Your Health Health From Sunlight

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 94, 14 January 1939, Page 3 (Supplement)

Your Health Health From Sunlight

11 IU World's Oldest Remedy

’T-iIERE is a Greenland legend about a man who journeyed south and westward with his son in search of better hunting grounds. They found them in the shadows of the West Coast mountains. Time passed, and, like a sickness, sorrow came to rest on the old man. And it came to be that he had but one thought—it was to see the sun rise from out of the ocean once

more before he died. Then, so that this might be, they journeyed towards home again. They turned the cape at last, and, reaching the eastern coast, they camped. And the next morning the old man rose and stood and watched the sun come up out of the ocean. For the joy of that he died. The tremendous significance of this mighty orb, the sun, on human life is often only realized when its rays are obscured for a long period. Without it life, as we know it, would be impossible, and terrestial life craves for its golden rays. Modern scientists have discovered in sunlight certain invisible rays which make up what is known as “ultra violet light.” These rays have definitely proved to cure bone tuberculosis, to relieve the disease known as rickets, and to promote good health -generally. A bath in the sun is, therefore, beneficial to the well-being of people who do not suffer from any particular complaint. And there is no doubt that the sun-

Paris Hats Are Small TJATS in Paris this season are small, very small. They perch high on the head, in harmony with the high hair style everyone is favouring at the moment, for curls and fringes are too fascinating to hide.

The smaller the hat, the more it is trimmed.

Ostrich feathers in curled clusters, plumes, and glycerined feathers vie in popularity with flowers —sprays of lilac, nasturtiums, parma violets —or feathers.

SUNLIGHT is the world's oldest remedy. It was used by the medicine man of ancient Egypt, and by the original scientists in the Golden age of Greece. This ancient knowledge, however, seems to have been lost or forgotten until recent times, and only within the last twenty years has sunlight regained its true place as one of the greatest gifts nature provides.

• bath, like the air bath, should be more generally employed as an hygienic measure. In taking sunbaths, however, commensense must be exercised. Gradual exposure is an essential. The person who has been shut up in-doors all winter and then suddenly takes a day off at the beach, where he lolls about J for six hours in a broiling sun, will not

enjoy the soothing effects of the ultraviolet rays. Instead, he might just as well have roasted himself on a spit before an open fire and saved himself the trip. In the sanatoria, where the sun cure is used, the patient is first .accustomed to the outdoor life. On his first day of sun-bathing, only his feet are exposed, and then for five minutes, thrice, or four times at hourly intervals. The amount of exposure is, thereafter, increased each day, until finally the entire body, naked, except for a loin cloth, is bathed in the refreshing rays of the sun. Exposure to intense heat should be avoided, and this applies particularly to children. No person in poor health should undertake sunbathing without first consulting a physician. Prolonged exposure to bright sunshine in those not accustomed to its rays may be very harmful. Bearing these cautions iu mind, the daily exposure of as much as possible of the surface of the body to the direct rays of the sun, not, of course, to the point of blistering or extreme sunburn, is a health-giving measure. The sun-bather should be energized and exhilarated after exposure. Fatigue, lassitude, irritability and headaches are signs of over-exposure. The ultra-violet rays, which are invisible, make up only about one per cent, of all the solar radiation. They are easily absorbed by dust, smoke and moisture. This means that a dirty, smoky city is preventing its inhabitants from enjoying Nature's most precious of medicines. Other conditions being equal, life lived in the open air and sunshine, makes stronger men and women than life lived indoors. All of us need sunshine and fresh air, as well as food. Good food we must buy, fresh air and sunshine in this country Nature has abundantly provided. Let us use them that life may be fuller and happier.

—(Contributed by the Department of Health).