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SUNSHINE ASSURES BETTER MILK Sunbaths before and after childbirth increase the mother's ability to nurse her baby and improve the quality of the milk, while they tend to prevent tiredness, backache, nausea, loss of appetite, emotionalism and hysteria during pregnancy. Sunshine is even essential to the production of good milk. Hess showed that milk from cows fed on pastures in the sunlight maintains the health and growth of young animals, whereas, milk from cows maintained out of the sun and fed on fodder will not maintain life and growth. The American Review of Tuberculosis, Vol. XIII, No. 2, Feb. 1926, says: "Something also may be accomplished in this direction (the prevention of rickets) by improving the hygienic condition of milk cows. At present many of these furnishing the best grade of milk are kept throughout the year in sunless barns, are allowed a very limited amount of exercise, and receive little or no fresh green fodder." It seems not to have occurred to them, as it did to Taylor, that the nursing mother would also be benefited by sunshine and that it would enable her to supply more and better milk for her child, so that she would not be forced to depend on the cow to mother her offspring. It is notorious that the clad races and especially those who live in the cities and are in the sun but little, are unable to supply their children with milk that will sustain them. Babies that are themselves light-starved and that are fed on milk from light-starved mothers or light-starved cows are at a double disadvantage. Drs. Binbury, Chisholm and McKillap, of England, report that in 50% of cases of mothers who lose enough blood at childbirth to be left weakened, sunshine means the saving of a failing supply of breast milk. Mellanby says: "The antirachitic action of whole milk has been found to vary greatly according to the diet of the cow and the degree of exposure to sunlight. These facts have been worked out by Luce, who found that, when the cow was pasture-fed and exposed to sunlight, 2.6 cm. of its milk had approximately the same antirachitic action, when tested in rats, as 15 cm. of milk of the same cow when fed on a diet of white maize, gluten meal, oats and barley and mangolds, and kept in a dark stall." Not vitamins alone, but minerals, are concerned in this problem. Milk from pasture-fed cows is not only richer in vitamins, but contains much higher percentages of phosphorus and calcium and fifty per cent more citric acid. Cows and mothers can produce perfect milk only when given green foods and exposed to the sun. Young animals fed exclusively on milk from cows fed in the shade on dry fodder lose weight and die. Similar animals fed on similar quantities of milk from cows that run in the pasture, getting both sunlight and green foods, grow and thrive. Dr. Taylor declared: "Nursing mothers, especially need these hygienic influences (sunlight) to maintain the purity and vigor of their system that they may not lay the foundation for lasting disease in their offspring, for the child is sure to suffer, even sooner than the mother, the grievous consequences of her physiological errors." SUNSHINE FOR MOTHERS The subjection of a pregnant woman to daily sunbaths will benefit both her and the developing foetus, and I am convinced, will also do much towards lessening the pains that now make childbirth a harrowing ordeal in so many cases. Sufficient sunshine during pregnancy will not only produce better general health in the mother and better development in the child, but it will prevent the loss of so much blood by the mother. Girls brought up in the sunshine, properly fed, and normally active, should develop so well that normally painless childbirth should be the rule instead of the now rare exception. It is worthy of note that those mothers who are in the sunlight the least are the ones who have the most difficult deliveries in childbirth. The unclad races have the easiest deliveries. SUNSHINE IN GROWTH Sunlight is also especially important during puberty and adolescence, when profound internal reorganizations are taking place. After a fast or a wasting illness, when it is desired to build up a lot of flesh, sunlight will aid in building the best kind of flesh.
It is asserted by some that sunshine enables the body to manufacture vitamin A. The theory has been advanced by Saleeby that the skin is an organ of internal secretion and that as suggested by Sheridan Delepine, under the influence of sunshine it contributes to the making of hemoglobin. He insists that in the pigmented skin, under the influence of sun-light, very active chemical processes are occurring. If this view proves correct, it will justify Graham's attachment of so great importance to its effects upon the skin. Others think they have found that by the aid of sunshine the body manufactures a substance called cholestrin which is essential to calcium metabolism. Whichever way we turn the emphasis is on nutrition. We can no longer relegate to an inferior position an element of hygiene which has so important and so necessary an influence on health and growth. Yet, "noon lulls us in a gloomy den, and night is grown our day." After reviewing the evidence possessed in his day, Trall declared "these facts show us that light, and an abundant supply of it, is indispensable to a due development of all organized bodies." This statement expresses the fundamental difference between the ortho-bionomic use of sunshine and its medical use. Due to the fact that sunshine is an essential of healthy nutrition, being necessary to growth, development and repair of tissue, it is of value in all states or conditions of the body. It is not a specific "cure" for one or two so-called "specific diseases," as the medical profession teaches. It is a hygienic, not a therapeutic agent, and is needed as well in health as in conditions of impaired health. It is needed by the healthy, growing, developing child, the pregnant or nursing mother, the chronic invalid, the convalescing patient, the athlete, and by all who desire to maintain or regain health. It is an important aid in building and maintaining health and we should not wait until we become sick to make use of it. Trall and Taylor studied sunlight as food--not as an essential in certain states of impaired health, but as an indispensable elemental condition of continued active life and normal development and function. It is this difference in viewpoint of the two schools that