Tag Archives: sunlight

Why Canadians Must Get More Sunlight

August 23, 2024 The Silo 4 Comments

TORONTO – Following restrictive sun exposure advice in countries with low solar intensity like Canada might in fact be harmful to your health, says the co-author of a new study on sunlight and vitamin D.

The published study Sunlight and Vitamin D: Necessary for Public Health by Carole Baggerly and several academic researchers, examines how organizations such as World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer and the U.S. Surgeon General call for sun avoidance, but ignore the fact that cutting out sunshine will reduce vitamin D, an essential vitamin for bone health, and create probable harm for the general population.

“Humans have adapted to sun exposure over many thousands of years and derive numerous physiological benefits from UV exposure, in addition to vitamin D,” said Baggerly, executive director of Grassroots Health and breast cancer survivor.

“These benefits are in addition to those derived from vitamin D alone and cannot be replaced by vitamin D supplements and therefore sun avoidance being recommended by the US Surgeon General, the Canadian Cancer Society, the Canadian Dermatology Association and others, is unnecessarily putting Canadians at risk.”

From mercola.com -studies suggest we need more sunlight than currently recommended dosages

Vitamin D is an essential vitamin that enables calcium absorption and is critical for good bone health. Low levels are linked to bone conditions such as rickets in children and osteomalacia and osteoporosis in adults.

In Canada, vitamin D from sunlight can only be synthesized in the skin during the spring, summer and fall months, around midday, from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., when the UV index is above three and your shadow is shorter than your height.

Statistics Canada reports that 12 million Canadians, or 35% of the population, have insufficient vitamin D levels, including 10% who are severely deficient, which sets them up for higher disease risk.

According to Dr. Reinhold Vieth, Scientific Advisor for the Canadian Vitamin D Consensus and professor at the University of Toronto in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, “If organizations warn people to stay out of the sun, then they should also let people know that they will not be producing vitamin D. Both the risks and benefits of UV exposure need to be addressed in the best interest of health. Unfortunately, the message Canadians keep hearing lately is that there is no benefit to being in the sun. The paper by Baggerly et al presents a clear case that good overall health does correlate with spending time in the sun.”

A group comprised of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada, Vitamin D Society and Pure North S’Energy Foundation, have endorsed a draft Canadian Vitamin D Consensus which recommends that Canadians enjoying the sun safely, while taking care not to burn, can acquire the benefits of vitamin D without unduly raising the risk of skin cancer.

Vitamin D deficiency is an indication of sunlight deficiency.

“People today work less outdoors and spend less time outdoors than at any previous time in history, which is why vitamin D deficiency is rising globally. In addition, when people are outside, many use sunscreens, which can significantly prevent the production of vitamin D in the skin,” said Dr. Vieth. “With increasing amounts of evidence suggesting that vitamin D may protect against cancer, heart disease, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and other chronic diseases, it’s more important than ever to examine this issue more closely.”

“We urge public health entities to re-evaluate their current sun exposure policies and recommend UV exposure levels that promote a balanced, moderate approach that are both beneficial and safe,” said Baggerly.

About the Vitamin D Society:

The Vitamin D Society is a Canadian non-profit group organized to increase awareness of the many health conditions strongly linked to vitamin D deficiency; encourage people to be proactive in protecting their health and have their vitamin D levels tested annually; and help fund valuable vitamin D research. The Vitamin D Society recommends people achieve and maintain optimal 25(OH)D blood levels between 100 – 150 nmol/L (Can) or 40-60 ng/ml (USA).

Finance

Ways To Make Your Home Look Better For Winter Selling

January 5, 2024 The Silo Leave a comment

A truism in real estate is that the best time to sell is during the spring and summer months.

You have more buyers, prices and valuations are higher, and your home simply looks better under the bright summer sun than during the drab winter gloom. But what if you really need to sell your home now?

Before you list your property in the real estate listings such as these in Ottawa, here are a few simple tricks you can try.

Make improvements to your fence.

If you have a fence, then it’s the first thing that people encounter as they walk to your home. It should give a good first impression, so you need to fix damages if there are any. You can also consider repainting it to make it look new.

Don’t forget to make sure that the latch works perfectly too. It should close easily enough without any sort of fussy process.

Prune your trees.

The trees near your home shouldn’t block the buyer’s view of your house. Instead, the trees should have silhouettes that frame the house to make it look much better. It’s best to prune your trees during their dormant periods when they don’t have leaves. This makes it easier for you to see the shape and structure of the tree.

Remove the damaged and diseased branches first. Then get rid of the branches that hang low enough to obscure your house and hang over walkways. Finally, thin the crown to improve the air circulation and the amount of light.

