Sustainable Balance » sunlight

Sunlight Series – Part 10: Sunburn Resistance Through Diet

Wed, 04 Jun 2014 14:00:56 +0000

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 […]

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Sleep Series – Part 3: Serotonin, Melatonin, and your Circadian Rhythm

Tue, 13 May 2014 14:00:03 +0000

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 […]

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Sunlight Series – Part 9: The Dark Side of Sunscreen

Tue, 22 Apr 2014 13:00:28 +0000

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 […]

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Sunlight Series: Part 8 – Sunburns and Skin Cancer

Thu, 27 Mar 2014 03:31:14 +0000

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 […]

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Sunlight Series: Part 7 – Vitamin D, The Sunshine Vitamin

Wed, 26 Mar 2014 19:04:36 +0000

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. […]

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Sunlight Series: Part 6 – Ozone Depletion vs Global Dimming

Wed, 26 Mar 2014 17:51:27 +0000

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 […]

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Sunlight Series: Part 5 – Solar Irradiance and Earth’s Atmosphere

Wed, 26 Mar 2014 04:29:06 +0000

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 […]

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Sunlight Series: Part 4 – How is Energy Produced in the Sun?

Wed, 26 Mar 2014 01:39:15 +0000

Featured photo courtesy of Daniel R. Blume. The past two posts in this series introduced and explained the concepts of electromagnetic radiation, and the electromagnetic spectrum. To further the discussion of why I believe sunlight is crucial to health, I will focus on how light is produced in the sun, and the specific spectrum that the sun […]

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Sunlight Series: Part 3 – The Electromagnetic Spectrum

Mon, 27 Jan 2014 05:47:55 +0000

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 […]

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Sunlight Series: Part 2 – Electromagnetic Radiation

Mon, 27 Jan 2014 05:21:57 +0000

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 […]

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