Asthma is caused by Vitamin D deficiency

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New research provides evidence for a link between vitamin D insufficiency and asthma severity. The incidence of asthma cases has increased by more than 300 percent over the last two decades and now affects an estimated 20 million Americans. Learn how daily exposure to sunlight can greatly reduce your asthma and allergies.

Asthmatics: Have You Tried this Yet?

New research provides evidence for a link between vitamin D insufficiency and asthma severity. Serum vitamin D levels in more than 600 children were inversely linked to several indicators of allergy and asthma severity.

While previous studies have suggested that vitamin D may affect how airway cells respond to treatment with inhaled steroids, this is the first study of vitamin D and disease severity in children with asthma.

Children with lower vitamin D levels were significantly more likely to have been hospitalized for asthma in the previous year, tended to have airways with increased hyperreactivity, and were likely to have used more inhaled corticosteroids — all signifying higher asthma severity. These children were also significantly more likely to have several markers of allergy, including dust-mite sensitivity.

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

The incidence of asthma cases has increased by more than 300 percent over the last two decades and now affects an estimated 20 million Americans.

Asthma is an inflammatory condition, typically of your upper airways. Common symptoms include:

• Chest tightness
• Shortness of breath
• Wheezing
• Coughing

Since asthma is caused by inflammation, the fact that vitamin D deficiency can aggravate the condition makes perfect sense in light of what we now know about vitamin D. As Dr. Robert Heaney explains in this Inner Circle Expert Interview, vitamin D can be a very powerful immune modulator.

And although this study may be the first to demonstrate an inverse association between circulating levels of vitamin D and markers of asthma severity, it’s not the first study to show that vitamin D can benefit asthmatics.

In 2006, Australian researchers discovered that exposure to sunlight significantly reduced the development of asthma symptoms in mice.

Is Vitamin D Deficiency to Blame for Asthma Epidemic?

In this latest study, 28 percent of the children with asthma had vitamin D levels of less than 30 ng/ml, which is clearly a deficiency state.

They discovered that lower vitamin D levels were associated with increased IgE and eosinophils, which are allergy markers.

This may also offer an explanation for why it’s so important to make sure your vitamin D levels are optimized during pregnancy, as infants whose mothers are vitamin D deficient have a higher risk of developing asthma.

One 2007 study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, states:

“Vitamin D has been linked to immune system and lung development in utero, and our epidemiologic studies show that higher vitamin D intake by pregnant mothers reduces asthma risk by as much as 40 percent in children 3 to 5 years old.
… Providing adequate vitamin D supplementation in pregnancy may lead to significant decreases in asthma incidence in young children.”

And, said Dr. Celedón in the article above:

“This study also provides epidemiological support for a growing body of in vitro evidence that vitamin D insufficiency may worsen asthma severity, and we suspect that giving vitamin D supplements to asthma patients who are deficient may help with their asthma control.”

So not only can your vitamin D status during pregnancy influence the development of asthma in your child in the first place, but if your child is deficient as well, it may aggravate his or her asthma symptoms.

In fact, the children with higher vitamin D levels had a lower risk of being hospitalized for any cause, and needed fewer anti-inflammatory medications. This too correlates to another recent meta-analysis that showed higher vitamin D levels significantly reduce mortality from all causes.

Optimize Your Vitamin D Levels to Treat Asthma

It’s important to realize that although the medical community is beginning to embrace the importance of raising your vitamin D levels to protect against a large number of diseases and health conditions, the conventional dosing recommendations have not caught up.

Currently, the recommended daily allowance is a mere 400 units a day, which is about ten times lower than most people need for optimal health. You really need to make sure you’re getting therapeutic levels, which I list in this previous article – along with all the other facts you need to know about getting your vitamin D levels checked and optimized.

Ideally, you’ll want to obtain your vitamin D from exposing a significant amount of your skin — not just your hands and face — to appropriate amounts of sunlight outside. Exposing your skin to sun behind a window, whether in your home, office, or car will actually lower your vitamin D, as the UVB is filtered out and the UVA will lower your vitamin D.

You can tell you’ve had enough, from either the sun or a safe tanning bed, when your skin turns the very lightest shade of pink.

Once you reach that shade of pink, your body is not going to produce any more vitamin D. In fact, you’re only going to cause damage to your skin if you continue your exposure past that point.

You can actually produce up to 20,000 units of vitamin D per day through this kind of exposure. However, you don’t need to be concerned with how much you’re producing, as your skin has a feedback loop that will shut down the production of vitamin D past a certain point. (I explained some of the mechanics of this in my recent article Shocking Update — Sunshine Can Actually Decrease Your Vitamin D Levels.)

Bear in mind that when you take an oral vitamin D supplement however, this feedback loop does not exist so you need to be far more careful, as overdosing can be just as bad as being severely deficient.

Last year I realized that oral supplements of vitamin D are necessary for just about everyone. I even take them myself on cloudy days where I am unable to get a few hours of sun exposure. But if you take oral supplements, make sure you monitor your blood with an accurate test . In the U.S., I recommend using Labcorp. They use the gold standard Diasorin test for checking vitamin D levels. Due to information published by the New York Times, I no longer recommend using them.

If you get your levels to about 60 ng/ml, there’s a strong likelihood you may not experience the symptoms of asthma anymore.

I personally monitor my own blood level every few weeks. The BIG inside story is that we will be able to offer the same test I do for myself at Labcorp, to everyone in the US at a really amazing price - far lower than is typically available, hopefully by the end of summer. Keep on reading the newsletter for the announcement.

Even More Strategies to Safely and Effectively Treat Your Asthma

Sadly, many seem to think that serious diseases require potent (and hence potentially dangerous) drugs to be kept in check. This is not true however, and asthma is no exception. In fact, safely and effectively treating your asthma is not a complicated affair.

In addition to making sure your vitamin D levels are optimized, here are several additional strategies that can help treat the root of your problem, as well as a few that can offer safe symptom relief:

• Purify your indoor air. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), indoor air is up to five times more polluted than outdoor air, on average. So, considering the fact that you spend about 90 percent of your life indoors, you may want to consider installing a good air purifier that is easy, safe, cost-effective, and leaves behind no dangerous chemical residues (which are often just as bad as the substances you’re trying to clean away.)
• Consider the hygiene hypothesis – There’s a tendency in our modern culture to be obsessive about cleanliness, especially in children. However, this may not be as healthy as initially thought. It appears that being exposed to common bacterial and viral infections as a child can be instrumental in providing the stimulus to your immune system to prevent asthma naturally.
• Get regular exercise – Studies have shown that asthmatics who exercise regularly tend to show improvement in: maximum ventilation, maximal oxygen uptake, work capacity, and maximum heart rate
• Increase your intake of animal-based omega 3 fats – I can’t emphasize enough the importance of getting sufficient amounts of high quality animal-based omega 3 fats in your diet. I strongly believe we all need plant-based omega 3 fats (and I consume some virtually every day myself, like hemp seed or flax seed), many people do not possess the metabolic machinery to rapidly convert the ALA in these plants to the higher order fats DHA and EPA, which are potent anti-inflammatories. Although I still recommend fish oil in some instances, I believe krill oil is a superior source of omega 3 fats for most people.
• Avoid all commercial milk products. They are notorious for making asthma worse. If you consume milk at all, use only raw milk products from grass-fed cows, but even then be careful and take note of whether or not the raw milk is making your asthma better or worse.
• Eat foods rich in vitamin E. Much like vitamin D, higher vitamin E intake has also been associated with lower serum IgE concentrations and a lower frequency of allergen sensitization.
• Try some Butterbur (Petasites hybridus). This perennial shrub has been used since ancient times to treat a variety of conditions. As far back as the 17th century, butterbur was used to treat coughs, asthma, and skin wounds. Researchers have since identified the compounds in butterbur that help reduce symptoms in asthma by inhibiting leukotrienes and histamines, which are responsible for symptom aggravation in asthma.  In one study, 40 percent of patients taking a butterbur root extract were able to reduce their intake of traditional asthma medications.
• Build your immune system with allergy testing. In my experience, conventional testing does not work very effectively and there is a fair amount of risk. A far better intradermal skin test is the provocation neutralization testing.

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The Vitamin D Council was established to educate the public and professionals about Vitamin D Deficiency and its numerous associated diseases. This article answers the questions: Is Vitamin D toxic? How much Vitamin D is recommended?

The Truth About Vitamin D Toxicity

VITAMIN D TOXICITY FEARS UNWARRANTED

Is vitamin D toxic? Not if we take the same amount nature intended when we go out in the sun. Vieth attempted to dispel unwarranted fears in medical community of physiological doses of vitamin D in 1999 with his exhaustive and well-written review.

His conclusions: fear of vitamin D toxicity is unwarranted, and such unwarranted fear, bordering on hysteria, is rampant in the medical profession. Even Ian Monroe, the chair of the relevant IOM committee, wrote to the Journal to compliment Vieth’s work and to promise his findings will be considered at the time of a future Institute of Medicine review. That was more than two years ago.

In 1999, Vieth indirectly asked the medical community to produce any evidence 10,000 units of vitamin D a day was toxic, saying “Throughout my preparation of this review, I was amazed at the lack of evidence supporting statements about the toxicity of moderate doses of vitamin D.” He added: “If there is published evidence of toxicity in adults from an intake of 250 ug (10,000 IU) per day, and that is verified by the 25(OH)D concentration, I have yet to find it.”

Like most medication, cholecalciferol is certainly toxic in excess, and, like Coumadin, is used as a rodent poison for this purpose. Animal data indicates signs of toxicity can occur with ingestion of 0.5 mg/kg (20,000 IU/kg ), while the oral LD50 (the dose it takes to kill half the animals) for cholecalciferol in dogs is about 88 mg/kg, or 3,520,000 IU/kg. This would be equivalent to a 110-pound adult taking 176,000,000 IU or 440,000 of the 400 unit cholecalciferol capsules. Vieth reports human toxicity probably begins to occur after chronic daily consumption of approximately 40,000 IU/day (100 of the 400 IU capsules). Heavy sun exposure when combined with excessive supplement use is a theoretical risk for vitamin D toxicity, but if such a case has been reported, I am not aware of it. Physician ignorance about vitamin D toxicity is widespread. A case report of four patients appeared in the 1997 Annals of Internal Medicine, accompanied by an editorial warning about vitamin D toxicity. However, careful examination of the patients reveals that both papers are a testimony to the fact that incompetence about vitamin D toxicity can reach the highest levels of academia.

