Weather and Health
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Sun and Health
Ultraviolet Light
One important and probably only beneficial effect of UV radiation on your health is the formation of vitamin D3 from sunlight in your skin. The body requires this vitamin to help with the absorption of calcium and phosphorus. If you would be without sunlight for a long time, your bones would become soft and deformed, known as rickets disease. But as latest studies suggest, exposure of your hands and face for as little as 15 minutes per day should be sufficient to prevent the disease.
If you expose your eyes, skin and immune system to the sun, a photochemical reaction in proteins and your DNA occurs. Too much exposure to UV radiation temporarily or permanently alters the function of cell components.
In the short term, tiny blood vessels can burst and redden the skin or the eyes. Sunburn of the skin and inflammation of the eye (e.g., snow blindness) may follow. While these effects are reversible, further exposure can lead to permanent damage, such as the clouding of eye lenses, otherwise known as cataracts. The otherwise elastic fibres of your skin thicken due to a loss of collagen resulting in prematurely aged skin. UV radiation can even change the genetic information stored within your DNA and may initiate cancer to the skin or the eyes. UV radiation also suppresses the immune system’s ability to fight intruders such as viruses, bacteria and parasites.
Sunlight
With the exception of deep-
Sun and Health
