The Sun Is Not Your Enemy: Relearning Our Relationship With Light
- Renata Beilliu
- Apr 10
- 4 min read
The sun is not our enemy, it is our source of life. We lived outdoors for the whole history of our species. When we look into history we find that hunter-gatherers lived 70+ years. All animals and plants live under the sun. You even see it with domesticated animals, they seek sun and then they intuitively know when to go into the shade. Humans also have built-in mechanisms to protect ourselves from UV radiation but we also need UV radiation.
Vitamin D Synthesis: UVB light interacts with the skin to produce Vitamin D3, essential for maintaining a healthy musculoskeletal system.
Heart Health: Exposure to UV radiation releases nitric oxide in the skin, which helps lower blood pressure and may reduce cardiovascular mortality.
Mental Well-being: Sunlight stimulates the production of serotonin and endorphins, improving mood and potentially reducing the risk of depression.
Immune System Modulation: UV exposure has immunosuppressive effects that can help manage autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and reduce inflammation.
Studies that demonise the sun are based on isolated UV and don't take other risk factors into consideration.
Our modern lifestyle is what causes sun damage. We create inflammation through our diet and then we rarely go outdoors, so we don’t have the melanin to absorb the UV when we actually do go outdoors.
Wearing sunglasses increases burn risk because you are not stimulating the hormones to prepare the skin for melanin production.
When we have too much omega 6’s and not enough omega 3’s in our diet, we get inflammation at skin level.
Blue light impairs mitochondrial function in the skin and mitochondria are needed to synthesize melanin in response to UV light. Non-native EMF also damages skin mitochondria. We are living constantly under UV light in our homes and our work places. We are also exposed to blue light through our phones and televisions.
UVB is the only form of light that makes new melanin, which can take days. Melanin acts as a sponge for all forms of light. UVB is also the only wavelength that is responsible for vitamin d production.
An SPF of only 15 blocks 90% of UVB light so wearing any SPF means you are not making melanin and you are not making Vitamin D.
Your body's response to UVA and UVB light is determined by your lifestyle and internal health. Circadian alignment is the missing link.
Heliotherapy: the lost art
Heliotherapy was a very common practice in the past. The sun was used as medicine. It is well known that UV light kills bacteria on contact. TB sanatoriums had sun balconies and in fact, in the early 20th Century, Dr Auguste Rollier in Switzerland cured TB patients through high altitude heliotherapy in the Alps. In the 1910’s and 1920’s ricketts was common in industrial cities with poor sun exposure. When it was discovered that the sun cures ricketts, sunbathing was encouraged. In 1903 Danish doctor Niels Ryberg Finsen won the Nobel prize in medicine for curing lupus vulgaris with red light therapy.
Florence Nightingale also believed in heliotherapy, famously saying "It is the unqualified result of all my experience with the sick, that second only to their need of fresh air is their need of light; that, after a close room, what hurts them most is a dark room and that it is not only light but direct sunlight they want"
Unfortunately when the Rockefeller medical model took over, heliotherapy declined.
Some modern data
A 20 year Swedish study published in 2014, found that women with active sunbathing habits had a lower risk of all-cause mortality and a higher life expectancy compared with those who avoided the sun. The research indicates that avoiding the sun can be a risk factor for death comparable in magnitude to smoking. The study says that there is epidemiological evidence that all-cause mortality is related to low vitamin d status. The study concluded that following sun exposure advice that is very restrictive in countries with low solar intensity might in fact be harmful to womens' health. This study found that regular sun exposure prevents cancers with a 20-65% death rate and causes cancers that have a 0.3% death rate.
A common sense approach
We have been exposed to the sun for thousands of years and we were fine. Sunscreen became popular in the 1930's and then melanoma started to skyrocket. Melanoma is actually associated with low vitamin d levels, so how can that be caused by the sun? Many countries with higher sun exposure rates have lower rates of melanoma. The real issue is mismatched light exposure because we are not getting enough natural light during the day and too much blue light at night.
How to build a solar callous through circadian alignment
Getting outside during sunrise exposes you to infrared and red light, which gives you a natural SPF as it primes the skin for UV exposure later on. UVA and UVB exposure in isolation can cause sun damage. Infrared light primes the cells to make them resilient to UV stress.
Watch the sunrise in the morning.
Increase your exposure to midday sun gradually.
Don’t wear sunscreen or sunglasses.
Watch the sunset to dial in circadian alignment
Avoid blue light after sunset from screens and artificial lighting indoors.
Sleep in complete darkness.
One important point is that time is not neutral; there is a biological time for everything from waking, to eating, to sleeping.
Some problems to circadian alignment are artificial LED lights, late eating, blue light at night. Blue light and sun exposure through glass are two things that age the skin.
In short we need to live our lives according to natural biological timing instead of modern, artificial schedules. If we do we will have:
Better hormone balance
Improved sleep quality
Enhanced fertility and metabolic health
Reduces stress and inflammation
Comments