accounts for the difference of application. Hygienists lay great stress upon sunshine--to the medical man it is of small importance. SUNSHINE FOR PRESERVATION OF HEALTH If sunlight is so necessary to the perpetuation of life, and the production of normal development, it is equally necessary to the preservation of health and the prevention of "disease." If it is as necessary to life and health as are food and air, the body must inevitably be weakened and "diseased" in its absence. It fills an important need in the organism and its place cannot be filled by anything else. The highest degree of health cannot be attained and maintained without it. It is essential to the restoration of health and hastens recovery in all forms of illness. I agree with Saleeby, who declares: "Every Sanitarium which is not essentially a solarium must today be called a tragic farce." Etiolated plants are structurally weaker, possess less resistance to weather changes and to "disease" influences. They are unable to fructify and often unable to put forth leaves. "Etiolated" animals are the same. Their bones are more delicate, tissues less firm and resistant; they are short-lived, subject to "disease" and possess less resistance to weather changes. Plants grown in the dark lack color, and are unable to flower and fructify. Some of them, like the potato, are unable to put forth leaves. They are of very poor quality, breaking easily, and short-lived. Every cell and fiber in the plant and animal body is strengthened by the sun's rays. People who live in-doors out of the sun, are pale, weak and flabby. Every home should have a solarium. Sunlight dominates the chemistry of the blood. People who do not get sunlight do not have the same richness and redness of blood as do those who secure plenty of sunlight. It is not merely that their skins are etiolated (pale and white), but one may appropriately say that their blood and inner tissues are also pale. There is not a tissue nor a function in the body that is not benefited by regular and judicious sun-bathing. Many experiments both in this country and England have shown, to use Saleeby's words, that "without any amelioration of a thoroughly vicious and defective diet, the amount of phosphorus in the blood will be doubled after a week or two of daily exposure, lasting a few minutes only, to sunlight. Some chemical process is thus begun, some ferment, or internal secretion, or 'hormone,' constructed which enables the body to take and keep and use, from the diet, what it would otherwise have to go without. And the children at the school in the sun, most inexpensively and simply fed without medicine or cod-liver oil, flourish and grow strong and straight, and remain so, doubtless because these mysterious and as yet unexamined vital processes are set going in their bodies by the prime source of all life and health." Quinke and Behring have shown that the oxygen consumption of living cells, is vastly greater in light than in darkness. Light, by increasing the chlorophyll in plants, and hemoglobin in animals, both of these being oxygen carriers, exerts an enormous influence on the metabolic processes of oxidation, reduction and synthesis. Sunlight greatly increases the body's consumption of oxygen. Through added numbers of red cells and increase in their hemoglobin, the oxygen carrying power of the blood is increased. Indeed, sunlight benefits the ailing human body in the same manner that it influences impoverished plant life--in both cases it increases the oxygen-carrying matter--hemoglobin or chlorophyll. Heitel found that the double spectrum line of oxygen in the coloring matter of the blood is diminished by the action of light, to the single band of reduced hemoglobin. Light acts on the one hand to disrupt the oxygen molecule from its loose connection with the hemoglobin, and on the other hand, to facilitate its combination with oxidizable food substances. Behring and Meyer pointed out that this process consists in activating certain oxidation ferments present in the blood (peroxidosis). A few minutes of exposure daily to the sunlight will double the quantity of phosphorus in a baby's blood in a fortnight. The circulation of the blood itself is improved while blood-pressure is lessened. The power of the blood to build and repair tissue is increased, and its coagulating power greatly improved. Sun baths are indispensable to hemopheliacs or "bleeders."
Dr. James C. Jackson says that "a man who lives out in sunlight will grow thin in flesh but full in nerve. His muscles will diminish, but as they diminish his nerves become increased in size and strengthened, and their action on the muscles is such as decidedly to strengthen these; so that when one comes to look at him and judge of his strength by his apparent bulk, if he does not understand and fully appreciate the effect of living largely in the sunlight, he will greatly misjudge his muscular capacities." In view of our greater knowledge of the influence of the sun upon the muscles, we are sure that what Dr. Jackson mistook for a decrease in muscular size coincident with an increase in strength and endurance, was, in reality, a loss of the fat in the muscles. It is not likely that the nerves increased much, if any, in size, but it is certain that they improved in quality and condition and increased their control over the muscles. Describing tubercular patients, which he saw at Rollier's place, who received no exercise, and whose bodies were warm, though nude, while the air was quite cool, Saleeby says: "This would seem to be a puzzle, for these patients have, in many instances, never moved a muscle--practically speaking--for months; they have not even had their muscles innervated (sic) by the farradic current; they have not been massaged. But always the muscles are firm and well developed under the warm skin. 