CHOLECALCIFEROL, NOT ERGOCALCIFEROL, IS SAFE

Although there are documented cases of pharmacological overdoses from ergocalciferol, the only documented case of pharmacological—not industrial—toxicity from cholecalciferol we could find in the literature was intoxication from an over-the-counter supplement called Prolongevity. On closer inspection, it seemed more like an industrial accident but it was interesting because it gave us some idea of the safety of cholecalciferol. The capsules consumed contained up to 430 times the amount of cholecalciferol contained on the label (2,000 IU). The man had been taking between 156,000–2,604,000 IU of cholecalciferol a day (equivalent to between 390–6,500 of the 400 unit capsules) for two years. He recovered uneventfully after proper diagnosis, treatment with steroids, and sunscreen.

It is true that a few people may have problems with high calcium due to undiagnosed vitamin D hypersensitivity syndromes such as primary hyperparathyroidism, granulomatous disease, or occult cancers, but a blood calcium level, PTH, 25(OH)D, and calcitriol level should help clarify the cause of the hypersensitivity. Although D can be toxic in excess, the same can be said for water.

THERAPEUTIC INDEX

As a physician, I know that psychotic patients should drink about 8 glasses of water a day. However, many would hurt themselves by regularly drinking 40 glasses a day (called compulsive water intoxication). So you could say that water has a therapeutic index of 5 (40/8).

Heaney’s recent research indicates that healthy humans utilize about 4,000 units of vitamin D a day (from all sources). However, 40,000 units a day, over several years, will hurt them. Therefore, vitamin D has a therapeutic index of 10 (40,000/4,000)—twice as safe as water. We are not saying vitamin D is as safe as water, we are saying vitamin D is safe when used in the doses nature uses.

SUN SUPPLIES 10,000 UNITS OF VITAMIN D

The single most important fact anyone needs to know about vitamin D is how much nature supplies if we behave naturally, e.g., go into the sun. Humans make at least 10,000 units of vitamin D within 30 minutes of full body exposure to the sun, what is called a minimal erythemal dose. Vitamin D production in the skin occurs within minutes and is already maximized before your skin turns pink.

Fear of the fatal form of skin cancer, malignant melanoma, keeps many people out of the sun. The problem with the theory is that the incidence of melanoma continues to increase dramatically although many people have been completely avoiding the sun for years. We are not saying sunburns are safe, they are not. We are saying that brief, full-body sun exposure (minimal erythemal doses) may slightly increase your risk of skin cancer but it is a much smarter thing to do than dying of vitamin D deficiency.

HYPERSENSITIVITY, NOT TOXICITY

Vitamin D hypersensitivity syndromes are often mistaken for vitamin D toxicity. The most common is primary hyperparathyroidism. Other syndromes occur when abnormal tissue subverts the kidney’s normal regulation of endocrine calcitriol production. Aberrant tissues, usually granulomatous, convert 25(OH)D into calcitriol causing high blood calcium. The most common such condition is sarcoidosis, oat cell carcinoma of the lung, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma but other illnesses can cause the syndrome and they can occur while the patient’s 25(OH)D levels are normal or even low. For that reason, while rare, it is advisable to seek a knowledgeable physician’s care when repleting your vitamin D system, especially if you are older, have sarcoidosis, cancer, or other granulomatous diseases. In such high‑risk patients, periodic monitoring of 25(OH)D levels and serum calcium will alert the physician to the need to do more tests—such as calcitriol or PTH—and take further action.

It seems clear that restoring physiological serum levels of 25(OH)D will help many more patients that it will hurt. In fact, living in America today while worrying about vitamin D toxicity is like dying of thirst in the desert while worrying about drowning.

John Jacob Cannell MD
Executive Director
2003.09.05

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Contrary to what you may have heard, appropriate sun exposure actually helps prevent the fatal type of skin cancer, melanoma. In fact, melanoma skin cancer, has been found to decrease with greater sun exposure, and can be increased by sunscreens. In fact, indoor workers get three to nine times LESS solar UV exposure than outdoor workers get, yet only indoor workers have increasing rates of melanoma — and the rates have been increasing since before 1940. Read this informative article to dispel the many myths of melanoma skin cancer.

Can Working Indoors Give You Skin Cancer?

Many skin cancer screenings are held during May, which is Melanoma/Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention month. To find a free skin cancer screening in your area, you can click on the link below. You should note that skin cancer screenings tend to be rapid and are not a substitute for a full skin examination by your own dermatologist or physician.

This makes May a good time to spread the word that, despite the persistent myth, healthy UVB exposure is not the cause of melanoma.

This is why an epidemic of melanoma has broken out among indoor workers. In fact, indoor workers get three to nine times LESS solar UV exposure than outdoor workers get, yet only indoor workers have increasing rates of melanoma — and the rates have been increasing since before 1940.

In fact, UVB light, which causes your skin to produce vitamin D, is protective against cancer.

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

Since May is Melanoma/Skin Cancer Detection and Prevention month, I thought it would be fitting to bust some of the prevalent myths surrounding this disease.

Contrary to what you may have heard, appropriate sun exposure actually helps prevent the fatal type of skin cancer, melanoma. In fact, melanoma, has been found to decrease with greater sun exposure, and can be increased by sunscreens.

One such study discovered that melanoma patients with higher levels of sun exposure were less likely to die than other melanoma patients, and patients who already had melanoma and got a lot of sun exposure were prone to a less aggressive tumor type.

While public health officials have been warning that exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun increases your risk of developing melanoma, an epidemic of the disease has broken out among indoor workers.

These workers get three to nine times LESS solar UV exposure than outdoor workers get, yet only indoor workers have increasing rates of melanoma — and the rates have been increasing since before 1940.

Why Would Indoor Workers Have Higher Rates of Melanoma?

There are two major factors that help explain this, and the first has to do with the type of UV exposure. There are two primary types of UV rays from sunlight, the vitamin-D-producing UVB rays and the skin-damaging UVA light.

Both UVA and UVB can cause tanning and burning, although UVB does so far more rapidly. UVA, however, penetrates your skin more deeply than UVB, and may be a much more important factor in photoaging, wrinkles and skin cancers.

A recent study found that indoor workers may have increased rates of melanoma because they’re exposed to sunlight through windows, and only UVA light, unlike UVB, can pass through window glass.

At the same time, these indoor workers are missing out on exposure to the beneficial UVB rays, and have lower levels of vitamin D.

As you probably know by now, vitamin D is formed in your skin from exposure to sunlight. The sun, in turn, does increase genetic damage in your skin and can cause skin cancer, but nature has designed a clever system to help prevent this risk.

Dr. John Cannell, one of the leading authorities on vitamin D and founder and executive director of the Vitamin D Council, does an excellent job of explaining the system in this video but to give you a summary, when vitamin D is produced in your skin, it goes directly to the genes in your skin where it helps prevent the types of abnormalities that ultraviolet light causes.

Hence, when you avoid the sun entirely, or slather on sun block whenever you go out, your skin is not making any vitamin D, and you’re left without this built-in cancer protection.

So it’s the combination of exposure to UVA light and lower vitamin D levels that appears to be causing the increased rates of melanoma, and the indoor workers could clearly benefit from spending some time outdoors in the sun.

How to Get the Benefits of Vitamin D With Little Risk of Skin Cancer?

Aside from protecting your skin from sun damage, optimizing your vitamin D levels can help you to prevent as many as 16 different types of cancer along with many other diseases as discussed in this past article, Vitamin D — The Master Key to Optimal Health.

It’s absolutely tragic that dermatologists and sunscreen manufacturers have done such a thorough job of scaring people out of the sun — your optimal source for natural vitamin D — because it’s simply essential for your health.

If you want to get out in the sun to maximize your vitamin D production, and minimize your risk of malignant melanoma, the middle of the day (roughly between 10:00am and 2:00pm) is the best and safest time to go.

During this time you need the shortest exposure time to produce vitamin D because UVB rays are most intense at this time. Plus, when the sun goes down toward the horizon, the UVB is filtered out much more than the dangerous UVA.

You just need to be cautious about the length of your exposure. You only need enough exposure to have your skin turn the lightest shade of pink. This may only be a few minutes for some if you have a very pale skin.

Once you reach this point your body will not make any additional vitamin D and any additional exposure will only cause harm and damage to your skin.

Most people with fair skin will max out their vitamin D production in just 10-20 minutes, or, again, when your skin starts turning the lightest shade of pink. Some will need less, others more. The darker your skin, the longer exposure you will need to optimize your vitamin D production.

To learn more about sunlight and vitamin D, including why I recommend getting your levels tested and how to use the sun for cancer prevention, please set aside an hour to watch my free lecture on vitamin D.

Proof Positive - Why We Need Sunlight

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A detailed, scientific explanation of our need for sunlight by Dr. Neil Nedley, M.D. This excerpt on the necessity for daily sunlight exposure is taken from his highly aclaimed book Proof Positive.

Prove Positive - Why We Need Sunlight

by Dr. Neil Nedley, M.D.

Sunshine has gotten a bad rap. It is true that excessive ultraviolet light from sunshine can increase the risk of skin cancer and cataracts, but judicious amounts of sunshine can be extremely beneficial. For example, sunshine can play a critical role in helping to prevent osteoporosis. Sunlight, you will recall, is able to convert cholesterol into vitamin D, an essential factor in maintaining good bone health.

In Chapter 7 that deals with protein, we saw that high intake of animal protein sources was also a significant factor in causing osteoporosis. In addition to sunshine and nutrition, however, other NEWSTART factors are important in dealing with osteoporosis. Exercise is vital to staving off age-related loss of bone mass. Recent research from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has demonstrated that a woman can increase her bone mass by 2 to 3 percent per year by exercise alone.

But what about skin cancer? Why not get our vitamin D from pills or supplemented foods, so we can avoid sunshine’s cancer risk? There’s no question about it: when many Americans think of sunshine, they think of an agent that increases the risk of cancer.

Sun Exposure in High Doses and Cancer

Sunlight in high doses increases skin cancer risk. About 95 percent of skin cancers are of two types: squamous cell and basal cell. Both of these types of cancer are increased by substantial cumulative lifetime exposure to the sun. Fortunately, however, they are slow growing and usually remain confined to the skin. Even though some 750,000 squamous and basal cell skin cancers are diagnosed each year in the United States, only about 2,100 fatalities (less than one percent) result. The fatalities occur mostly in those who fail to get prompt and complete removal of the cancer.

