List of Sunlight Posts:
- Sunlight Series – Part 11: Sunburn Resistance Through Behaviour July 23, 2014
Introduction
The last post in this series was quite a hit! In that post, the focus was how to use your diet to increase your resistance to sunburn so that all the benefits of sunlight could be obtained, while minimizing any negative effects. With the right diet, even the palest gingers among us can improve their resistance, ... - Sunlight Series – Part 10: Sunburn Resistance Through Diet June 4, 2014
Introduction:
Previously in this series, the benefits of sunlight in the form of vitamin D production were discussed along with the ramifications of vitamin D deficiency.
Along with vitamin D deficiency, another crucial benefit of sunlight (control of circadian rhythms) has been introduced. To top it all off, here’s another: sunlight on human skin increases nitric oxide in the ... - Sleep Series – Part 3: Serotonin, Melatonin, and your Circadian Rhythm May 13, 2014
Introduction – Your Circadian Rhythm:
My previous post explained what sleep scientists have measured during sleep using EEG, and scientists’
current state of interpretations. Included in that post was my definition of objective sleep quality: going through the proper sequence of sleep cycles during the night with sufficient amounts of both stage 3 sleep (slow-wave sleep) and ... - Sunlight Series – Part 9: The Dark Side of Sunscreen April 22, 2014
Featured photo courtesy of edition88.
Introduction:
In a previous post in this series, I wrote about how the total amount of UV radiation hitting Earth’s surface has not significantly increased, and we are probably getting less UV exposure than in the past. I then wrote about how UV radiation (UVB, specifically) produces vitamin D synthesis in the ... - Sunlight Series- Part 8: Sunburns and Skin Cancer March 26, 2014
Featured photo courtesy of Kelly Sue.
Introduction:
So far this Sunlight Series has discussed exactly what sunlight is, how it is produced, how it interacts with Earth’s atmosphere, what reaches the surface, and an initial look at what happens when it hits your skin. The last post focused on how UV-B radiation creates vitamin D in your skin,
and ... - Sunlight Series: Part 7 – Vitamin D, The Sunshine Vitamin March 26, 2014
Featured photo courtesy of Life Mental Health.
Introduction:
The sun’s radiation that hits Earth’s surface was covered over the last post, where I discussed how the depletion of the ozone layer at most high-population latitudes is misunderstood and overblown, and that global dimming has actually reduced the amount of sunlight the surface is receiving on average.
Continuing the ... - Sunlight Series: Part 6 – Ozone Depletion vs Global Dimming March 26, 2014
Featured photo courtesy of Nasa Goddard Space Flight Centre.
Introduction:
Earlier in the Sunlight Series I wrote about electromagnetic energy being radiated by the sun, and how it’s mostly infrared, visible light,and ultraviolet (UV) radiation.
From my last post, we know that the atmosphere absorbs electromagnetic radiation before it hits Earth’s surface. This radiation absorption differs depending on the ... - Sunlight Series: Part 5 – Solar Irradiance and Earth’s Atmosphere March 26, 2014
Featured image courtesy of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center.
Introduction:
I began this series by opining that using sunscreen is a misguided approach to protecting yourself from the sun’s radiation (unless under extreme circumstances), and that we should, in fact, be exposing our bare skin to unfiltered sunlight regularly. By the end of this series (still another few ... - Sunlight Series: Part 4 – How is Energy Produced in the Sun? March 26, 2014
Featured photo courtesy of Daniel R. Blume.
The past two posts in this series introduced and explained the concepts of electromagnetic radiation, and the - Sunlight Series: Part 3 – The Electromagnetic Spectrum January 27, 2014
Featured image courtesy of Miriam.
My last post discussed the nature of light, and that our current understanding is that light can be thought of as an electromagnetic wave carrying varying amounts of energy expressed by different wavelengths, or frequencies.
The differences in the wavelengths/frequencies creates the electromagnetic spectrum.
The electromagnetic spectrum takes us all the way from ... - Sunlight Series: Part 2 – Electromagnetic Radiation January 27, 2014
Featured photo courtesy of Tamara.
Before a detailed discussion on the effects of sunlight on the body can begin, I believe the reader should be oriented with the concept of ‘light’ itself, which is the intention of this post. I’m not going to explain optics,
but focus upon the question of the nature of light, and explain ... - Sunlight Series: Part 1 – Introduction January 27, 2014
Featured photo courtesy of Michael Karrer.
“You should really put on some sunscreen”
“You’re going to get wrinkles”
“Aren’t you concerned about skin cancer?”
“Any amount of sun exposure is bad”
“I can’t go out without sunglasses”
It seems as though the sun has been demonized in our culture as a potent source of damaging radiation that is ruthless in its ...
Featured photo courtesy of Rishi Bandopadhay.