'The sun is the best masseur,' said Dr. Rollier to me; and one realized that the stimulant light, playing upon the nude skin in the cool air, induces and maintains that condition of tone in the muscles which, indeed, moves no points but is yet a form of muscular activity essential for the production of bodily heat and for the proper posture of the bodily parts. Hence we understand how plaster of Paris is here as utterly unknown as the knife. The tone of the muscles, thanks to the nude skin and the reflex response to the light, is enough to keep the recovering young spine, for instance, in proper position, and to form what Rollier calls the 'corset musculaire.' One sees very little fat on any of the patients. Their condition is more like that of the trained athlete, and one's ideas as to the importance of fat in tuberculosis go by the board." Sunshine In Sickness CHAPTER XLI It should not be assumed that sunlight is, in itself, a cure for "disease." It is supplementary to other hygienic or nutritive factors--it is not a cure. It may be used in building health, in improving the nutrition of the body, but not as a therapeutic measure. The true lesson of all that has gone before is one of hygiene, not one of therapeutics. We will have learned our lesson well when we have eliminated smoke from our cities, blinds, shutters, shades, etc., from our windows, remedied the crowded, sunless sections of our cities, provided parks and playgrounds for our city children, equipped the roofs of all apartment buildings with sections for sun-bathing, provided free public sun-parks for the sexes of the cities, and learned to wear clothing that permits the sunlight to reach the body, or else, as suggested by Graham, go nude, except in the most inclement weather. Every woman is very careful to put her pot plants out into the sun--why not her children also? Sunlight is especially important to the growing, developing child. The offspring of undernourished and tubercular parents, or children of the scrofulous diathesis should have a superabundance of sunshine throughout their entire childhood. Scrofulous children particularly need sunshine; they are anemic little human flowers which will bloom properly only if transplanted from dark, damp, tenements to sunny sections. The great influence of sunshine upon the development of the bones has been previously shown. Graham spoke truly when he declared: "If man were always to go entirely naked, the bones would be less liable to disease and distortion." Cartilage is transformed into bone when the calcium and phosphorus salts are properly utilized by it. Only through the aid of sunshine, particularly the ultra-violet rays, may the laying down and fixation of phosphorus and calcium be accomplished in an ideal way. Dr. W. T. Bowie, Professor of Biophysics, Harvard, gathered statistics which show that about ninety-seven per cent of all the babies born in our northern cities are afflicted, to a greater or lesser extent, with rickets. Dr. Bowie raised two flocks of chickens in a green house. Both flocks were fed the same food, given the same space in which to run about, both wallowed in the same dust and scratched the same gravel. Their conditions of life were identical, except for the fact that one flock was exposed for fifteen minutes a day to the ultra-violet rays of the quartz lamp. Seventy-five per cent of those not receiving the light died of "weak legs" (rickets), while the survivors were by no means normal. All those treated by the ultra-violet rays, except a few killed by rats, lived. These latter were larger and more vigorous than those raised under the glass of the green house, but which received no ultra-violet light. Ordinary glass does not permit the ultra-violet rays to pass through. Basking in the warmth and light of the sun that passes through the window pane is of small value in the prevention of "disease" or the restoration of health. The unfiltered rays of the sun alone are capable of assisting the work of metabolism. The evidence is clear from animal experiment and human experience that if a child receives an abundance of sunlight it will thrive on almost any kind of diet, whereas, if you deprive it of sunlight, it will not thrive well on the best of diets. Sunlight is one of the most important elements of the natural diet. Every child should have sunlight before birth and after birth. No "just-as-good" substitutes should be used. Despite the claims made for cod-liver oil, by the huge commercial enterprises built around this substance, it cannot take the place of sunshine. More than once I have taken children suffering from rickets, who were growing worse on cod-liver oil and quartz lamp treatment, and seen them begin immediately to make rapid improvement when orange juice was substituted for the cod-liver oil and sunshine displaced the lamplight. Rachitic bones are defective, mis-shapen, brittle and easily broken. They get this way due to a lack of sunshine. Rickets presents deficient calcification of the bones, with a tendency of the weakened bones to bend. Swelling occurs in the cartilaginous zones at the ends of the bones of the limbs, so that the joints become thickened. Globular swellings form on the ends of the ribs along the sternum, forming the so-called rachitic wreath. Permanent deformation of the bones and joints is the usual result. Sunlight causes an increase in calcification of the bones to set in immediately. Deformities are straightened and overcome. Sunlight is far superior to quartz light in this condition. On July 1, 1929 the United States Children's Bureau made public its figures which were held to show that lack of sunshine is the direct cause of rickets in children, and that lack of food or deficient food is not a contributing cause. These statistics, which are held to prove that the sun-bath alone will give immunity to juvenile bone "diseases," are the result of prolonged study of children in Porto Rico, where an abundance of sunshine wholly prevents rickets in badly undernourished children. Out of 584 children whose forearms were X-ray photographed, only one showed active rickets, and this child had always lived in an artificially lighted cellar. Of all the children examined, 68% were tanned by the sun; 88% lived in houses that permitted the free access of an abundance of sunshine; 10% lived in houses that admitted a fair amount of sunshine and only 2% lived in dark houses. H. B. Cushman, who was born among the Indians, of missionary parents, while they were still east of the Mississippi, and who went west with them when they were ruthlessly driven from their homelands, spending nearly seventy years among them, says in his History of the Choctaw, Chickasau and Natchez Indians, (1889) p. 246, that among the Choctaws, "deformity was almost unknown, proving that nature in the wild forest of the wilderness is true to her type." Again, "It is said of the Natchez, 'that the sight was never shocked by the appearance of deformity,' such as are so frequently observed among the white race; and with equal truth the same may be said of all the North American Indians."