Sunlight – What Is It, What Does It Do?

The Sun bathes the Earth in its radiation, providing the Earth’s only external source of energy. Life on Earth, at least as we know it, would not exist if it were not for the sun’s radiation: many forms of life, including mankind, depend on it either directly or indirectly for both warmth and food.

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Sunlight and Mankind – A Brief History

Mankind has had a long relationship with the Sun and sunlight. Ancient civilizations worshipped the Sun as a god; sunlight has been used as a source of healing; the modern fashion for sunbathing and developing a tan is only now giving way to a fear of skin cancer.

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Sunlight and the Human Body

Sunlight has several direct effects on the human body, both beneficial and detrimental: our eyes use it to provide our sense of sight – until the discovery of fire, the Sun was our only source of light; our bodies depend on exposure of our skin to sunlight in order to generate vitamin D, which is difficult to obtain from foods; over-exposure to sunlight can lead to sunburn, skin cancers and cataracts in the eyes.

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Sun Safety

We all need a certain amount of exposure to sunlight for optimum health, both physical and mental. Excessive exposure, however, can be harmful: in the short term from sunburn; and in the longer term by increasing the risk of skin cancers. Therefore, once we have received sufficient exposure, we should take steps to protect ourselves through the use, if necessary, of clothing, sunglasses, sunscreens and seeking shade.

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Sunlight Alternatives

Although exposure to natural sunlight is usually the best way to obtain its benefits, there are alternatives: sunlamps and sunbeds, when used properly, can provide most of the benefits of natural sunlight with similar levels of risk; artificial tanning products can provide the purely cosmetic benefit of a fashionably tanned skin without the risk of over-exposure to the Sun, but they do not provide any of the Sun’s other benefits.

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