infrared light can penetrate our body, at approximately 2.5 inches. This impacts metabolic diseases by increasing melatonin, which reduces oxidative stress on mitochondria, and may slow down our body’s aging clock. Hey, anything that postpones the grim reaper from knocking on my darn door is something for me.
If you have difficulty or challenges obtaining a bit of daily sunlight, I suggest you research red light therapy. Biologist Gary Breka supports the use of Photobiomodulation (a fancy-dancy name for exposure to specific red or near-infrared light to stimulate cellular healing). Breka has talked about a slew of benefits associated with Photobiomodulation, one of which is enhancing the mitochondria function, making them sixteen times more efficient! Other benefits include detoxification, hormonal regulation, and cellular regeneration. As of this article, I have been researching red light therapy devices to purchase for rainy day exposure or to begin intermittent use.
I believe sunlight in the early morning and near sunset is very important in a day and age where most of our indoor light, television, and device screen usage favors blue light. Neurosurgeon Dr. Jack Kruse said, "Blue light that is man-made is absolutely destroying us" and "Light is capable of altering DNA". Those statements tell me everything I need to know regarding the power of nature and its role in healing the human body. Sunlight additionally impacts Vitamin D production, mood, sleep, our immune system, and longevity. Some of our healing abilities and hormonal production rely specifically on a natural balance of blue, red, and infrared light.
If you want to really spin your head like an owl with night vision, take a look at the evolution of light bulbs. For nearly 120 years, from approximately 1880 to 2000, we utilized incandescent light bulbs that contained a wide spectrum of "beneficial healing light" which included red and infrared. Then, somewhere around 2000, some genius decided to remove the red and near Infrared light from bulbs. When LEDs were introduced, sometime around 2010, they had minimal, if any, red and infrared. Fast forward about 5 more years, and expensive LEDs were designed to contain some of the good light; however, cheap LEDs apparently don't. Now the real question is, why would a decision be made to remove the beneficial light from many of our indoor lighting devices? I surely can't buy the energy-efficient excuse. Our vision has simply been compromised, controlled and manipulated. Maybe you need prescription glasses...