--p. 533. George Catlin tells us that "amongst two millions of these people" (Indians) he met with "very few cases of deformity." It is important in this connection, that we take account of the fact that there was no tuberculosis, anemia, leukemia, rickets, no hunch-backs, no bow-legs, no idiots or lunatics, no defective teeth, no deaf and dumb, and almost no deaths either of mother or child in child-birth, and few skin "diseases" among the Indians before the white man "civilized" them--that is, clothed them, gave them "firewater" to drink, cooped them up on reservations and taught them to eat white bread, salt-bacon, black coffee and sorghum molasses. Rickets and tuberculosis, like scurvy, should be regarded as "deficiency diseases," largely due to lack of sunlight. Rickets is said to be unknown in light-loving animals. Dark-skinned races do not absorb sunshine as rapidly as the lighter skinned peoples and, consequently, when housed, clothed and transplanted to regions where there is less sunshine, suffer more from light starvation than do the light-skinned races under the same limitations of exposure to sunlight. It requires more sun-shine to remedy rickets in negro than in Caucasian children. Although the following description by Trall, of the condition of certain sections of our city children was written a hundred years ago, it needs slight, if any, modification to fit many sections of the larger cities of today. He says: "Almost the entire population of our large cities, who occupy back rooms and rear buildings, where the sun never shines, and cellars and vaults below the level of the ground on the shaded side of narrow streets, is more or less diseased. Of those who do not die of acute diseases, a majority exhibit unmistakable marks of imperfect development and deficient vitality, and in fact, as with animals and vegetables in like circumstances, often run into deformities and monstrosities, not more reproachfully, however, to those parents who propagate under such disadvantages, than disgraceful to the city, state or national government which either compels or permits any class of its citizens to live in such abodes." After due consideration of the influence of light in promoting the development of animals, Trall declared that the exposure of the whole surface of the body to light is favorable to symmetrical development and offered insolation in the open air as a means of preventing and remedying rickets and scrofulous conditions. Then he adds: "All persons in order to acquire and maintain the best condition of health and strength, should be frequently exposed to the light of the sun, except when oppressively hot. Children are generally maltreated, more especially in cities, in being kept almost entirely excluded from sunshine. Many good mothers are more fond of the delicate faces and pale complexions of their little ones, than intelligent in relation to their physiological welfare. A little sun-browning occasionally of their faces, necks, hands and feet, and, finally of their whole bodies, would not only render their development more perfect and enduring, but tend to the production of the greatest symmetry and beauty in manhood and womanhood. Parents should not be too careful in putting umbrella-hats and bonnet-sunshades on the heads of their children every time they run out of doors." Sunlight will prove a spring of renewed health for those who are ailing. In the mountains, at the seashore, or on the plains, the sun's rays are beneficial and meet the needs of plant and animal life. The number of sunny days during the year, even in northern countries, will permit utmost advantages to health if properly utilized. The Southern United States is far better endowed for sun baths than either Germany or Switzerland. Sunbathing is no panacea. It is only one of several vital factors in restoring and maintaining health, but it is of sufficient importance that it should never be neglected. Dr. Saleeby says: "The clinical evidence is clear that when the sunlight fails, as it not infrequently does at Lysen, the patients are injured, and that they prosper when it returns. The natural process of excretion of rubbish--such as a morsel of dead bone--may be observed to cease in obscure weather, and may be resumed when the process of insolation is again permitted by the atmospheric conditions." Such facts make it clear that sunlight is used in some more subtle and more fundamental manner than that of killing bacteria. This is further proved by the fact that it beneficially influences deep-seated local affections, when applied to the skin, and by its beneficial effects upon affections and wounds, which no one supposes to be due to germs. Although medical men do not employ sunlight in all conditions, as do Hygienists, they are coming more and more to see its value in many conditions in which formerly they did not consider it useful. When once they have grasped the fact that it is a hygienic and not a therapeutic method, and when they understand the unity of "disease," they will be better able to appreciate its universal use by Hygienists. Rollier's records, covering over twenty years include recoveries of extreme cases of spinal tuberculosis, with paralyzed lower limbs, etc., pulmonary tuberculosis included, rickets, many skin "diseases," varicose ulcers, many of these of long standing, war-wounds, non-healing operative wounds, osteomyelitis, bed sores, etc. We are informed that bronchitis, colds in the head and rheumatism do not develop at his place in Lysen, although germs must be plentiful. Cautiously applied, sunbathing is very valuable in nervous affections. It is invaluable in cases of glandular inactivity. Irregularities of ovulation, pubertal difficulties, impotency and other glandular difficulties are favorably affected by sunshine. Acne, representing disturbances of the glands of the skin, is quickly helped by the sun's rays. Psoriasis is also speedily improved by sun-bathing. Due to the effect of sunshine in increasing the coagulating power of the blood, sunbathing is of inestimable value to sufferers from uterine hemorrhage. Dr. James C. Jackson, observed that "persons who could not be made to sleep by administration of opiates in any of their various forms are peculiarly good subjects for nervous sedation under sunlight; and that persons who are readily affected to sleep by the use of opium in one or other of its various forms, do not readily go to sleep when lying down in the sun. I think it will be found true, as a general fact, that all persons who