Step Outside to HEAD OFF a Heart Attack!?
As a Natural Health Today reader, you likely already know how CRITICAL it is to get some daily sunlight.
After all, I remind you every opportunity I get.
Exposure to the sun is necessary for countless reasons, ranging from vitamin D production to mood regulation.
But you may not be aware that sunlight also offers VITAL heart protection.
Here’s how…
Natural sunlight has benefits that range far beyond vitamin D production.
For starters, most people—even doctors—don’t know that sunlight exposure stimulates the release of nitric oxide from the tiny veins in your skin.
Nitric oxide is critical for endothelial function because it relaxes the smooth muscles in your arterial wall, naturally lowering your blood pressure.
It also acts as an antioxidant to LOWER inflammation in your arteries.
Plus, the sun has the power to prevent cholesterol from damaging your arteries.
You see, you have cholesterol molecules in your skin. Sunlight stimulates that cholesterol to transform into cholesterol sulfate.
This sulfation process has two critical outcomes:
- It allows the cholesterol molecule to become water-soluble, which makes it less prone to become part of a plaque that can cause an artery blockage.
- It gives the cholesterol a negative charge. This is important because the surface of the red blood cells and the lining of your arteries also have a negative charge. Negative charges repel each other, so sulfated cholesterol helps keep the blood and endothelium from becoming sticky.
The negative charge is optimized with regular sunlight exposure. And this reduces viscosity (stickiness), clotting, and heart attacks.
Supporting optimal heart health is yet ANOTHER excellent reason to get your daily dose of sunshine.
P.S. Are you getting ENOUGH sunlight?
Source:
Seneff S, et al. “A novel hypothesis for atherosclerosis as a cholesterol sulfate deficiency syndrome.” Theor Biol Med Model. 2015; 12: 9.
