There’s A Lot More to Sunlight 🌞 Than Vitamin D

At LeafSide, we’re unabashed health & nutrition nerds 🤓 who scan the Internet daily, for practical, evidence-based health info that works — and that are worth sharing with family, friends, and LeafSiders everywhere!

One of our favorite sources is MedCram, on YouTube with over 1.3 million subscribers; they go in-depth on timely health topics of all sorts, and always with a careful, current-science, and clear presentation. 👌

MedCram recently released a new video, examining the mystery of why supplementing with vitamin D isn’t significant in reducing covid or flu severity 🤧, despite low levels of it being tied to severe covid outcomes.

The video is 24 min, and definitely worth the watch, as it could directly help you or someone you care about 💕 literally every day, for life! You’ll learn the answers to these important questions:

Although low vitamin D levels and severe covid often go together, why does supplementing with vitamin D 💊 not help with covid severity?
What else is in sunlight, besides vitamin D from ultraviolet light?
What’s special about infrared radiation, and why should you care?! 🌞
Is melatonin used for more than sleep?
How does sunlight help us build up antioxidants? How does that help our health?

MedCram: The Vitamin D Paradox Answered

Need to Cram on This? We Got Ya’ Covered ✅

If you’re short on time and/or want the skinny on sunshine, here are highlights by the LeafSide team:

Low vitamin D levels and severe covid are highly correlated.
But supplementing with vitamin D doesn’t reduce infection severity. 🤔
Another big association, is that covid/flu season (winter) starts sooner and is worse in higher latitudes; thus the greater sunlight further south, must bring other benefits. 🌞
Sunlight has large amounts of infrared radiation (IR), which is used by mitochondria to produce subcellular melatonin in every cell of our body! In fact it’s 95% of our melatonin; our pineal gland only produces 5%. 🤯
That subcellular melatonin is a powerful antioxidant, which mops up pro-oxidants before they damage our cells. Otherwise, damaged cells are much more susceptible to covid and other pathogens.
So get exposed to IR from the sun regularly!

How to Get the Sun’s Infrared Light, and Recharge Subcellular Melatonin

In short: Go outside!

Infrared radiation can penetrate through clothes, AND it bounces off of leaves and grass very well. So you don’t even need to be in direct sunlight, as long as you’re catching the natural bounce, and not behind glass.

MedCram advised in a related video (see below), that you can get plenty of IR sunlight while avoiding skin-damaging UV light, AND help your circadian cycle too — by being outside after sunrise and before 10am, or after 3pm before sunset.

So long as you feel that warmth from the sun, that’s the sure sign you’re getting infrared sunlight.

Nothing New Under the Sun…

For most of human existence, people knew the sun brought many health benefits. It’s only in “modern” societies, with indoor homes, workplaces, and cars, that we may forget our connection to the outside world.

To repeat MedCram’s advice from a notable health reformer, Ellen G. White (pictured), from more than 100 years ago:

“The feeble one should press out into the sunshine as earnestly and naturally as do the shaded plants and vines. The pale and sickly grain blade that has struggled up out of the cold of early spring, puts out the natural and healthy deep green after enjoying for a few days the health-and-life-giving rays of the sun. Go out into the light and warmth of the glorious sun, you pale and sickly ones, and share with vegetation its life-giving, health-dealing power.”

Want to Learn Even More About Light-as-Medicine?

MedCram made a much longer video about the role of light and sunlight in health, that’s well worth watching too:

One More Life-changing Tip…

At LeafSide, we love health hacks, so here’s one more: Get your infrared sunlight, AND maximum-efficiency blood circulation exercise, at the same time: Do the high-intensity “Nitric Oxide Dump” workout outdoors!

This is how you’ll “feed two birds with one scone” just check this out: Nitric Oxide Routine/Workout and try it outside, with fresh air and sunlight!