take opiates fall asleep better in darkened than in lightened rooms; and that persons who are made awake by the use of opiates go to sleep better in light or sunshine than in shaded or darkened rooms." Corpulent, anemic individuals have their weight decreased by sun-bathing, due to acceleration of the oxidation of fat, although most people gain weight. The unhealthy increase in fat so much sought after in tuberculosis is certainly not desirable. The sun-bath, by increasing oxidation, affords greater relief to the fat-burdened patient. All forms of tuberculosis are favorably influenced by sunlight. Bone, glandular and pulmonary tuberculosis each yield to the kindly influence of the rays of old Sol. The intense suffering endured by those with bone tuberculosis speedily stops under sun-bathing. Rollier, "discards meat, except very rarely, absolutely excludes alcohol, in all stages of all cases of tuberculosis, gives no cod-liver oil," and "detests and scrupulously avoids" "overfeeding, hitherto a cardinal principle in the therapeutics of tuberculosis." He condemns the cutting out of tubercular glands which form part of nature's first lines of defense. Indeed, Rollier has adopted the nature cure or Hygienic plan almost in its entirety and we naturally suspect him of having browsed among the books of the "quacks." The removal of tonsils, adenoids and scrofulous glands aggravates and does not help the tubercular condition. Surgical treatment for the diseased glands is very unwise. The sun's light is not a salve or an ointment. Great as are its effects, however, when applied locally, it cannot be made to suppress a local effect of a general or systemic condition. In London, in Aug. 1922, patients who had been given local light treatments, applied to the "diseased" areas, but who had failed to improve, were given general sun baths, without exposure of the "diseased" areas at all, and they all recovered rapidly. These results serve to further confirm the orthopathic premise that these local effects are secondary to the general effect and that all "treatment" must be constitutional. Those little quartz rods and tubes in the offices of the physio-therapists and physicians, for insertion into and treatment of the nose, throat, ear and other orifices of the body, are wrong in principle and failures in application. In some parts of the world, England, for example, the complaint is made that there is not sufficient sun. But these parts receive enough sun to supply the needs of plants and animals--why not enough for man? The statement that the temperate zone does not supply enough sunshine for man usually has a commercial basis. It comes from those who exploit lamps. So-called primitive races the world over, the present-day Canadians and the plants and animals in the temperate regions, prove that these regions do supply sufficient sunshine. While it is true that in the higher altitudes one receives more of the beneficial rays of the sun, it is also a fact that both plants and animals may receive sufficient of these at sea level or below sea level, to enable them to maintain health, growth and development, and to reproduce themselves. Indeed, there is no habitable part of the earth where there is not sufficient sunshine to supply the needs of man. Even the denizens of the jungle receive sufficient sunlight. Man in the jungle does likewise. It is the over-clad, over-housed, inhabitant of the smoky cities who is deprived of his fair share of the sun. Those who live in the modern caves that line the canyon walls of our modern cities and who dress in heavy, dark clothing, suffer most. In northern latitudes, when the sun is not always available in winter, it is wise to lay in an ample supply of sun-made reserves during the sunny seasons. Stored capacities and substances constitute the reserve power of an organism; power held out of activity under ordinary conditions and circumstances to be used under extraordinary conditions--acute crises, poisoning, prolonged or intense cold, prolonged or intense heat, prolonged periods of cloudiness, prolonged exertion, profound emotional experiences, shock, or other emergency and stress. The body does not store up sunshine. It stores up substances produced with the aid of sunshine. Not alone vitamin D, but other materials are synthesized in the body with the aid of the sun's rays, and the surpluses of these are stored in the tissues as reserve capital for times of stringency. If full and proper use is made of the sun during seasons of sunshine and warmth, and if the general mode of living is not such as to dissipate what should be stored as reserve, an abundance of sun-kissed reserves will be stored in the body to carry the individual through a long, sunless winter; provided, again, that the mode of living during the winter season is not of a kind that rapidly consumes these reserves. The man who has received no sunshine, who has stayed indoors or has clothed his body in a way to exclude the sun, and the man who has dissipated his reserves cannot go through the winter without suffering. The body that must ceaselessly use its substances in neutralizing, detoxicating, and resisting poisons--toxemia, alcohol, tobacco, coffee, drugs,--will not be able to store up ample reserves. All forms of excesses, dissipations, all overworking of the emotions, all lack of rest and sleep, etc., not only dissipate the reserves one already has, but prevent the accumulation of more. Reserves are wasted by a denatured diet, by sexual excesses, by overwork, and by any overtaxing of the body. The best preparation with which to meet long, cold, cloudy winters, is a sensible, natural mode of living during the warm, sunny months. The same sensible living should be continued through the winter; for, reserves that have been stored by the organism during a summer of prudent living may be quickly dissipated by excesses, indulgencies, dissipations and wrong foods in winter. Suntan and SunburnCHAPTER XLII Prolonged exposure of the unprotected skin to the sun's rays results in severe and painful burning, prostration and even death. Necessary and useful as is sunshine, it is a powerful chemical agent against which the body must protect itself to avoid serious damage. It .is estimated that the "normal," unprotected skin can endure fifty minutes of sunbathing without burn, but this estimate must not be taken too literally. First, we must ask: What is a normal skin? Next we must take into account the time and place for sunbathing. Is