Melanoma, another type of skin cancer, provides a markedly different situation. This usually darkly pigmented cancer has a fearsome tendency to spread and kill the victim. Each year only about 34,000 cases of melanoma are diagnosed in our country; however, 7,200 (more than 20 percent) die annually from this dreaded skin cancer.76 Melanoma is currently on a rapid rise worldwide; in Europe, it increases by three to seven percent every year.77 Regarding this deadliest of skin cancers, it appears that the important factor is not so much the total amount of sunlight you are exposed to, but whether or not you get sunburned. Thus, overdoses of sunlight are to be avoided. More information on skin cancer is found in Chapter 2.

Sunlight in moderate amounts, however, is healthful, and may even be beneficial in cancer prevention. Research now suggests that judicious sun exposure and the production of vitamin D may also help to prevent certain types of cancer. Colon cancer is one of the malignancies that sunshine exposure may help to prevent. Researchers at the University of Washington studied cancer rates in nine different areas of the United States. They discovered that men from Southern states had much less colon cancer than Northerners.78 For example, when compared to men living in New Mexico, men in Michigan, Connecticut, and Washington had colon cancer rates 50 to 80 percent higher. The effect also seemed to hold true for women, although it was not as marked.

Another scientific article reviewed studies possibly linking cancer prevention with sunshine exposure. H.G. Ainsleigh, the author, pointed out that there is a long history of medical documentation suggesting that regular sun exposure substantially decreases the death rates from certain cancers.79 Like other researchers, Ainsleigh observed that the linkage between sun exposure and cancer prevention appears to be due to vitamin D. Vitamin D and related compounds appear able to suppress the abnormal growth of a variety of cancer cells. These include leukemia and lymphoma as well as cancers of the breast and colon.

Ainsleigh did not stop there. He went on to make some startling calculations; namely, that although frequent regular sun exposure statistically causes 2,000 U.S. cancer fatalities per year, it also acts to prevent another 138,000 U.S. annual cancer deaths—and could possibly prevent another 30,000 more if all Americans adopted the practice of regular, moderate sunning. He even raised the concern that blame for a 17 percent increase in breast cancer incidence during 1991 and 1992 may have been related to misplaced solar-phobia; with a “decade of pervasive anti-sun advisories from respected authorities, coinciding with effective sunscreen availability.” Sunscreen may induce otherwise cautious sunbathers to get overdoses of sun exposure.

There are no sunspots, very few solar flares - and our nearest star is the quietest it has been for a very long time.

The observations are baffling astronomers, who are due to study new pictures of the Sun, taken from space, at the UK National Astronomy Meeting.

The Sun normally undergoes an 11-year cycle of activity. At its peak, it has a tumultuous boiling atmosphere that spits out flares and planet-sized chunks of super-hot gas. This is followed by a calmer period.

Last year, it was expected that it would have been hotting up after a quiet spell. But instead it hit a 50-year year low in solar wind pressure, a 55-year low in radio emissions, and a 100-year low in sunspot activity.

According to Prof Louise Hara of University College London, it is unclear why this is happening or when the Sun is likely to become more active again.

“There’s no sign of us coming out of it yet,” she told BBC News.

“At the moment, there are scientific papers coming out suggesting that we’ll be going into a normal period of activity soon.

“Others are suggesting we’ll be going into another minimum period - this is a big scientific debate at the moment.”

In the mid-17th Century, a quiet spell - known as the Maunder Minimum - lasted 70 years, and led to a “mini ice-age”.

This has resulted in some people suggesting that a similar cooling might offset the impact of climate change.

According to Prof Mike Lockwood of Southampton University, this view is too simplistic.

“I wish the Sun was coming to our aid but, unfortunately, the data shows that is not the case,” he said.

Prof Lockwood was one of the first researchers to show that the Sun’s activity has been gradually decreasing since 1985, yet overall global temperatures have continued to rise.

“If you look carefully at the observations, it’s pretty clear that the underlying level of the Sun peaked at about 1985 and what we are seeing is a continuation of a downward trend (in solar activity) that’s been going on for a couple of decades.

“If the Sun’s dimming were to have a cooling effect, we’d have seen it by now.”

‘Middle ground’

Evidence from tree trunks and ice cores suggest that the Sun is calming down after an unusually high point in its activity.

Professor Lockwood believes that as well as the Sun’s 11-year cycle, there is an underlying solar oscillation lasting hundreds of years.

He suggests that 1985 marked the “grand maximum” in this long-term cycle and the Maunder Minimum marked its low point.

“We are re-entering the middle ground after a period which has seen the Sun in its top 10% of activity,” said Professor Lockwood.

“We would expect it to be more than a hundred years before we get down to the levels of the Maunder Minimum.”

He added that the current slight dimming of the Sun is not going to reverse the rise in global temperatures caused by the burning of fossil fuels.

“What we are seeing is consistent with a global temperature rise, not that the Sun is coming to our aid.”

Data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) shows global average temperatures have risen by about 0.7C since the beginning of the 20th Century.

And the IPCC projects that the world will continue to warm, with temperatures expected to rise between 1.8C and 4C by the end of the century.

No-one knows how the centuries-long waxing and waning of the Sun works. However, astronomers now have space telescopes studying the Sun in detail.

According to Prof Richard Harrison of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Oxfordshire, this current quiet period gives astronomers a unique opportunity.

“This is very exciting because as astronomers we’ve never seen anything like this before in our lifetimes,” he said.

“We have spacecraft up there to study the Sun in phenomenal detail. With these telescopes we can study this minimum of activity in a way that we could not have done so in the past.”

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8008473.stm

As we enjoy the remaining late summer days here in the United States, it’s important to realize that you may need to spend more time in the sun to get enough vitamin D. Come September, the sun is lower in the sky for most of the day, which means that a light-skinned person may need longer than 20 minutes in the sun each day, and a dark-skinned person could need one hour to 90 minutes to produce enough vitamin D.

Doing This Could Save Millions of Lives

It seems so simple. Let the sun shine on your skin and just like that you reduce your risk of numerous chronic diseases, including:

• Heart Disease
• Cancer
• Diabetes
• Inflammatory Bowel Disease
• Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Osteoporosis
• Tuberculosis
• Schizophrenia
• Hypertension

Getting about 2,000 IU to 4,000 IU a day of vitamin D can help you to reduce your cancer risk by up to 50 percent! 

And according to Dr. Grant, about 30 percent of cancer deaths — which amounts to 2 million worldwide and 200,000 in the United States — could be prevented each year with higher levels of vitamin D.

However, most people only get 250-300 IU a day from their diet, so another source — ideally the sun — is essential.

Where You Live Impacts Your Cancer Risk

The evidence is very clear that the farther away from the equator you live, the higher your risk of dying from cancer becomes. In other words, those who live in higher latitudes have higher cancer rates than those living in lower latitudes.

The difference is actually quite significant. 

According to Dr. Grant, people living in Iceland have cancer rates of 90 per 100,000 population per year. Those in the tropics, meanwhile, have rates of 25 per 100,000!

And, he says, the majority of cancer deaths in the United States are from vitamin-D-sensitive cancers. So making sure your levels are optimized should be a no-brainer, but don’t rely on your physician to check for it. Most don’t do it automatically.

How to Have Your Vitamin D Levels Tested 

I believe that with all that is known about vitamin D, it is medically negligent not to perform a vitamin D test on someone who has a dangerous cancer.

A simple blood test can tell you your levels, but please bear in mind when you go for the test that there are TWO vitamin D tests: 1,25(OH)D and 25(OH)D. 

25(OH)D is the better marker of overall D status. It is this marker that is most  strongly associated with overall health. 

The correct test your doctor needs to order is 25(OH)D, also called 25-hydroxyvitamin D. 

When you receive your results, please note the difference between normal and optimal. You don’t want to be average here; you want to be optimally healthy. There is a high likelihood that the reference ranges of your lab will not be correct. 

So please be sure and use the values listed in this report to guide your treatment. Normal 25-hydroxyvitamin D lab values are 20-56 ng/ml (50-140 nmol/l). However, this range is far too broad to be ideal.  

 In fact, your vitamin D level should never be below 32 ng/ml, and any levels below 20 ng/ml are considered serious deficiency states. Remember, the late winter average of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in the United States, is only about 15-18 ng/ml! 

 The OPTIMAL value that you’re looking for is 50-55 ng/ml (115-128 nmol/l). 

 Keeping your level in this range, and even erring toward the higher numbers in this range, is going to give you the most protective benefit. 

How Long Should You Spend in the Sun?

A common myth is that occasional exposure of your face and hands to sunlight is “sufficient” for vitamin D nutrition. For most of us, this is an absolutely inadequate exposure to move vitamin levels to the healthy range.

You need to expose large portions of your skin to the sun, and you need to do it for more than a few minutes.

In Caucasian skin, an equilibrium occurs within 20 minutes of ultraviolet exposure. It can take three to six times longer for darkly pigmented skin to reach the equilibrium concentration of skin vitamin D. So, bearing in mind that you need to gradually increase your time, starting in the spring, you should be aiming toward exposing large areas of your skin to the sun, anywhere from 20 minutes at a time to two hours at a time, depending on your skin type and environmental factors.

Longer exposures will be needed if sunbathing occurs at off-peak times for ultraviolet light (before 12 p.m. or after 3 p.m.) or at the beginning or end of the summer (April or September). 

What About During the Winter?

In the winter months if you’ve had your vitamin D levels tested and found them to be low, a vitamin D3 supplement (cholecalciferol), which is the type of vitamin D found naturally in foods like eggs, organ meats, animal fat, cod liver oil, and fish, can be used. Continue to have your vitamin D levels monitored during this time, though, so you don’t overdose.

To learn more about how to use sunlight for your health — and the dangers of not getting enough — keep an eye out for my new book, Dark Deception, which is coming out shortly.

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A new study published in the British Journel of Cancer shows that high levels of Vitamin D can reduce the likelihood of death from prostate cancer by 7 times.

Slash Your Prostate Cancer Risk — With Sunlight!

Men with prostate cancer are as much as seven times less likely to die if they have high levels of the “sunshine vitamin” — vitamin D — according to a new study.

The research looked at 160 patients with prostate cancer who were classified as having either low, medium, or high blood levels of vitamin D. Over the course of the multi-year study, 52 of the patients died of prostate cancer. Low vitamin D levels were found to significantly affect chances of survival.

The study’s authors theorized that since vitamin D has a similar structure to androgen, it might amplify the therapeutic effects of lowering androgen levels and improve the survival chances of men with prostate cancer.

Sources: British Journal of Cancer 2009; 100: 450-454

Dr. Mercola’s Comments:

For all of you male readers, if you want to avoid prostate cancer, and protect your health if you already have it, getting regular sun exposure to optimize your vitamin D levels is an absolute must.

