Too much sunshine is just bad for us. At least that's what we had for about the last 25 years. We need to wear T-shirts, some hats, and use plenty of high effect to some degree about old times. We should also stay in the shade is much is possible too.
Too much sun exposure has been demonstrated to cause wrinkles and even skin cancer. The rates of skin cancer which are continuing to grow at an alarming rate in the UK.
There is another side to this, though. Insufficient sunshine seems to contradict towards some different disease. These include obesity, multiple sclerosis and even depression and osteoporosis. Even more interesting, is that we need direct, full strength sunlight, with nothing to filtered out of it.
It seems that the human body has evolved to be able to withstand a certain quantity of sunlight. The healthcare safety messages are confusing. One thing that is apparent is that if you get too little sun exposure and this can lead insufficient vitamin D. The vitamin D is actually referred to as being the sunshine vitamin because around 90 per cent of what we require comes from sunlight.
Vitamin D is a fat soluble vitamin that is stored in the body but by the end of the winter many adults don't have enough. In fact, over half of UK adults insufficient levels of vitamin D and 16 per cent suffer a severe deficiency during winter according to recent research in the British Medical Journal. There has been a similar experience in different parts of the US, too.
Lack of vitamin D can lead to a wide range of illnesses such as osteoporosis in adults and rickets in children.
You might think that the simple answer is to take a vitamin D supplement but there is no recommended daily intake of vitamin D. A healthy and balanced diet should provide all a child or adult requires. The vitamin D is found in milk, eggs, oily fish and some of the fortified cereals. A research study carried out at the University of Aberdeen established that clinically obese women have 10 per cent less vitamin D than healthier women.
