Your annual checkup results are in …………..your blood pressure is UP.

Your instinct says………. this blood pressure problem, CAN be fixed, all you need is a holiday.

A few days on a tropical island, baking in the sun and sipping a mojito……. DESTRESSING. Avoiding your busy in-box, the traffic and your overbearing boss, will let the pressure out.

Sunnyside up

Researchers from Edinburgh University agree – a little sun will bring your blood pressure down.

INSTANTANEOUSLY.

But………. you don’t actually need all three – the exotic beach location, with no frustrations. All you really need is THE SUN. Which is good news, since a little sun, is something that can be arranged, in your backyard, at least in the summertime.

Of course, you haven’t seen the sun, since last year’s vacation. Partly because your life happens, INSIDE and you deliberately avoid it, because sun exposure CAUSES skin cancer.

Not so fast.

Sunburn is not the same as sun exposure

First off… there is a difference between sun tanning and SUN BURNING.

Staying in the sun until you turn into a crispy, is ill advised. Not only does it hurt, it causes some serious damage to the skin. This damage that can come back to bite you, in a diagnosis of skin cancer, years down the line.

Skin cancer is definitely a killer, BUT….. in the big picture of things, it is pretty rare. Statistically speaking, you’re far more likely to die of heart disease.

And if your blood pressure is HIGH. The odds of this happening have just multiplied.

So it might be time to change your thinking on sun exposure.

UV light is letting the pressure out

This is the finding of a team of researchers from the University of Edinburgh.

The team studied the blood pressure of 24 volunteers in a “simulated” sun tanning session, which lasted 20 minutes. In the study, sunshine was simulated with the help of tanning lamps – which spew out UVA radiation.

• In session 1 – the volunteers experienced, both the UV rays and heat of the lamp.
• In session 2 – the actual radiation was blocked, but the lights still beamed out heat

Session 1 saw the blood pressure levels of the volunteers drop, for an hour or so, after the session. Session 2, blood pressure remained unchanged.

Move over vitamin D

These effects were seen QUICK QUICK…. it takes hours to turn cholesterol into vitamin D. 392

Vitamin D might be a whizz…

• Strengthening bones
• Powering muscles
• Whipping sperm into shape
• Fumigating lungs
• Moonlighting as a comedian

But the blood pressure effect could not be attributed to vitamin D. Clearly there is more to the sun….than vitamin D, the “sunshine” vitamin. The researchers think the MORE…. is a compound called nitric oxide.

Nitric oxide’s claim to fame….. it causes vasodilation i.e. blood vessels to dilate. Since tensed up blood vessels, are the reason for high blood pressure and the skin is able to make lots of nitric oxide when it is irradated – vasodilation, courtesy of nitric oxide is a logical explaination.

In fact, nitric oxide is a proven factor in blood pressure regulation. The nitroprussides, a class of drugs, used to treat high blood pressure in emergency situations, do so through nitric oxide production. And some of the heart benefits of green leafy vegetables and exercise, are probably mediated through nitric oxide production.

Bending it like Beckham

Study after study, shows low vitamin D is problematic. The fix…. for this deficiency / insufficiency of vitamin D, is to swallow a vitamin D supplement.

But….. this research hints that low vitamin D is a proxy, for low sun exposure. Supplementing with vitamin D tablets may not be enough.

To get your blood vessels bending it like Beckham……… you need some SUN exposure.

Living UNDER the sun

Packing your sun exposure into your annual vaccation, is fun and DESTRESSING. We usually attribute the health benefits of holidays to brain downtime i.e. less stress, but in addition to psychological relief, days in the sun, are bringing a physiological effect too.

Humans have always lived under the sun. Ancient cultures worshipped the sun, only modern man abhors the sun.

If you want to DESTRESS……. you need to engage in a little daily sun “worship”.

Further reading

A little sun shine chases away what’s bugging you	Sun is more than a skin burner it is also a fat burner	Lights, camera, action – your heart wants to be IN THE LIGHT