Page 34 - Spring2020

the eyes! Bright-light therapy has been shown sunlight to create organic matter, and I believe that animals have exploited
to benefit PD patients, improving sleep, mood sunlight as a source of energy for movement and for cognition.
and also motor function. A remarkable study Sulfate synthesis in the skin is a powerful way to capture the sun’s
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on rats was able to measure the amount of light energy (see Figure 4). Sulfate’s diverse roles in the body are essential for
reaching the mesencephalon (the midbrain, good health, and particularly for maintaining a healthy vasculature, an
which houses the substantia nigra) when light electrical supply to the body and an efficient delivery system for sulfate-
was shone on the eyes. They observed a sharp conjugated biologically active molecules—such as cholesterol, vitamin
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peak at around seven hundred ten nanometers, D, dopamine and melatonin. Sunlight also offers natural protection from
which is in the range of infrared light. It is the harsh summer sun through the production of melatonin in the skin.
likely that sunlight stimulates the synthesis of Vitamin D supplements, on the other hand, send the tissues a false signal
neuromelanin, just as it stimulates the synthesis that cholesterol sulfate is plentiful. Sun exposure is important not just to
of melanin in the skin. The neuromelanin then the skin but also to the eyes, and, perhaps more crucially, to the structures
likely protects the dopaminergic neurons from in the brain stem behind the eyes that control circadian rhythms (pineal
oxidative damage by mopping up free radicals. gland) and movement (substantia nigra).
Gerald Pollack’s research on structured When I tell people that I worship the sun, they often respond with
“exclusion zone” water has shown that infrared something like, “Yes, I am aware of all the myriad health benefits of
light is very effective in growing the exclusion vitamin D.” Then I have to explain that, no, it is not about vitamin D. It
zone size by as much as a factor of four. This is about something vastly more important. Researchers are frustrated be-
will increase the mobilization of electrons cause they see that high serum vitamin D is associated with many health
(electricity) needed to oxidize oxygen and benefits, yet when they conduct placebo-controlled studies on vitamin
ultimately form sulfate, assisted by eNOS and D supplements, they consistently yield discouraging results. And when
sulfite oxidase. The sulfate is of direct benefit those diagnosed with skin cancer becomes intent on avoiding the sun,
to form dopamine sulfate—the water-soluble they worsen their prognosis.
form of dopamine that is easily transported Besides sunlight exposure, some foods naturally provide vitamin
and delivered to dopamine receptors. This story D and cholesterol sulfate, and these can be very important for people
has parallels to the story regarding cholesterol living in northern latitudes. I suspect that eating lots of seal blubber (an
sulfate in the skin. excellent source of both vitamin D and cholesterol sulfate) helped the
Eskimos get by. Other sources are raw milk and butter from grass-fed
SUMMARY cows, organic lard, wild-caught fatty fish like salmon and cod liver oil.
Sunlight has been an important source However, foods artificially supplemented with vitamin D won’t do the
of energy for Planet Earth since its inception. trick because they don’t normally contain cholesterol sulfate. It’s also
Plants have learned how to use the energy in important to eat only certified organic foods to minimize exposure to

FIGURE 4. Schematic of
differences between vitamin D
supply through supplements or
through sunlight exposure.

34 Wise Traditions SPRING 2020