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Five Steps for a Healthy Life-Step 2

Get more sun exposure — You’re probably aware of the many health benefits of vitamin D. But an important caveat is that vitamin D should ideally be obtained from healthy sun exposure. Not only will appropriate sun exposure naturally raise your vitamin D levels to healthy levels, but it will also provide a wide variety of other benefits, many of which are only beginning to be understood.

Many people are not aware that only 5% of your body’s melatonin, a potent anticancer agent, is produced in your pineal gland. The other 95% is produced inside your mitochondria if you get proper sun exposure. In fact, vitamin D is more than likely a biomarker or surrogate for sun exposure, which is so intricately involved in melatonin production.

During the day, if you get enough sun exposure, near-infrared rays from the sun penetrate the body and activate cytochrome c oxidase, which in turn stimulates the production of melatonin inside your mitochondria. Your mitochondria produce ATP, the energy currency of your body. A byproduct of this ATP production is the creation of reactive oxidative species (ROS), which are responsible for oxidative stress and free radicals.

Excessive amounts of ROS will damage the mitochondria, contributing to suboptimal health, inflammation and chronic health conditions such as diabetes, obesity and thrombosis (blood clots). But melatonin essentially mops up ROS that damage your mitochondria. So, by getting plenty of sun exposure during the day, your mitochondria will be bathed in melatonin, thereby reducing oxidative stress.

Getting more sun exposure also goes hand in hand with eliminating seed oils from your diet. Consumption of seed oils increase your risk of sunburn and skin cancer, as susceptibility to UV radiation damage is controlled by the level of PUFAs (polyunsaturated fatty acids) in your diet, almost like a dial. The PUFAs control how rapidly your skin burns and how rapidly you develop skin cancer.

When investigating PUFA impact on our health, you will find differing opinions as old "science" encouraged their consumption. Current studies overwhelmingly show that to not be the case. Great rule of thumb is that UNsaturated fats are UNstable while saturated fats are stable when considering oxidation rates. Consider the sources as you research health information.

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