it to be taken at the shore or in the lowlands or on the mountains? Is it to be taken in the early morning or at noonday? The body is well-equipped with defenses against the sun and burning can occur only when more sun is secured than the defenses can protect us against. There are three chief means of protection and these will be discussed in their logical order at this place. TANNING The bronzing or browning of the skin due to a deposit of pigment (melanin granules) around the nuclei of the epidermal and basal cells, following exposure to the rays of the sun, constitutes suntanning. Pigment is the most important protecting mechanism by which the body prevents getting an overdose of sunshine. Melanin, or the pigment that gives color to the skins of man and animals, is absent in albinos and in cases of leucoderma. There is at all times, a certain amount of pigment present in the skins of all normal individuals and this pigment screen is the body's most important protection against too much sun. Tanning (pigmentation) prevents the over-absorption of ultraviolet rays, and thus, prevents burning. The layer of pigment is the body's barrier against the penetration of an excess of ultra-violet rays, and the more one is tanned, the less is the danger of light rays causing suffering. Before pigmentation has occurred, an overdose of the chemical rays of the sun, has injurious effects on healthy tissues. Once pigmentation has occurred and a deep brown skin has been obtained, any length of exposure may be endured without discomfort. Just as chlorophyll is formed as a light screen and filter in plants, so a brown pigment, called melanin, is deposited in the presence of sunlight as granules in the deeper cells of the epidermis. This pigment deposit absorbs the visible and ultra-violet radiations and, after converting them into radiations of less energy and lower vibration, and increased penetrating power, passes them on to the deeper structures. Melanin prevents the penetration of excesses both of ultra-violet rays and of heat. When melanin powder, obtained from ox-eyes, is mixed with water to form a brown-black suspension, and a few drops of this is placed on the palm of the hand and exposed to light concentrated by a burning-glass, the water will be evaporated without over-heating the hand. Pigmented skin radiates heat more quickly than unpigmented skin; thus a negro's skin exposed to strong sun is cooler than a blonde's skin. It is customary to divide pigmentation into two types--instantaneous tanning and delayed tanning. The first develops almost immediately after exposure to sunlight; the other develops gradually and continues for several days after exposure to sunlight. The division seems to be unnecessary, as the two types of tanning are parts of the same process. The first part of suntanning seems to be a darkening of the pigment already present in the skin. There follows closely upon this a deposit of more and more pigment, as exposure to the sun is repeated, so that a very heavy color screen may be produced in the skin. The tanning process is really more rapid in the skin of most people than is commonly realized, for the manufacture of pigment begins at once, when the skin is exposed to the sun and, within a brief time after the first sunning, pigment is laid down in the skin. But a few short sunbaths are required to occasion a perceptible tanning. Except in the cases of albinos and some red blondes, pigment is quickly formed in all human beings when exposed to sunlight. It is produced most abundantly in black races, not so abundantly in brunettes as in the blacks and least abundantly in red-blondes. In each type it may be increased to a maximum by exposure to sunlight. The deepest pigmentation is occasioned by a combination of infra-red and ultra-violet rays. It may occur without any preceding erythema; that is, by gradual insolation without any appreciable burn. In some works on "sunbathing we read about the "tanning rays" or "pigmentation rays" of the sun. All such talking and writing is sheer nonsense. There are no such rays. The sun's rays do not produce pigment; they only occasion its formation. Pigmentation is a vital or physiological process. Pigment is manufactured within the body, out of the elements of food and is deposited in the skin by the processes of life. It is a protective device made by the body itself. If one person tans and another does not, this is not because the sun has power to tan one and not the other, but because one body has full pigment manufacturing ability and the other is deficient in this power. Pigment is manufactured in and by the body and is deposited in the skin by the body, not by the sun. Whether or not you tan deeply depends upon you and not upon any supposed tanning power of the sun. Two people equally exposed to the sun will tan differently--one becoming a dark brown, the other a light tan--and these differences are due to the differences that exist in the two individuals. No amount of sunning will pigment a dead body. Commonly the white patches of skin seen in leukoderma will not tan no matter how often, how long nor how persistently the patient sunbathes. Tanning may range all the way from very light to almost black, depending on the amount of exposure to which one is subjected and one's pigmenting ability. Contrary to the prevailing view, I doubt that the deep, dark tan can be considered a desirable acquisition. It is my opinion that, both for appearance and for benefit, a light tan is preferable. In infancy and early childhood, when sunshine is of greater importance than later in life, tanning is a slow process and is almost never (in the white races) dark, even after months of sunbathing. With rare exceptions, a child must be four to six years of age before it will become dark from sunbathing. It is my opinion that too much stress is placed on the tanning process and too much magic is invested in the tan. I hold that the tanning is merely part of and is concomitant with a general revitalizing process that involves the whole organism and is not confined to the skin. Nor do I accept, as true, the axiom that "a tanned body is a healthy body." I have seen bodies that were so tanned they were almost black, and their possessors were dying of cancer, or Bright's "disease," or diabetes. Sunshine is no substitute for right living in other departments of life. Dr. Rollier thinks that pigment acts as a kind of dynamic accumulator and says: "Experience, at least, confirms this