The Healing Power of the Sun

Book excerpt: • Shares scientific research on sunlight therapy and tuberculosis, as well as studies on sunlight with regard to osteoporosis, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, tooth decay, psoriasis, heart disease, and several forms of cancer • Reveals how the sun can act as a natural disinfectant, killing viruses and bacteria, and how this wisdom was put into use by doctors • Explains how sunlight affects eyesight, sleep, mental health, and the immune system For thousands of years, the human race lived in harmony with the sun and used its heat and light as medicine. In recent history, however, with skin cancer on the rise, we have become too focused on the negative effects of the sun. Fortunately, science has made new discoveries showing just how beneficial the sun truly is to our lives. In this new edition of The Healing Sun, Richard Hobday draws on historical and scientific evidence to explore the many ways that sunlight affects our health and well-being. He shows how the sun acts as a natural disinfectant, killing viruses and bacteria outdoors as well as inside buildings. The author highlights how sunlight therapy has been used to prevent and treat serious health problems like tuberculosis and other infections in the years before antibiotics were developed. Explaining how doctors of the past realized that sunlight and fresh air helped patients recover, he shows how this wisdom was put into use by doctors such as Niels Finsen, Oskar Bernhard, and Auguste Rollier, who each contributed substantially to the development of heliotherapy. Hobday also examines the role of sunlight in regard to conditions like osteoporosis, rickets, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, tooth decay, psoriasis, heart disease, and several forms of cancer. Exploring the sun’s effects on body and mind, the author reveals how our modern artificially lit lifestyles can throw off our biological rhythms, create stress within the body, and lead to poor sleep as well as worsening eyesight, cataracts, obesity, depression, and weakened immune systems from lack of vitamin D. Showing why and how we should welcome the healing sun back into our lives, this seminal book reveals how humanity needs sunlight for health and well-being and for vitality and happiness.