Prostate cancer is the most common type of cancer found in American men, other than skin cancer, and the American Cancer Society estimates that one man in six will get this disease during his lifetime. In all, ACS estimated there were over 186,000 new cases of prostate cancer in the United States in 2008.

The conventional treatments for prostate cancer include surgery to remove the prostate gland or radiotherapy. However, more recent research has begun to question these invasive treatments, as they may not be necessary for most men diagnosed with a low grade of the disease.

Prostate cancer is typically slow growing, and the five-year survival rate for all stages of prostate cancer combined is 99 percent, the 10-year survival rate is 91 percent, and the 15-year survival rate is 76 percent.

So it is very much a disease that can be managed … if you make the appropriate lifestyle modifications.

Why Sunlight is One of Your Most Important Cancer-Fighting Tools

This most recent study found men with prostate cancer are as much as seven times LESS likely to die if they have high levels of vitamin D. And a previous study found men with higher levels of vitamin D in their blood were half as likely to develop aggressive forms of prostate cancer as those with lower amounts.

Another groundbreaking study discovered that correcting vitamin D deficiencies through appropriate sunshine exposure could prevent 600,000 cases of colorectal- and breast cancer each year, worldwide. This is important as prostate cancer is essentially the male equivalent of breast cancer.

Numerous other studies also confirm the link between vitamin D deficiency and multiple types of cancer. The “sunshine vitamin” has a protective effect against cancer in several ways, including:

• Increasing the self-destruction of mutated cells (which, if allowed to replicate, could lead to cancer)
• Reducing the spread and reproduction of cancer cells
• Causing cells to become differentiated (cancer cells often lack differentiation)
• Reducing the growth of new blood vessels from pre-existing ones, which is a step in the transition of dormant tumors turning cancerous

How Much Vitamin D do You Need?

Your doctor can measure your serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) to determine your vitamin D status. Your vitamin D level should always be above 32 ng/ml, and anything below 20 ng/ml is considered a serious deficiency state, which will increase your risk of breast and prostate cancers and autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

The one caution here in the US is to be certain your test is performed at a lab like Labcorp, that uses the gold standard Diasorin test for checking vitamin D levels. Due to information published by the New York Times about Quest labs, where they admitted to inaccurate results, I no longer recommend using them.

In the United States, late winter 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels generally range from 15 to 18 ng/ml, so this vitamin deficiency affects a very large portion of the U.S. population.

African Americans are even more prone to vitamin D deficiencies, as they produce less vitamin D3 than do whites in response to usual levels of sun exposure, and therefore have lower vitamin D serum concentrations year-round.

This deficiency may help explain why African Americans also have the highest rates of prostate cancer in the world, according to the Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention.

The OPTIMAL value that you’re looking for is 45-52 ng/ml (115-128 nmol/l), but previous research has suggested that maintaining a slightly higher level of 55 ng/ml (nanograms per milliliter) is optimal for cancer prevention.

For those who already have cancer, meanwhile, vitamin D can help to treat the disease and you’ll want to keep your levels around 65-90 ng/ml for this purpose.

Sun exposure is, hands-down, the best way to get your vitamin D. But if you find you’re not spending enough time outdoors in the sun, you can instead use a safe tanning bed or an oral vitamin D supplement as the last choice approach to normalize your levels.

The disadvantage of swallowing vitamin D is that you’ll need to have your blood levels tested to be sure your vitamin D levels are in the correct range, but remember not just any test — or any lab — will do. I’ve discussed exactly what you need to know to get the right vitamin D test, with accurate results, here.

Please also set aside some time to watch my one-hour vitamin D lecture, as it is loaded with all the details you need to use this vital nutrient to protect your health.

More Natural Tips to Prevent Prostate Cancer

Optimizing your vitamin D levels is an important part of prostate cancer prevention, but it is far from the only method. Another sensible strategy is to increase your intake of vitamin K2 (found in fermented foods such as natto), which may reduce your risk of prostate cancer by 35 percent.

You can also follow these helpful tips for prostate cancer prevention and all-natural alternative treatments given to me by former guest commentator Dr. Larry Clapp, author of Prostate Health in 90 Days Without Drugs or Surgery.

• Be sure to keep your insulin levels below three as high insulin levels drive and promote cancer growth.
• Cleanse past accumulation of toxins in your tissue, gut and colon with a good detox program
• Cleanse your mouth of hidden infections from root canals, amalgam fillings, decay and gum infections. Then, chelate mercury from your body, nutritionally.
• Avoid as many toxins as possible as your prostate was designed by nature to filter toxins from your semen.
• Adopt the advice in Take Control of Your Health and eat a healthy diet based on your nutritional type.

All types must eliminate:

• High glycemic carbohydrates such as sugar, pasta, potatoes, bread and most grains
• All pasteurized dairy
• Conventional grain and chemical fed animals
• Most fish, due to high levels of mercury and PCB contamination

Also if you are not sensitive or allergic to them incorporate natural lycopene foods such as:

• Tomatoes
• Raspberries
• Watermelon
• Cabbage family foods, such as broccoli and broccoli sprouts to help control excess estrogens, the real enemy of the prostate

Take a high-quality krill oil with vitamin E to rebuild omega-3 fat levels, which are deficient in most people and a major cause of inflammation and disease.

Get full body sun exposure whenever possible to increase vitamin D levels, which need to be tested regularly.

Avoid biopsies, which permanently damage your prostate and can spread or cause cancer. Have a far more reliable, non-invasive Power Color Doppler Sonogram of your prostate done by Robert Bard, MD in New York City,http://www.cancerscan.com/ or other qualified Radiologists. PCD is the first line of diagnosis in other countries, but is not sanctioned by American Urologists so it is difficult to find.

Source: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/03/19/Slash-Your-Prostate-Cancer-Risk-With-Sunlight.aspx

Vitamin D research may have doctors prescribing sunshine

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Science is confirming the amazing health benefits of sunshine. More and more doctors and health experts are recommending daily exposure to safe sunlight for improved mental and physical health. Health experts are even questioning the effectiveness and safety of sunscreen and sunblock lotions. This USA Today articles features information from the American Cancer Society, Harvard University, Columbia University, and University of Pennsylvania health experts and dermatologists.

Vitamin D research may have doctors prescribing sunshine

The Associated Press
Posted: 5/21/2005

Scientists are excited about a vitamin again. But unlike fads that sizzled and fizzled, the evidence this time is strong and keeps growing.
If it bears out, it will challenge one of medicine’s most fundamental beliefs: that people need to coat themselves with sunscreen whenever they’re in the sun. Doing that may actually contribute to far more cancer deaths than it prevents, some researchers think.

The vitamin is D, nicknamed the “sunshine vitamin” because the skin makes it from ultraviolet rays. Sunscreen blocks its production, but dermatologists and health agencies have long preached that such lotions are needed to prevent skin cancer.

Now some scientists are questioning that advice.

The reason is that vitamin D increasingly seems important for preventing and even treating many types of cancer. In the last three months alone, four separate studies found it helped protect against lymphoma and cancers of the prostate, lung and, ironically, the skin. The strongest evidence is for colon cancer.

Many people aren’t getting enough vitamin D. It’s hard to do from food and fortified milk alone, and supplements are problematic.

So the thinking is this: Even if too much sun leads to skin cancer, which is rarely deadly, too little sun may be worse.

No one is suggesting that people fry on a beach. But many scientists believe that “safe sun” — 15 minutes or so a few times a week without sunscreen — is not only possible but helpful to health.

One is Dr. Edward Giovannucci, a Harvard University professor of medicine and nutrition who laid out his case in a keynote lecture at a recent American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Anaheim, Calif.

His research suggests that vitamin D might help prevent 30 deaths for each one caused by skin cancer.

“I would challenge anyone to find an area or nutrient or any factor that has such consistent anti-cancer benefits as vitamin D,” Giovannucci told the cancer scientists. “The data are really quite remarkable.”

The talk so impressed the American Cancer Society’s chief epidemiologist, Dr. Michael Thun, that the society is reviewing its sun protection guidelines. “There is now intriguing evidence that vitamin D may have a role in the prevention as well as treatment of certain cancers,” Thun said.

Even some dermatologists may be coming around. “I find the evidence to be mounting and increasingly compelling,” said Dr. Allan Halpern, dermatology chief at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, who advises several cancer groups.

The dilemma, he said, is a lack of consensus on how much vitamin D is needed or the best way to get it.

No source is ideal. Even if sunshine were to be recommended, the amount needed would depend on the season, time of day, where a person lives, skin color and other factors. Thun and others worry that folks might overdo it.

“People tend to go overboard with even a hint of encouragement to get more sun exposure,” Thun said, adding that he’d prefer people get more of the nutrient from food or pills.

But this is difficult. Vitamin D occurs naturally in salmon, tuna and other oily fish, and is routinely added to milk. However, diet accounts for very little of the vitamin D circulating in blood, Giovannucci said.

Supplements contain the nutrient, but most use an old form — D-2 — that is far less potent than the more desirable D-3. Multivitamins typically contain only small amounts of D-2 and include vitamin A, which offsets many of D’s benefits.

As a result, pills might not raise vitamin D levels much at all.

Government advisers can’t even agree on an RDA, or recommended daily allowance for vitamin D. Instead, they say “adequate intake” is 200 international units a day up to age 50, 400 IUs for ages 50 to 70, and 600 IUs for people over 70.

Many scientists think adults need 1,000 IUs a day. Giovannucci’s research suggests 1,500 IUs might be needed to significantly curb cancer.

How vitamin D may do this is still under study, but there are lots of reasons to think it can:

• Several studies observing large groups of people found that those with higher vitamin D levels also had lower rates of cancer. For some of these studies, doctors had blood samples to measure vitamin D, making the findings particularly strong. Even so, these studies aren’t the gold standard of medical research — a comparison over many years of a large group of people who were given the vitamin with a large group who didn’t take it. In the past, the best research has deflated health claims involving other nutrients, including vitamin E and beta carotene.
• Lab and animal studies show that vitamin D stifles abnormal cell growth, helps cells die when they are supposed to, and curbs formation of blood vessels that feed tumors.
• Cancer is more common in the elderly, and the skin makes less vitamin D as people age.
• Blacks have higher rates of cancer than whites and more pigment in their skin, which prevents them from making much vitamin D.
• Vitamin D gets trapped in fat, so obese people have lower blood levels of D. They also have higher rates of cancer.
• Diabetics, too, are prone to cancer, and their damaged kidneys have trouble converting vitamin D into a form the body can use.
• People in the northeastern United States and northerly regions of the globe like Scandinavia have higher cancer rates than those who get more sunshine year-round.

