American Fitness Professionals & Associates

(An Excerpt from the book “Healthy Habits” by David and Anne Frahm)
Healthquarters

The sun that God has hung in our sky to warm our planet, clean our water through evaporation, and make plant life grow is at the same time a very important nutrient for our bodies. In fact, many consider the sun our very best source of vitamin D, a substance vital to the absorption and use of calcium.  If calcium is not being effectively absorbed and utilized because of a lack of vitamin D, the results can range all the way from muscle spasms and irritability to advanced bone mass loss in adults (osteoporosis), rickets in children (stunted bone growth, bowed legs, malformed teeth, protruding abdomen), and colon and rectal cancers. Calcium joins with fats in our colon and helps transfer them out of our bodies.

You and I have been designed by our Creator with a fluid called ergosterol found just below our skin. When ultraviolet rays of the sun come into contact with this substance, it is converted into vitamin D and absorbed directly into our bloodstream.  What an ingenious way to ensure vitamin D availability and the utilization of calcium!

Today’s fortified dairy products are another source of akin D. However, we’ve already discussed the health problems l associated with dairy consumption. Fish oil and dark green leafy vegetables are additional sources. Because of pollution, plant products are preferable over animal products. The sun and dark green leafy vegetables make a great team for providing vitamin D.

In their book entitled Living Well, Dale and Kathy Martin list several additional health benefits derived from sunshine, among which are the following:

Aids in losing weight by stimulating the thyroid gland to increase hormone production, thus increasing our rate of metabolism. Promotes a lowering of blood-sugar levels in the bloodstream, thus giving benefit to diabetics who suffer from too much sugar in their blood. Promotes the use of oxygen in our tissues. Tends to improve cardiovascular fitness by helping to reduce blood pressure and decrease cholesterol levels.

Although the sun is an important element to human health, it needs to be taken in proper doses. Excessive exposure to the sun will cause premature aging of the skin, and can lead to skin cancer, the most commonly occurring form of malignancy in America today.

There are three types of skin cancer that have been linked to excessive sun: basal-cell carcinoma, squamous-cell carcinoma, and malignant melanoma. Here are some important facts for you to be aware of:

Every year some600,000 people are diagnosed with skin cancer. Of these cases 95 percent are basal-cell or squamous-cell carcinomas. The other 5 percent are malignant melanoma.

Basal-cell and squamous-cellare slow-growing cancers, named for the sort of skin cell they originate from.

They tend to be more curable than malignant melanoma. Malignant melanoma grows fast and is the deadliest form of skin cancer. Between 1973 and 1987 the rate of melanoma increased 83 percent. In comparison, lung cancer dropped by 31.5 percent. Malignant melanomais the leading cause of cancer in women twenty-five to twenty-nine years of age, and is second only to breast cancer in women thirty to thirty-four.   

“Most skin cancers begin in childhood,” according to Sydney Hurwitz, M.D., clinical professor of dermatology and pediatrics at the Yale University School of Medicine. Studies reveal that a history of sunburns during the first ten to twenty years of life doubles the risk of skin cancer in later years.  Most of us seem to be on the “fry now, pay later” plan when it comes to taking care of our hide during our youth. The U.S. National Cancer Institute predicts that one out of every six Americans will develop some form of skin cancer in his or her lifetime.

KEY QUOTES

All life on earth requires the sun’s energy. Charles B. Simone, M.D.,”Cancer and Nutrition”

So important is sunshine to life that denying ourselves its life-giving rays directly contributes to our own undoing. Harvey and Marilyn Diamond, “Living Health”

Our warm friend is only an enemy to be shunned if we choose to abuse our bodies by overdoing our exposureor by consuming a typically high fat diet. In reality, this ever-present companion is a wonderful contributor to our health if we will use it in moderation and eat a diet which helps our bodies to effectively utilize the sun’s goodness. Dale and Kathy Martin, “Living Well”