The ultraviolet (UV) part of sunshine has a bad reputation in mainstream medicine. If you have ever experienced severe sunburn or heat exhaustion, you may fear it at a visceral level! At the same time, we need UV for our wellbeing.
Did you know skin cells respond to sunlight1 and produce:
neuropeptides
biogenic amines
serotonin
melatonin
nitric oxide
opioids
cannabinoids
catecholamines
acetylcholine
steroids
secosteroids
adipokines and cytokenes
And that sunligh on the skin helps regulate all these sub-categories of our neuroendocrine system?
melatoninergic system
secosteroidogenic system
steroidogenic system
cholinergic system
catecholaminergic system
opioid system
cannabinoid system
serotoninergic system
histaminergic system
CRH/POMC system
HPA axis
HPT axis
If you are like I was when I started down this research track, you might not yet even recognize all these names! Let alone know that sunlight on the skin could be responsible for so muc…
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