During short winter days, the sun’s rays come in at too oblique an angle to spur the skin

to make vitamin D. That is why nutrition experts think vitamin D-3 supplements may be especially helpful during winter, and for dark-skinned people all the time.

But too much of the pill variety can cause a dangerous buildup of calcium in the body. The government says 2,000 IUs is the upper daily limit for anyone over a year old.

On the other hand, D from sunshine has no such limit. It’s almost impossible to overdose when getting it this way. However, it is possible to get skin cancer. And this is where the dermatology establishment and Dr. Michael Holick part company.

Thirty years ago, Holick helped make the landmark discovery of how vitamin D works. Until last year, he was chief of endocrinology, nutrition and diabetes and a professor of dermatology at Boston University. Then he published a book, “The UV Advantage,” urging people to get enough sunlight to make vitamin D.

“I am advocating common sense,” not prolonged sunbathing or tanning salons, Holick said.

Skin cancer is rarely fatal, he notes. The most deadly form, melanoma, accounts for only 7,770 of the 570,280 cancer deaths expected to occur in the United States this year.

More than 1 million milder forms of skin cancer will occur, and these are the ones tied to chronic or prolonged suntanning.

Repeated sunburns — especially in childhood and among redheads and very fair-skinned people — have been linked to melanoma, but there is no credible scientific evidence that moderate sun exposure causes it, Holick contends.

“The problem has been that the American Academy of Dermatology has been unchallenged for 20 years,” he says. “They have brainwashed the public at every level.”

The head of Holick’s department, Dr. Barbara Gilchrest, called his book an embarrassment and stripped him of his dermatology professorship, although he kept his other posts.

She also faulted his industry ties. Holick said the school has received $150,000 in grants from the Indoor Tanning Association for his research, far less than the consulting deals and grants that other scientists routinely take from drug companies.

In fact, industry has spent money attacking him. One such statement from the Sun Safety Alliance, funded in part by Coppertone and drug store chains, declared that “sunning to prevent vitamin D deficiency is like smoking to combat anxiety.”

Earlier this month, the dermatology academy launched a “Don’t Seek the Sun” campaign calling any advice to get sun “irresponsible.” It quoted Dr. Vincent DeLeo, a Columbia University dermatologist, as saying: “Under no circumstances should anyone be misled into thinking that natural sunlight or tanning beds are better sources of vitamin D than foods or nutritional supplements.”

That opinion is hardly unanimous, though, even among dermatologists.

“The statement that ‘no sun exposure is good’ I don’t think is correct anymore,” said Dr. Henry Lim, chairman of dermatology at Henry Ford Health System in Detroit and an academy vice president.

Some wonder if vitamin D may turn out to be like another vitamin, folate. High intake of it was once thought to be important mostly for pregnant women, to prevent birth defects. However, since food makers began adding extra folate to flour in 1998, heart disease, stroke, blood pressure, colon cancer and osteoporosis have all fallen, suggesting the general public may have been folate-deficient after all.

With vitamin D, “some people believe that it is a partial deficiency that increases the cancer risk,” said Hector DeLuca, a University of Wisconsin-Madison biochemist who did landmark studies on the nutrient.

About a dozen major studies are under way to test vitamin D’s ability to ward off cancer, said Dr. Peter Greenwald, chief of cancer prevention for the National Cancer Institute. Several others are testing its potential to treat the disease. Two recent studies reported encouraging signs in prostate and lung cancer.

As for sunshine, experts recommend moderation until more evidence is in hand.

“The skin can handle it, just like the liver can handle alcohol,” said Dr. James Leyden, professor emeritus of dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania, who has consulted for sunscreen makers.

“I like to have wine with dinner, but I don’t think I should drink four bottles a day.”

Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-05-21-doctors-sunshine-good_x.htm 

The Role of Natural Sunlight and Radiation

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PurLife Health & Research published an article sharing scientific research studies that show the ability of sunlight to regulate hormone growth to reduce mental illness and prevent disease, eliminate leukemia by improving gland health, and reverse tumor growth with proper full spectrum sunlight exposure.

The Role of Natural Sunlight and Radiation

Dr Joseph Meites, an endocrinologist at Michigan State University. Dr Meites said that light entering the eyes causes nerve impulses which influence the lower brain and pituitary gland and trigger a release of various hormones. He further stated: “We have no idea how many diseases are linked with hormone problems, but we do know that several diseases such as diabetes, infertility, cancer and thyroid disorders are involved with hormone imbalance”.

In view of Dr Ott’s specific reference to the role of natural light associated with leukemia in school children, some positive attention should be directed at the effect of natural light and its influence on the pineal and other endocrine glands.

An interesting article on the pineal gland in the Scientific Australian, March 1980, described some of the gland’s functions, but only touched upon its dependence on light. It stated significantly the association of melatonin, a hormone secreted by the pineal gland, with a person’s mood. In proper amounts, melatonin induces the feeling of comfort and wellbeing, and it has been suggested that the hormone could well be used as an alternative to currently used anti-anxiety drugs. This information derives from experiments performed by Dr R. F. Seamark of Adelaide University in collaboration with Professor Maurice King of Newcastle University.

Bearing in mind the clearly established relationship between anxiety and stress with the onset of cancer, straight away it can be seen where a link may exist between lack of natural light and the onset of cancer. Specifically, the ultraviolet spectrum of natural light, by its effect on the retina of the eye, activates the pineal gland to produce melatonin which is an anti-stress hormone and therefore an anti-cancer influence.

Additionally, and possibly more important, is the direct effect of sunlight radiation on lowering blood fat and cholesterol levels and detoxifying the blood as described in Chapter 18.

Dr Ott’s third book, Light, Radiation and You (1982), describes the specific effects of different wavelengths of light and other forms of radiation energy on increasing and decreasing the incidence and growth of cancer, both in humans and in laboratory animals. A recent report of Dr Ott’s work, in the Merced Sun-Star (Feb 2, 1983) described the experience of Helen Fleming, director of the Merced (California) College radiologic technology program, whose tumors disappeared when she moved to the country and got lots of sunshine. The tumors reappeared when she returned to work but regressed again when the lights in her office and home were changed to a type recommended by Dr Ott.

Also described in Chapter 18 is the adverse effect of various other fluorescent lights. Lancet, August 7, 1982, described an Australian study which sought the reason for the doubling of melanoma incidence in the past 30 years. The study of 274 women patients revealed a correlation between office fluorescent lighting and a 250% increase in melanoma risk. Data on 27 male patients showed a 440% increase in risk over 10 years of exposure. The types of fluorescent lights involved were not specified* and there is conjecture on which light wavelengths could be implicated.

*They were not the full-spectrum lights as recommended by Dr Ott, because these were unprocurable in Australia at this time.

It should be remembered that ordinary window glass, spectacles and car windows etc., filter out ultraviolet light, and so to gain benefit from natural sunlight a person must spend some time outdoors without glasses. An alternative is the use of fluorescent lights which emit ultraviolet light.

Whereas doctors recommend people to shield themselves against sunlight to reduce their risk of skin cancer, it should be clearly understood that skin damage by sunshine is not the real cause of cancer but only a secondary or “trigger” factor.

The Significance of the Sun by Master Petar Deunov

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Petar Deunov, the master teacher of Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, teaches in this article the spiritual significance of the sun and how the human body can absorb and use the sun’s spiritual energy for enlightenment.

“All the world renders homage to me and I render homage to the Master Petar Deunov from Bulgaria.” -Albert Einstein

The Significance of the Sun. Sunrays’ cure.

Our Sun gets its energy from the Central Sun of our visible Universe, the greatest part of this energy being absorbed by our Sun and a comparatively small part of it reaching the planets. The energy, which the Earth gets from the Sun, is considerably transformed. Penetrating the Earth layers this energy absorbs from them all the nourishing elements and there are left only those that could not be used. Thus transformed this energy is no longer useful to the development, that is why it is sent back in the space and thence by some known means back to the Sun. The Sun transmits it in its turn to the Central Sun for further processing for it to acquire its initial rhythm.

The Sun energy descends toward the Earth under the shape of a big stream and envelopes it from the North pole to the South one. When the plants detect the presence of this energy and its swelling towards the Earth, they begin to put forth leaves and then flourish and knit, trying to gather all this energy and to fructify themselves.

We have to consider the following rule: we are a part of the earth system and when the latter absorbs the energy, the human system absorbs it too, and vice versa. That is why the first sun rays are the most active. Then the human system is most receptive towards the sun energy. There is always more prana or vital energy in the morning than at noon. At this time the system absorbs the biggest quantity and the most powerful positive energy.

As a physical being, man has to do exercises – nothing more. He has to get up early in the morning, to go for a walk and breathe fresh air, to greet the first sun rays. He could stay as long as he wish in the sunrays at noon, it would be of no use to him.

The sunrays do not act in the same way during all seasons. The earth (in a given place) in the beginning of the spring is mostly negative, and it mainly absorbs energy. That is why in spring the sunrays possess the strongest healing effect. From March 22-nd onwards the earth gradually becomes positive. In summer it is positive and absorbs a smaller quantity of energy. The summer sunrays operate an influence too, but they have a weaker effect.

In spring and summer there is a high tide of energy towards the earth and in autumn and winter – there is a low tide. For this reason the most favourable effect of the sun begins after March 22-nd. In spring and summer, after March 22-nd each year, it is recommended for one to go to bed and to get up early and to welcome the Sun in order to gather one’s share of its energy, like the bees, which gather nectar from the flowers. Every one has to make experiments for years to become convinced in this truth.

Each day the sun energy has 4 periods: from midnight to noon there is a high tide of energy and from noon to midnight there is a low tide. The high tide comes to its maximum at sunrise. This high tide is the most powerful and invigorating. It gradually diminishes until noon. Then the low tide begins, which is most powerful at sunset.

The most negative the Earth is, the greater its capacity of absorbing the positive sun energy is, and vice versa. From midnight to noon the earth (at a given place) is negative and absorbs more energy, from noon to midnight it is positive and radiates more energy. From midnight the earth begins to radiate negative energy in the space and absorbs positive energy from the sun. In the afternoon the earth radiates in the space positive energy and gradually becomes negative. At sunrise, early in the morning, the earth is most negative, i.e. it absorbs the biggest quantity of energy. This fact is of great importance to estimate the significance of the sunrise.

