There is a newspaper article today showing that not getting enough sunshine is perhaps as bad for your health as smoking:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-3570267/New-research-reveals-sun-benefits-AREN-T-linked-vitamin-D.html
Now I’ve always been a big fan of sunshine. My mother had TB (and I tested positive once) when I was around 7 years old, and I remember her laying out in the hot sun in the summer and under a sunlamp in winter for one whole year or so. The doctors told her she had 6 months to to live, but she beat it. She attributed it mostly to sunshine, charcoal, olive oil, and of course prayer.
When teaching in Bangkok at a SDA school around 8 years ago, the teachers would take turns overseeing the kids after lunch. When it was my time, I always made the kids go outside for at least 10 minutes (5 on very hot days). Some of the kids didn’t like it, and one teacher who had some kids in the school got upset, but I was out there with them, playing with them, and most of them had a great time. Most of the other teachers just let them stay in an air-conditioned play room, which of course was easier for the kids and the teacher too, but “easy” is often detrimental to health.
“A major clue about sunshine’s benefits has emerged from a study of nearly 30,000 Swedish women whose sunbathing habits have been followed for 20 years…..when our skin is exposed to the sun a compound — called nitric oxide — is released in our blood vessels which in turn lowers blood pressure by causing blood vessels to widen.
Dr Weller told Good Health: ‘It also appears that sunlight alters the way that our genes behave. Last year, Cambridge University scientists showed that the expression of 28 per cent of our entire genetic make-up varies from season to season.’
…In fact, the epidemiology suggests that overall, people who have more sunlight tend to live longer, even though their population gets more skin cancer.’
Of course Ellen White has written such things as:
“There are but few who realize that, in order to enjoy health and cheerfulness, they must have an abundance of sunlight, pure air, and physical exercise. We pity little children who are kept confined in-doors when the sun is shining gloriously without.” Health Reformer 1871-4-1, and “Mothers, encourage the children to go out into the air and sunshine. What if they do tan, and exchange the pale, sallow complexion for the healthful brown? Let them have health and happiness, which are the only foundation of real beauty.” Health Reformer 1871-5-1.
So let’s get out and get more sunshine!