Plant snow flowers.

You can plant early narcissi and snowdrops in your garden, along with a few clumps at the edges of your walkways. These can add some color to your home amidst all that white snow.

You can also plant hardy hellebores that thrive during the winter months, such as the Ashwood Neon, the Walberton’s Rosemary or even the stinking hellebore (H. foetidus).

Attract more birds near your home.

Having plenty of birds around is great during the winter. The place seems alive, and you get plenty of colors. You can do this simply by putting up a bird feeder on your property. You can also plant shrubs in your garden that are known to attract birds. These include bayberry, snowberry, and burning bush.

Touch up the house number.

Your house number is important because you want your potential buyers to find your home more easily. Sadly, plenty of homes have rather illegible house numbers.

Even those that are noticeable can seem outdated or downright unattractive. You can improve its look in various ways so that it becomes appealing and also prominent.

Keep the house clean.

One problem during the winter is that plenty of people track in mud after walking around in the snow and sludge. Often doormats aren’t just up to the job of getting rid of all that gooey mess.

However, you can arrange for boots to be removed first before people enter the home. If that’s not possible, you can at least buy and set up an effective boot scraper that can help your doormat get rid of the mess.

Use your Christmas lights.

Put them up early, and leave them up until February if you have to. These lights can really make your home look better.

Use plenty of Christmas décor for more color as well.

Wash your windows.

You need to get rid of the grime in your windows, which prevents the sunlight from getting into your home.

Featured image- Hadley Hooper/ Boston Globe.

Culture

Anti Glycation Is Next Level In Battle Against Aging

June 16, 2020 The Silo 2 Comments

What does a sugar molecule and US special op forces in Afghanistan have to do with this post? Read on..... — What does a sugar molecule and US special op forces in Afghanistan have to do with this post? Read on…..

Most people today know antioxidants to be an effective method of fighting age, but few are aware of the biological process underlying for most skin damage – and what directly addresses the problem, says skin-care expert Ron Cummings.

“The word that has been on the minds of dermatologists and other skin-care researchers for many years is glycation, which is what happens on the cellular level to age our skin,” says Cummings, founder and CEO of AminoGenesis Skin Care, (www.aminogenesis.com .

Glycation – damage to proteins caused by sugar molecules – has long been a focus of study in people with diabetes, because it results in severe complications, such as blindness and nerve damage. People with uncontrolled diabetes have excess blood sugar, so they experience a higher rate of systemic glycation, he says. “Antioxidants fight inflammation caused by free radicals, which are largely created from external, environmental factors such as excessive sunlight or cigarette smoke. Glycation, though, damages from the inside out.”

Using antioxidants and topical moisturizers are a good start to keeping the effects of aging at bay, but they only go so far, Cummings says. Even more important is reversing the damage to skin caused by glycation, which became possible only recently.

Cummings shares three points anyone interested in skin care should know about glycation:

• Glycation is the skin’s No.1 aging factor. Sugar molecules in our body bombard our cells like a ferocious hail storm, bonding with fats and proteins. The proteins then become misshapen and excrete exotoxins that disrupt cellular metabolism. Collagen, which makes skin look smooth and plump, is a protein that’s particularly vulnerable to glycation. The damage manifests as wrinkles, lines, discoloration and edema. Rather than attacking a cell from the outside, like a free radical, glycation occurs from within.

• Anti-glycation topical solutions have been clinically shown to be effective. Old lotions, from your favorite moisturizer to Grandma’s secret facial solution to the new DIY recipe you found online act as a barrier to moisture evaporation. But their effect is temporary, and they don’t prevent or reverse damage. New anti-glycation formulas, however, directly address aging by releasing the sugar molecule’s bond with protein, allowing the cell to return to its natural shape and state.

“Just as antioxidants have revolutionized anti-aging efforts around the world, anti-glycation will be understood to be exponentially more effective,” Cummings says. For the Silo, Ginny Grimsley.

About Ron Cummings

Ron Cummings is the founder and CEO of AminoGenesis Skin Care, which utilizes amino acids as the key ingredients to its age- and damage-reversing products. The formula for the solution features 17 plant-purified amino acids, which are necessary for healthy and radiant skin. The company’s formulas include anti-glycation properties, which are very rare in today’s skin-care products. Cummings donated one of his products, a protective agent, to support military forces in Afghanistan and received a hearty letter of gratitude from the Marines of Special Operations Company Bravo, which described the product’s excellent performance, as well as a flag that was flown “in the face of the enemy, over Forward Operating Base Robinson in Sangin, Afghanistan.”