One of the hardest questions is whether you can control your energy. It comes from the Centre of the Earth, it is going along the backbone and as a large stream it penetrates the central brain system. The contemporary world has lost his control over this stream. There is another stream, which comes from the Sun. It goes in the opposite direction – from the brain to the sympathetic system or to the stomach. Before sunrise the rays that are refracted by the atmosphere operate a greater influence on the brain. At sunrise the sunrays that are coming in a straight line are influencing the respiratory organs and our sensibility. With the approach of noon the same rays influence our digestive system. That is why the healing effect of the sun energy is different: before sunrise – to stimulate the brain nervous system, from 9 to 12 – to strengthen the stomach. In the afternoon, generally the sunrays possess an insignificant healing effect. The reason for such a difference lay in the different absorption capacity of the Earth and of the human system.

The sunrays are most healing in the morning from 8 to 9 o’clock. At noon they are too strong and are not good to the human system. The early sunrays are very good to anaemic people. You can expose all your body in the sunrays. You should do sunbaths in the morning – from 8 to 10. They have a good influence on the backbone, the lungs and the brain. The brain is like a pile. When this pile begins absorbing, if the charging with sun energy is correct, later it transmits this energy towards all parts of the human body and this energy begins healing.

The more energy you absorb in your body, the greater softness and magnetism you will develop. When studying the influence of light you will notice that there are hours during the daytime when the Sun sends to the earth beneficial rays, mainly in the morning up to noon. And there are hours when the sunrays do not operate a healing effect on the organisms. These are the so-called black or negative rays. One can expose his body in the sunrays all day long but his spirit needs to be concentrated and positive so as to absorb only the positive sunrays. You should concentrate and watch not to fall asleep. Along with the black, negative waves from the Sun, some waves of the earth are coming too, that are harmful to the human system.

Until you learn the rules of enclosing in order to protect yourself from these waves, it is recommended for you to stay in the sun during the early hours of the day, up to noon at latest. You must protect yourself from the sunrays in the afternoon. When you want to take a cure with sunrays the best hours are from 8 to 10 in the morning.

The energy that comes from the Sun brings with it a store of life forces, of healing energy. If one wants to use reasonably this sun energy, he must stay with his back in the early sunrays, even before the sunrise. The energy that he can absorb during this time is equal to that which one would absorb if he should stay in the sun all day long. Even in a cloudy weather you can go for a walk before the sunrise and to concentrate your thoughts towards the rising Sun. The clouds only prevent you from seeing the Sun, but its vital energy passes through. There is no outer power that could counteract to the sun energy. That is why I recommend to all anaemic and lean people to go out for half an hour before sunrise in any weather, in order to absorb the early sun energy. The daybreak gives one such energy that no other power is able to give him.

Stay with your back turned towards the Sun no matter whether you are in good or bad mood and observe what would be the effect in the first and in the second case. Moreover, one should know in what hours of the day to stay in the sunrays in order to absorb its beneficial rays.

When one has to stay in the sun all day long, to protect himself from the harmful sunrays he should wear a hat with the form of polygon to refract the harmful sunrays.

If you can endure staying in the sun from the morning to noon you are in good health. But if you can not endure staying for a long-time in the sun, you are not in good health.

When you want to take a cure, stay with your back turned towards the early sunrays. When you want to have peace of mind, stay with your back turned to the sunset.

I have often said that one must talk with the light. If your back is aching, turn it towards the sunrays, expose it to the light, think about it, about what it contains, and your ache will disappear.

The best months to renovation are from March 22-nd onwards, during the whole month of April, to June 22-nd.

The sunbaths in the mountain are to prefer because the astral cloud of thoughts that envelops the city does not disturb the rhythm of the sunrays.

Many diseases could be healed with sun energy. Moreover, it is proved that for each disease there is a favorable time to be healed. Some diseases could be cured with more effect in May, others in June, and so on, during all the year.

I recommend you to go out in the sunrays every morning, turning your back first to the East, then for a while to the North, then to the East again, and staying in this position for an hour, from 7 to 8 o’clock in the morning. Turn your thoughts toward God and say: “My Lord, open my mind. Give health to all people and to me too.” Then begin thinking about the most beautiful things you have ever seen. Make this experience during all the year. You will see that in 99% your experiment will be successful. When making sunbaths, your conscience has to be concentrated, you should not think about other things. You can use the following formula which to pronounce often during your sunbaths. “Lord, thank you for your sacred energy of Divine life, which you send us with the sunrays. I feel can it to penetrate all my organs and to bring everywhere power, life and health. It is the expression of Divine love towards us. Thank you.”

To be healed, a neurasthenic has to go out early in the morning, during the sunrise and to turn his back to the East. That who is healthy and does so will strengthen his nervous system.

The tuberculosis is cured with pure air and sunrays, too. The diseased have to stay with their back and then with their chest turned to the sunrays for at least 1-2 or 3-4 months, and they will see what a change the sun will produce in their system. During this time they have to concentrate their mind. They have to repeat periodically the formula: “My lord, help me to accomplish your will and to serve you.”

If you have eczema, a hair loss, rheumatism of the joints or some swelling of the abdomen, you have to build a veranda or a balcony facing the sun and closed with glass panes. Then undress your shirt and stay naked to the waist, lay on a bed with your head turned to the North and your legs to the South and turn your chest towards the sunrays, protecting your head from them. Stay in this position for half an hour, then turn your back towards the sun for half an hour, then the chest again, and the back again etc. until you begin to perspire strongly. If you make 20-30-40 sunbaths of this sort you will be healed of everything – eczema, loss of hair, rheumatism, everything will disappear.

When you are making sunbaths it is recommended to dress yourself in white or light green clothes – these colours are good. The most important thing is the perspiration. If you are in the open air envelop yourself in a thin waterproof. When curing yourself this way you have to concentrate your thoughts in order to heal yourself directly from nature.

The sunburn acquired from the sunrays shows that the sun has extracted from one’s system all sediments, all the dirt and all the dense matter. If one doesn’t take sunburn it means that this matter remains in his system and provokes a number of diseases. If you take sunburn in the sunrays it means that you have accumulated their energy.

About Master Petar Deunov

The Master Petar Deunov is amongst the most famous personalities in Bulgarian history and spiritual culture. The principal subjects in his lectures and talks are: man’s place and role in the Universe, in Nature and Society, the spiritual understanding of Culture, Ethics, Psychology, Medicine, Music etc. Master Petar Deunov taught exercises for breathing, meditation and concentration. He founded the Paneurythmics, which is played nowadays in USA, Canada, France, Russia, Kongo and other countries in the world.

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Petar Deunov, the master teacher of Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, teaches in this article how the sun’s energy can heal various parts of our physical bodies and increase our overall health. This articles looks in depth at the seasons and daylight hours, teaching how the changing levels of sunlight affect different parts of the body.

“All the world renders homage to me and I render homage to the Master Petar Deunov from Bulgaria.” -Albert Einstein

The Influence of the Solar Energy - part 1

by Petar Deunov

The sun is a source of living energy for the whole solar system. In relation to the earth, the energy of the sun is positive. This energy develops into positive and negative electricity, and into positive and negative magnetism. The energy of the earth in relation to the sun is negative (the earth has two kinds of energy, but the negative is predominant, while of the two kinds of energy, which the sun possesses, the positive is predominant) . By the contact of these two kinds of energy, life is produced on Earth. The powerful mediator, which unites and transforms these two energies, is called ether by the scientists. It penetrates all space and the whole earth. The occultists call it vivifying plasma; the mystics call it spirit. And in the book of Genesis (ch. 1, verses 1-2) it is said: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was waste and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep: and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”.

The structure of the sun is the same as the structure of the cells. The sun is composed of three regions: the one of them prepares the energies, the second one accumulates, collects and transforms them; while the third - directs them to the earth. These three regions exist also in the cells: an outer region which receives the solar energy; a second one which accumulates it within itself; and an inner region, which works it over and transforms it into a vital force. These three regions are found also in the organism in a more developed form. In the embryo, one can recognize them most easily. The first, outer, visible envelope of the embryo is called ectoderm; the intermediary one is called mesoderm, and that which is in the center, the most internal, is called endoderm.

The energy which our sun receives from the central sun of our visible universe is positive at first, but afterwards it is polarized into positive and negative.
There exists an important law that the more negative the earth, the greater its capacity of receiving the positive solar energy; and inversely, the more positive the earth, the lesser its receptive capacity.

Every celestial body receives energies by its negative pole and emits them by its positive pole. When a center is positive, it gives, but when it is negative, it receives. The positive energy creates, while the negative - constructs.

The greater part of the energy, which our sun receives from the central sun, is consumed by the sun itself. Comparatively a very small amount of it is transmitted to the planets. The energies, which the earth receives from the sun undergo a considerable transformation, for as they penetrate the earth-layers, the latter absorb all their nutritive elements and only that which is not of any more use remains. Thus the earth throws into cosmic space those energies, which are of no more benefit to its development and growth. From there, by certain special ways, these energies return to the sun, which on its part, redirects them to the central sun for further modification and transformation, until their primary rhythm is achieved.

From midnight till noon the earth (i.e. a respective part) is negative and receives more, while from noon till midnight it is positive and gives more. Beginning at midnight, the earth starts to project into cosmic space negative energy and in return, to receive positive solar energy. At sunset the earth is positive to the highest degree, and consequently it gives most. In the afternoon, the earth starts to project into cosmic space positive energies and after it has emitted a sufficient quantity, it becomes negative. This is gradually done and it is toward midnight that the negative energies become predominant. The earth is negative in the highest degree at sunrise, which means that at that time it receives most. This fact is of highest importance for us, since it reveals the great significance and value of sunrise. We must take into consideration the following law: we form a part of the earthly organism and therefore when the earth receives, we also receive and when the earth gives, we also give*. This is exactly why the first rays of the sun are the most powerful. At that moment the human organism is most receptive toward the solar energies. There is always more vital energy or prana in the morning than at noontime, and the living organism absorbs the greatest quantity of positive energies (prana) at that time. The first rays of the sun (at sunrise) are most active; the sun is then at the apogee of its activity.

The solar energy passes each day through four different states. From 12 o’clock midnight to 12 o’clock at noon there is an influx of solar energy, and from noon to midnight - a reflux. The influx, which begins at midnight, reaches its culminating point at sunrise; it is then most powerful and vivifying. It gradually decreases till noon and then the reflux begins which reaches its highest point at sunset. According to the law of motion, that part of the earth which turns itself constantly toward the sun and approaches it, is found in the most favorable conditions for its development, while that part whose distance from the sun increases loses most of the conditions. One hour before sunrise the solar energies exercise a purely psychological influence upon the cells of the human body, and by refreshing and invigorating them, create a new impulse toward activity in the whole body.