by showing that the resistance of the patient is nearly always in proportion to the degree of pigmentation; it acts not only in protecting the skin against the too violent irritation of the ultra-violet rays, but in regularizing the thermic contribution of the sun. Finally it is probable that the pigment receives, furnishes and activates the elements essential to the metabolism of the hormones. Pigmentation is the expression of the deep biological processes of a fermentative and hormonal nature, as demonstrated by Bloch in the skin, by Pinkuseen in the blood, and by Bickel and Ischido in the marrow of the bones." Jesionek believes that the pigment, itself, passes in solution into the blood and is changed there into substances that act favorably in pathological processes, such as tuberculosis. The more rapidly pigmentation occurs, the quicker will one receive the full benefit of the sun. Rollier lays great stress on the strongest possible pigmentation, not only to arm the skin against the inflammatory stimulus of the ultra-violet rays, but also because experience has shown that only a strong deposit of pigment in the skin warrants certain success in healing tuberculosis. Pigment cells are also thought to secrete substances which are carried into the blood and beneficially affect the rest of the body--the skin thus becoming an organ of internal secretion. There are some who think that pigment transforms the shortwave rays, which would otherwise act only superficially, into deep-acting, long-wave rays. Good pigmentation depends upon regular sun bathing. Subjects with fair or red hair do not pigment as readily as dark-haired subjects. These first become a coppery red color and then, light brown. It takes some time before they become at all dark, but under constant sun treatment, even red-haired people will pigment or tan. Brunettes, on the other hand, pigment very quickly. In Egypt the Englishman soon becomes as dark, or even darker in many cases, as the Egyptian or Arab. Eskimos and polar explorers are poor in pigment. The explorer Shackelton, remarks: "At the close of the night of four months duration our faces were greenish yellow, but the sun soon tanned us again. Yet stranger was the discovery that the eyes of almost all of those which were brown and black become blue or gray during the long night." I have started a number of blonde and red-haired babies sunbathing from birth and have had them continue to do so on through their infancy and childhood and none of them have freckled. This has led me to believe that were all such types given sunbaths from infancy, the freckles that bother them so much would not develop. It would seem that freckling is due to a certain loss or disturbance of the ability to tan as a result of long denial of sunshine during the formative years of life. As these babies and children have all been provided with superior nourishment, it may well be that nutrition also plays a very important role in this matter. The worst cases of freckling we see are in red-heads and, as these are in children and adults whose nutrition is far below ideal, it may be that poor nutrition is at least partly responsible for such undesirable developments. I have witnessed the development of thousands of large freckles on the affected portions of the skin of a man suffering with leucoderma. As the man was under my care for but a limited time, there was no opportunity to determine what may have been accomplished ultimately, but I consider the formation of the freckles to be indicative of the possibility of complete remedying of the condition. It should be understood that sunbathing in this patient was accompanied with other Hygienic measures, such as fasting, improved nutrition and a correct mode of living. I do not think for a minute that sunbathing will remedy leukoderma. PRECAUTIONS FOR HELIOPHOBES Individuals whose skins redden, blister and sizzle, but never tan, are said to be heliophobes, and are advised to stay out of the sun. I think this is pernicious advice. These people also need sunshine and can take it if they use sufficient precaution. The first precaution is to get their sunbaths in the early morning, or in the late afternoon, when the sunlight is not so abundant in ultra-violet rays. The next precaution is to stay in the sun but a few minutes at a time. Begin with but one minute on each side and cautiously and slowly increase the time of exposure. It may even be possible, where time permits, to have two, or even three such short periods of exposure a day. In many, if not all cases, heliophobia may be gradually overcome. Even the albino can profit by sunbathing if he exercises due caution. I have seen albino cats whose ears were inflamed and covered with scabs throughout the summer months, but which healed up during the winter months. There is no reason why man should spend so much time in the sun that this should occur. LOTIONS AND SUNTAN PREPARATIONS Articles on sunbathing which appear in popular magazines and newspapers tend to emphasize the dangers of sunbathing on the one hand, and the "virtues" of sun-tan lotions, on the other hand. Rarely do they ever stress the great benefits to be derived from sunning. It is possible to overdo sunbathing, even after one has built up a heavy layer of pigment in the skin, so that burning no longer occurs after the most prolonged exposure. Drying and harshness of the skin and general enervation result from such over-exposure. The injurious results of excessive sunbathing are not to be prevented by the use of lotions, oils, etc. If they prevent the thickening and drying of the skin, if they prevent sunburn, they do not prevent the enervation that results from over-sunning. To avoid the harshness of the skin and the enervation that result from over-sunning, it is only necessary to avoid undue exposure to the sun. If the lotions afforded the "protection" that they are claimed to provide, they would also prevent tanning and would at the same time deprive the bather of the benefits of sunbathing. A uniform tan is achieved by exposing the body uniformly to the sun. Lotions cannot provide a uniform tan. In a broad general sense all of these lotions are frauds, none of them are ever necessary, and many of them are actually harmful. I unqualifiedly condemn the use of any "tan-without-burn" preparations, as well as the use of olive oil on the skin in sunbathing. "Suntan stimulants" and make-believe tan are merely commercial products. Many of these things are endorsed by men and organizations that are supposed to know, but I can find no need for them and no value in them. It is not mere tanning that we seek, but the total hygienic value of the sun upon all tissues of the body. THICKENING OF THE CORNEUM The second protective mechanism developed by the body is a thickening of the corneum. This is the horny or uppermost layer of the skin. The pigment is in the skin layer that is below the sun-sensitive cells and thus gives these no protection. Thickening and hardening of the outer layer of the skin provides the needed additional protection. This is somewhat like the thickening of the same layer of the skin on the palms of the hands when we indulge in hard work. Too much exposure to the sun occasions an excessive thickening of the corneum and, at the same time, makes the skin dry and causes it to scale. A harsh, dry, coarse skin is the result. Certainly this is not desirable and it is the worst kind of folly to stay in the sun long enough that this takes place. It is largely to avoid this dryness and harshness of the skin that olive oil and certain other lotions are employed by those who refuse to exercise a little intelligence in their sunning. Instead of buying and using the various commercial preparations that are sold to prevent the harshness and dryness of the skin that results from over-exposure, the intelligent person will avoid undue exposure and thus avoid the undesirable consequences. A silken, smooth skin is the result of proper sunbathing. Such a result is for those who exercise intelligence in sunbathing. The ancient rule of moderation should guide us here, as in eating, exercising, etc. We have never learned self-control. We tend to go to excess in everything we do. We know next to nothing of our limitations, consequently, we never respect them. We are never satisfied with anything until we have had too much; then, because too much harms us, we are likely to abandon the thing altogether, rather than learn the true lesson. We work on the principle: The more of a good thing the better. Never was there a greater delusion. A little boy asked his mother: "If a teaspoonful of salts will do daddy good, why not give him the whole box and get him well in a hurry?" Too many people work on this principle in everything they do. They over-eat, over-exercise, over-bathe, over-sunbathe, etc. Lotions are not substitutes for intelligence. Only the foolish will waste their money on such preparations. AVOIDING THE SUN The body's third defense against the sun is that of getting out of it before an over-dose has been received. Even animals whose bodies are not nude, but are covered with hair, feathers or thick, heavy scales, instinctively avoid over-exposure. They may be seen actively feeding in the sun in the morning, when it is cool, but they retire to the shade before noon and remain there until later in the day, when they come out again. Birds, beasts, insects, even the red and black ants, observe this simple precaution. SUNBURN Sunburn is distinct from suntan. It is a real burn and injures the skin just as much as fire or scalding water. It results from an overdose of sunshine in those who lack adequate protection against the sun's rays. The sun's rays may penetrate deeply and burn the underlying tissues. When exposure is too prolonged before pigmentation or after most or all of a previous pigmentation has been lost, more or less inflammation follows. Burning, often severe blisters, and peeling result. Sunburn is usually superficial, and quickly heals without leaving scars. As in other burns, there are three degrees of sunburn. First degree burn is a slight redness (erythema) which causes little or no discomfort and results in no harm. The redness is due to the excess of blood in the skin. Second degree burn results when you stay in the sun until the skin glows like a boiled lobster. It is very painful and accompanied with fever. Blisters develop, burst and discharge their fluid contents over the body. There is much itching and peeling of the skin. There may be diarrhea, vomiting and other unpleasant symptoms as a result of the terrible beating taken by the nervous system. A third degree burn results in a sloughing dermatitis and may end fatally. Inflammation of the brain, stomach and intestines, blood poisoning, hemorrhages and tetanus are said to follow as complications of severe burns. Sunburn does not show up immediately. One burns without realizing it until hours later. The only safety lies in not overdoing the sunbathing until a protective coat of tan has been built. TANNING WITHOUT BURNING The manufacturers of "suntan preparations" have posed the dilemma of acquiring a tan without a burn. They propose to solve this problem with their various lotions and oils. This is a commercial program and does not represent a sane approach to a simple problem that is simply and easily solved without cost. Sunburn occurs when the unprotected skin is exposed to the sun's rays too long. Short of this, only tanning occurs. It is not necessary to get sunburned in order to tan. Indeed, the purpose of tanning is to prevent sunbuming. As tanning occurs from exposure short of burning, it is easy to acquire a tan without a burn and without artificial preparations applied to the skin. To avoid burning, it is only necessary to avoid excessive exposure of the body or any part of it to the sun until a good protective coat of tan has been acquired. Those impatient individuals who seek to get a coat of tan in a hurry and those foolish individuals who try to get enough sunshine on the first day of their vacation to last the whole year, are almost sure to burn themselves. At the shore, on the sand, especially white sand, or in the water, more sun's rays strike the body, due to reflection from the sand and water, and it is much easier to get an overdose. Burning will result in a much shorter time at the beach. Even those with a light tan will readily burn in such places. A thin haze over the sun does not exclude its ultra-violet rays and will not prevent burning. A cool breeze will not prevent burning. It is not the sun's heat rays that produce sunburn. Do not be misled by the fact that it is cloudy or partially cloudy. A very severe burn may be produced by staying in the sun too long under such conditions. More on the healing power of nature and Natural Hygiene Click here for complete list of Healing Cancer Naturally articles on Healing With Light. |
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