Before sunrise, the rays which are refracted in the atmosphere, influence mostly the brain. During sunrise, the rays which come in a straight line, influence mostly the respiratory system and our sensitiveness; while toward noon, the same rays have an influence upon our digestive system. That is why the curative power of the solar energy is different during different hours of the day, before sun-rise - for the amelioration of the cerebral nervous system; at sunrise -for the strengthening of respiratory system, and from 9 till 12 at noon, for the strengthening of the stomach, that is to say, during that time of the day, the sun rays have a curative effect upon the sick stomach. In the afternoon, the curative effect of the solar energies is of smaller importance.

At the first sight, it would appear that the solar rays are most curative about one or two o’clock in the afternoon, since the heat is greatest then. But if the solar rays had a curative effect through their heat, why then could not the heat of the stove be a substitute for their curative power? It is not the solar heat which is the main curing factor, but this function belongs to other energies of higher order, which we may call prana (vital energy) in regard to which the earth is more receptive in the morning.

The latest scientific researches declare that the solar rays are most curative before noon, but someone might object that when it is sunrise for us, it is noon for some and sunset for others. Then why this difference in the curative action of the rays during the different hours of the day? The reason for this difference lies in the varying receptive aptitude of the earth and the organism.

Source: http://www.bratstvo%20to.net/vehadi/%20menuen/fr1nen.%20html

The Influence of the Solar Energy by Petar Deunov (part 2)

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Petar Deunov, the master teacher of Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov, teaches in this article how the sun’s energy can heal various parts of our physical bodies and increase our overall health. This article looks in depth at the seasons and daylight hours, teaching how the changing levels of sunlight affect different parts of the body.

“All the world renders homage to me and I render homage to the Master Petar Deunov from Bulgaria.” -Albert Einstein

The Influence of the Solar Energy - part 2

by Petar Deunov

Let us follow the course of the year as an analogy to this fact. The solar rays do not act in an uniform manner during all the seasons of the year. The earth (that is a respective place) is most negative in the beginning of the spring and that is why it receives most at that time. This is the reason why of all seasons of the year, the solar rays have a most curative effect during the spring. Starting on March 22nd, the earth gradually becomes more positive. During the summer it is quite positive and receives less. (The summer rays also act curatively but to a lesser degree).

In the beginning of spring there is more prana and the organisms absorb the greatest quantity possible, while during the summer the heat increases but not the prana, or the vital energy, which is so abundant in the spring. There are certain signs by which we can know when nature is more rich in prana.

In this way the solar energy exercises four kinds of influence during the four seasons. The spring and the summer represent the influx of energy, while the autumn and winter - the reflux. That is why the most beneficial influence of the sun begins on the 22nd of March. All the well-constructed organisms profit by this energy, while the weak ones, on the contrary, become weaker.

The earth begins its creative work on March 22nd. Its creative forces reach the climax of their activity then. Since the positive solar energy comes in an increased amount to the earth during this time, the creative energy of the latter is increased, stirring an intense growth in all things. The greatest organic activity takes place at that time.

The most favorable time for renovation and development starts on March 22nd and continues during the whole of April and May, till June 22nd. On this last date all growth ceases.

The day can be divided into 4 periods of 6 hours each: from midnight till 6 o’clock in the morning constitutes the time of spring, from 6 o’clock in the morning till 12 at noon - is the time of summer; from 12 at noon till 6 in the evening (till sunset) - it is the autumn; and from 6 o’clock in the evening till midnight - it is the winter. Because of the movements of the earth during certain times of the year the summer of the day is longer and the winter - shorter. The contrary takes place in winter.

We, the inhabitants of the earth, must follow in our life the example, which the plants give us; they understand better than us the law of growth. The solar energy arrives here an a large current, which encompasses the earth from the north to the south pole and returns to the sun. Certain men of learning support the idea that it is precisely this energy which causes the movement of the earth around its axis. When certain plants begin to feel that this potential energy begins its inflow and manifestation on earth they start budding and preparing themselves, and when this energy is increased, they blossom up and try to absorb as much of this energy as they can in order to be fructified. This energy is transmitted to the plants by the vivifying plasma. This is exactly why at the moment we see the plants budding and blossoming, a new inner joy should come to birth in the human soul, that the day of its liberation is approaching. All the fibers of man’s being should vibrate with a tender feeling for this animating force, which envelops him if he would be a recipient of its beneficial influence, which would refresh and renew his thoughts, feelings and strength.

In spring and summer, beginning on March 22nd, it is good for one to go to bed early and to get up before the rising of the sun to welcome it and to receive the part belonging to him as the bees gather the nectar of the flowers. It would be sufficient for one to practice this in the course of some years, in order to be convinced in the truth of this statement. A blind faith is not necessary, for each one will work out his own conceptions and opinions concerning the beneficial influence of the sun. There is absolutely no place for deception in this fact, since it is based upon a profound understanding of a fundamental law of august nature. We should always be in agreement with its injunctions and understand that they contain the methods for our life. And if we live in perfect accord with them, we can be always intelligent, healthy, strong and happy. Therefore, we should have a heart full of the best feelings when we are to welcome some of the servants of nature. And one of these servants is the sun. That is why the Psalmist says: “And they turned and sought God in the morning.” (Psalm 78) and “It is a good thing to give thanks to Jehova, and to sing praise unto Thy name, O, Most High; to show forth Thy loving kindness in the morning” (Psalm 92) ; but he does not say; “To sing praise unto Thee, Lord, in the evening.” When Nature starts working, then we should start our work, also. And this is the Divine, the sublime thing in life: to think and to feel as we see these manifestations in the supreme Reason of the august living Nature, and not to follow after the inventions of all sorts of systems and beliefs of men. For the most just conception of life is the Truth; the essence of life is Love and the sense of this life is Wisdom.

We mentioned before that there exists an analogy between the solar system and the organism. The processes taking place in the organism find an analogy in those of the solar system. When the solar energy enters the brain, it undergoes the same modifications as those which occur when it first enters the sun after leaving the central sun. This fact is difficult to explain, since men generally have a mechanic conception of things, instead of a psychological one, based on reason. The feelings, the sensitivity, constitute the negative pole, while the thought - the positive pole. In the human organism the brain is positive and the sympathetic nervous system is negative. It is the same in the cosmos. In the left side of the human body the energy descends toward the left foot and then, by way of the right foot and the right side it moves upward. There exists such an electromagnetic current around every organ. For instance, positive energy passes through the right eyebrow, which turns and passes under the same eye, where it becomes negative energy. From there it mounts over the left eye, where it becomes positive again. After that it moves under the same eye as negative energy. In this way the movement of this energy resembles the number 8.

At the point between the eyebrows, or at the root of the nose there is a center of reason, which regulates these currents around the eyes. One might call this center the Silent, the Rational in nature, which regulates the forces.

The circulation of the blood is due mainly to electromagnetic currents. If they did not support the flow of the arterial blood, the heart would be incapable of doing this alone. But the blood moves in the human organism by the help of that cosmic impulse in the world, which constantly regulates the blood-circulation of all organisms. The movements of this protoplasm in the cell, the circulation and rotation, the movement of the sun, planets and the other celestial bodies, are all due to this same electromagnetic current.

The energy which the earth draws from the sun can be compared to the arterial blood and that which it sends back to the sun can be compared to the venous blood. Our sun plays the role of a heart, but this role is still better played by the central sun. As the impure blood must return from the tissues to the heart and then go to the lungs to be purified, in the same way the energies of the earth return to the sun, in order to regain their primal rhythm.

We consider the sun not as a dead body, but as a living being. Let us admit, for example, that a certain learned man salutes from a distance contemporary men with his shells. What would be our idea of this man? The study which we would make of his will concern only his physical side. Let us suppose, on the other hand, that this same learned man, by some reflector, would send us his rays - some well-written poems by which he would salute us or that he would send us his fruits: in the first case his energy would be destructive, in the second - stimulating and in the third invigorating. At the present time we are studying only the two kinds of the solar energies. All illnesses on the earth are caused by the sun, that is to say: if we are hard-hearted, unresponsive and stubborn, the sun salutes us by its shells; if we are wise, it salutes us by its bright poems, which fill us with joy and gladness, and last, if we are spiritually elevated and love the nature, it sends its living fruits which deposit in us the germ of the new life - that, which is called in religion -Resurrection.

The ignorant shall understand nature by its restricting, physical laws; the wise - by its illuminating bright poems, and the spiritual - by its living, vivifying fruits out of which flows the life for the whole of humanity.

Source: http://www.bratstvo%20to.net/vehadi/%20menuen/fr1nen.%20html 

Sun’s Atmosphere Sings

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Astronomers have recorded heavenly music bellowed out by the Sun’s atmosphere.  SPACE.com reports the Royal Astronomical Society’s findings.

Sun’s Atmosphere Sings

By Jeanna Bryner
18 April 2007

Astronomers have recorded heavenly music bellowed out by the Sun’s atmosphere.

Snagging orchestra seats for this solar symphony would be fruitless, however, as the frequency of the sound waves is below the human hearing threshold. While humans can make out sounds between 20 and 20,000 hertz, the solar sound waves are on the order of milli-hertz–a thousandth of a hertz.

The study, presented this week at the Royal Astronomical Society’s National Astronomy Meeting in Lancashire, England, reveals that the looping magnetic fields along the Sun’s outer regions, called the corona, carry magnetic sound waves in a similar manner to musical instruments such as guitars or pipe organs.

Making music

Robertus von Fay-Siebenburgen and Youra Taroyan, both of the Solar Physics and Space Plasma Research Center at the University of Sheffield, and their colleagues combined information gleaned from sun-orbiting satellites with theoretical models of solar processes, such as coronal mass ejections.

They found that explosive events at the Sun’s surface appear to trigger acoustic waves that bounce back and forth between both ends of the loops, a phenomenon known as a standing wave.

“These magnetic loops are analogous to a simple guitar string,” von Fay-Siebenburgen explained. “If you pluck a guitar string, you will hear the music.”

In the cosmic equivalent of a guitar pick, so-called microflares at the base of loops could be plucking the magnetic loops and setting the sound waves in motion, the researchers speculate. While solar flares are the largest explosions in the solar system, microflares are a million times smaller but much more frequent; both phenomena are now thought to funnel heat into the Sun’s outer atmosphere.

The acoustic waves can be extremely energetic, reaching heights of tens of miles, and can travel at rapid speeds of 45,000 to 90,000 miles per hour. “These [explosions] release energy equivalent to millions of hydrogen bombs,” von Fay-Siebenburgen said.

“These energies are plucking these magnetic strings or standing pipes, which set up standing waves–exactly the same waves you see on a guitar string,” von Fay-Siebenburgen told SPACE.com. The “sound booms” decay to silence in less than an hour, dissipating in the hot solar corona.

Solar physics

The musical finding could help explain why the Sun’s corona is so hot.

While the Sun’s surface is a steamy 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit (5,538 degrees Celsius), plasma gas in the corona soars to more than 100 times hotter.

“How can the atmosphere above the surface of the Sun be hotter if nuclear fusion happens inside the Sun?” von Fay-Siebenburgen said. If astronomers can get a clearer picture of what’s going on inside these magnetic loops in the Sun’s atmosphere, they have a better chance of finding the answer.

Another recent study using images from Hinode’s telescope revealed twisted magnetic fields along the Sun’s surface, which store huge amounts of energy. The magnetic fields can snap like a rubber band; when they do, they might release energy that could heat up the corona or power solar eruptions and coronal mass ejections, the researchers say.

Video: Sun Storms
Images: Solar Flares
Twisted Solution to Sun’s Mystery Heat

When the Sun shakes

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Research scientists studying the Sun have found that the Sun is shaking - vibrating like a colossal musical instrument. Scientists are learning from our Sun and will be able to measure the interiors of other stars.

When the Sun shakes

Although we can’t see it without special equipment, the Sun is shaking. Bubbling motion just under the visible surface is constantly feeding in energy, and the Sun responds by vibrating like a colossal musical instrument. The ‘notes’ of this stellar music are fascinating to astronomers. They are produced by sound waves which have travelled deep inside the Sun, and their frequencies (the ‘pitches’ of the notes) depend on the conditions they’ve encountered on the way: for example, the density and temperature of the material inside the Sun. Studying these sound waves essentially allows an ‘ultrasound scan’ of our nearest star.

Turning these ideas into scientific reality is extremely difficult. The shaking of the Sun’s surface is very small. It moves to and fro at a couple of meters per second (a slow walking pace), and takes about five minutes to go through a vibrational cycle. Detecting this movement takes specially designed instruments: spectrometers that analyse the spectrum of sunlight with fantastic precision, sensing for the tiny shifts in light frequency (Doppler shift) as the Sun’s surface rises towards, or recedes from, the Earth.

There is a cycle of magnetic activity (and we don’t fully understand it yet) that causes the Sun to produce an unusually high number of ’sunspots’ every 11 years or so. For this and other reasons, scientists would really like to observe the Sun’s vibrations all the time, and over many years.

One way of doing this is to have a number of robotic spectrometers in different sunny locations around the world, so that when the Sun sets on one instrument it has already risen on another. The Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network (BiSON) is just such a network of spectrometers. There are instruments in the Americas, Australia, Tenerife and South Africa. The BiSON team designed and built them, and they’re kept running with support from local collaborators, and by field site visits. The data are returned to the BiSON base in Birmingham via the Internet, and the remote link also lets the team monitor the performance of the instruments and upgrade some of the software.

Results from BiSON have been very valuable in helping astronomers to understand the Sun. The spectrum of its deepest vibrations was first detected by BiSON. Now astronomers are learning how to measure the interiors of other stars, with the Sun as an important reference point for this new work.

Healing effects of Far Infrared Light

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The greatest amount of the sun’s energy output is in the infrared segment of the spectrum. This band of light has been shown to have many beneficial effects on health, detoxification, and longevity.  This article on Far Infrared Light summaries some of the many benefits of this energy band of sunlight.

Far Infrared Light

For centuries, scientists have known that plants are dependent upon sunlight for photosynthesis. But, only recently has science recognized the similarities between humans and plants in their dependence upon light.

Today, we know that energy from the sun’s rays, photons, controls vital processes in both plants and people. In humans, photons are the catalyst for the production of sugars, fats, and proteins. Photons stimulate the endocrine system, metabolic processes and enzyme reactions as well as activities in the brain.

When this connection is disturbed, disorders follow. For example, when enzymes in the body’s cells, which should normally be activated, fail to receive the proper wave lengths of light, they remain dormant. As a result, they cannot start up normal, cellular metabolic reactions. This translates into lower cellular energy, glandular insufficiencies and reduced ability to burn fats and toxins.

Solar energy from the sun covers a broad energy band including infrared, visible light, ultra-violet, x-rays and gamma rays. Only a small amount of these solar rays are visible as colors. The greatest amount of the sun’s energy output is in the infrared segment of the spectrum. This band of light is not visible but can be felt as heat.

The infrared segment of the electromagnetic spectrum is divided into three segments by wave frequencies and wave lengths. Wave lengths are measured in microns (mm), which are one millionth of a meter: Near Infrared: 0.76-1.5 mm; Middle: 1.5-5.6 mm; Far: 5.6-1000 mm. A narrow spectrum between 4 to 14 microns has been shown to have particularly beneficial effects on the body.

Among the total spectrum of solar rays coming from the sun, the FIR waves are the safest and the most beneficial. For example, the visible light spectrum, with very short wave lengths, is reflected away from the body. When near (NIR) waves heat organic substances the surface gets hotter than the interior, and the interior gets heated by conduction from the surface. By contrast, far-infrared penetrates deeply with a very uniform warming effect.

Benefits of FIR Waves

All humans send and receive FIR waves. The range of infrared waves generated by the body is 3 to 50 microns. The greatest output is around 9.4, which is very close to the resonant frequency of a water molecule. This similarity makes sense since our bodies are almost 70% water.

Any substances with similar resonance can absorb energy from each other easily. Consequently, when you are close to someone, you are both sending and receiving FIR energy. When heated, our planet emits FIR waves at around the 10 micron level as do most organic substances and plants. The FIR waves between 4 to 14 microns, sometimes called Vital Rays, appear to have special regenerative effects on the body.

When any tissue in the body is exposed to FIR waves, whether radiated by sunlight, reflected by specially coated fabrics or ceramic panels, there is a rapid increase in warmth which can shown by thermography. This heat plus the activation of several other response mechanisms stimulates the healing processes. For example, FIR waves:

• increase blood flow by promoting dilation (expansion) of the micro-circulatory system of capillaries.
• reduce muscle spasms as muscle fibers are heated.
• remove toxins from the site receiving FIR waves.
• assist in the reduction of swelling and inflammation by improving lymph flow.
• reduce soreness through direct action on both free nerve endings in tissues and on peripheral nerves.

At the cellular level, researchers have discovered that specific FIR waves lengths:

• stimulate enzyme activity.
• promote the adhesion and osmosis of water molecules across the cellular membrane.
• attract calcium ions to the cellular membrane.
• FIR waves reduce acidity

FIR waves, reflected from wraps and blankets to the body, provide concentrated radiant energy, similar to that from the sun. FIR wraps, applied directly to overworked muscles, reduce lactic acid while FIR blankets often provide an overall reduction in general body acidity during sleep.

Medical application FIR technology

One of the reasons FIR has beneficial results in a variety of illnesses is the ability of FIR waves to remove toxins, which are often at the core of many health problems. Since humans are bio-accumulators, numerous toxins, that cannot be removed immediately after entry, are stored in our bodies. For example, when toxic gases such as sulfur dioxide, carbon dioxide or toxic substances such as lead, mercury or chlorine meet large water molecules, they are encapsulated by the clusters of water. Where these toxins are accumulated, blood circulation is blocked and cellular energy is impaired.

However, when a 10 micron FIR wave is applied to these large water molecules, the water begins to vibrate. This vibration reduces the ion bonds of the atoms which are holding together the molecules of water. As the breakdown of the water molecules occurs, encapsulated gases and other toxic materials are released.

Diets and exercise do work to a certain extent, but there are scientific products developed in Japan that can help you get rid of the accumulated acidic toxins more easily and effortlessly. These products work no matter how busy you are, how old you are or how lazy you may be. As with diets and exercises, the results are not overnight; however, the process is the fastest among the methods using the natural process.

The problem is that the acid accumulation in our body is slow and our body adapts to it, so that we do not notice the fact that we are getting sick and old. By the time one feels pain caused by the acid accumulation, the damage is severe. One must start the process of reducing acidic wastes before the pain starts.

Restructuring Your Own Water with the Actual Sound of the Sun

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David Sereda shows you how to restructure your own water with the actual sound of the Sun. View this amazing photograph of the crystalline structure of water when it is imprinted with the sound of the Sun.

David Sereda - Sound of the Sun water photograph

Restructuring Your Own Water with the Actual Sound of the Sun

by David Sereda

Learn how to restructure your own water with the actual sound of the Sun.

Pythagoras, in the 6th Century B.C. actually heard and experienced “The Music of the Spheres.” – What did he hear? Is there a harmonic sound to the planet, solar system and the universe?

Is the Hindu Sound of “OM” the true sound of the Sun? Is this the sacred sound that Pythagoras and the ancient yogis heard when going into deep meditation? In the Vedas: AUM is the sound of the Sun, the sound of Light. It is the sound of assent (affirmation) and ascent (it has an upward movement and uplifts the soul, as the sound of the divine eagle or falcon.

“The goal which all the Vedas declare, which all austerities aim at, and which men desire when they lead the life of continence … is “Om.” This syllable ”Om” is indeed Brahman. Whosoever knows this syllable obtains all that he desires. This is the best support; this is the highest support. Whosoever knows this support is adored in the world of Brahma.” ~ The Upanishads.

Restructured water – Why it gets polluted. Even if you purchase restructured water, by the time it is packaged and sits on a shelf, is transported across miles of freeways, it is exposed to consciousness pollution. Water has memory. It retains the consciousness, noise pollution and all that it gets exposed to.

60 Minutes did a study on bottled water. Andy Rooney took some of the bottles to a testing laboratory called Yorktown Environmental Services to see what was in them.

“From all the waters I’ve seen that are bottled waters, and I probably haven’t tested all of them, but they are very much dead water. They have nothing in them. I drink tap water,” says lab owner and water expert Al Padovani.

> CLICK HERE TO SEE THE 60 MINUTES STORY.

Water has memory Masaru Emoto’s evidence looking at water crystals exposed to different kinds of music. Classical music co-creates beautiful water structure as opposed to water that is exposed to heavy metal.

Restructuring your own water with the master sound of the sun and why the sound of the sun is superior to all sounds. As the sun is the master of the solar system encoding all of life with its sound and light vibrations, learn how to structure your own water with the actual sound of the sun.

Bottled water has become a $9 billion business. Considering we are drinking dead water, isn’t it about time we restructure it ourselves with the master encoder?

Available on Audio CD or a downloadable .mp3 audio file.

Length: 7.5 Minutes

Format: 1 Audio CD (Includes Shipping World-Wide) - $16.00 US

Format: 1 MP3 Audio File (in a .zip folder) - $7.00 US